Publication: Guide to Climate Change Adaptation in Cities
Loading...
Files in English
3,859 downloads
923 downloads
634 downloads
Date
2011
ISSN
Published
2011
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Cities face significant impacts from climate change, both now and into the future. These impacts have potentially serious consequences for human health, livelihoods, and assets, especially for the urban poor, informal settlements, and other vulnerable groups. Climate change impacts range from an increase in extreme weather events and flooding to hotter temperatures and public health concerns. Cities in low elevation coastal zones, for instance, face the combined threat of sea-level rise and storm surges. The specific impacts on each city will depend on the actual changes in climate experienced (for example, higher temperatures or increased rainfall), which will vary from place to place. Climate change will increase the frequency at which some natural hazards occur, especially extreme weather events, and introduce new incremental impacts that are less immediate. However, few climate impacts will be truly unfamiliar to cities. Cities have always lived with natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and flooding. In some situations, cities will experience an increase in the frequency of existing climate-related hazards, such as flooding. Climate change considerations can be integrated with disaster risk reduction (DRR) in cities. DRR efforts already familiar to many may be used as a platform from which to develop climate change adaptation plans. In practical terms, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation can be integrated in many instances, although cities should also consider incremental or gradual changes in climate that affect government operations or community life in less immediate and visible ways than conventional disasters. Approaches to collecting information on climate change impacts in a city can range from highly technical and resource-intensive, to simple and inexpensive. Technically complex assessments are likely to require collaboration with external experts, if a city is not large or well-resourced with sufficient in-house capacity.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2011. Guide to Climate Change Adaptation in Cities. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27396 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Adapting to Climate Change in Eastern Europe and Central Asia(World Bank, 2010)The climate is changing, and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region is vulnerable to the consequences. Many of the region's countries are facing warmer temperatures, a changing hydrology, and more extremes, droughts, floods, heat waves, windstorms, and forest fires. This book presents an overview of what adaptation to climate change might mean for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It starts with a discussion of emerging best-practice adaptation planning around the world and a review of the latest climate projections. It then discusses possible actions to improve resilience organized around impacts on health, natural resources (water, biodiversity, and the coastal environment), the 'unbuilt' environment (agriculture and forestry), and the built environment (infrastructure and housing). The last chapter concludes with a discussion of two areas in great need of strengthening given the changing climate: disaster preparedness and hydro-meteorological services. This book has four key messages: a) contrary to popular perception, Eastern Europe and Central Asia face significant threats from climate change, with a number of the most serious risks already in evidence; b) vulnerability over the next 10 to 20 years is likely to be dominated by socioeconomic factors and legacy issues; c) even countries and sectors that stand to benefit from climate change are poorly positioned to do so; and d) the next decade offers a window of opportunity for ECA countries to make their development more resilient to climate change while reaping numerous co-benefits.Publication North Africa Coastal Cities Address Natural Disasters and Climate Change(Washington, DC, 2011-06)North Africa's coastal cities, long benefitting from their ready access to commerce and culture, also face distinct vulnerabilities due to their location. Natural hazards and extreme weather patterns impose risks on coastal areas that inland areas seldom encounter. North Africa's increasingly populous cities face tangible risks today, but these will be amplified as the impacts of global climate change further manifest themselves over the decades to come. The study, 'climate change adaptation and natural disasters preparedness in the coastal cities of North Africa,' analyzed the exposure of all four locations to natural disasters, such as floods and storm surges, earthquakes and tsunamis, as well as to the increasingly frequent weather extremes associated with climate change. The project, which has taken place from June 2009 to June 2011, has provided tools for evaluating the risks, costing out potential losses, and moving toward specific reforms and investments designed to adapt the cities to a changing climate and increase their resilience to natural hazards.Publication The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change : Methodology Report(Washington, DC, 2008-12)The proposed methodology begins with a consistent downscaling of projected climatic changes from a multiplicity of General Circulation to local levels. Subsets of the suite of downscaled climatic factors are then to be used to estimate the vector of impacts on key economic sectors of each country, using sector-specific impact assessment models. Based on this information, alternative government adaptation projects will be specified and optimally chosen subject to a government budget constraint. Thereafter, direct impacts of climate change will serve as inputs into a macroeconomic framework to examine the indirect inter-sectoral impacts of climate change as well as adaption strategies. Finally, at each step the analysis will be complemented with perspectives and insights of people whose livelihoods are being or will be affected by changes in climate. Impacts of the climate change and the benefits of specific adaptation measures will be examined in the context of sub-populations defined by livelihood profiles. Local-level analysis of past and present autonomous adaptation measures for a range of groups stratified by sets of livelihood profiles will be conducted using participatory rural appraisal based primary fieldwork in addition to holding participatory workshops and consultations.Publication Getting a Grip on Climate Change in the Philippines : Executive Report(Washington, DC, 2013-06)The Philippines already experiences and will continue to face impacts from climate change. In the decades ahead, the most serious consequences will be felt in coastal and urban areas. Severe hardships are expected in agriculture and fisheries, leading to negative impacts on jobs and the economy. With these risks in mind the Philippine Government has initiated significant climate reforms, establishing a basis for transformation. To assess gaps and accelerate implementation of the climate reform agenda, in 2012 the Department of Budget and management and the climate change commission sought advisory services from the World Bank to carry out a Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Review (CPEIR). Carried out at mid-term of the first phase of the national climate change action plan, the Philippine development plan (2011-2016), and the current administration, this review comes early enough to help guide the finalization and operationalization of the first phase of the climate reform agenda. This executive report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the CPEIR, including an analytical snapshot of the policies, institutions, and expenditures for undertaking climate action in the Philippines, and recommendations to contribute to a successful implementation of the Philippine climate reform agenda.Publication Getting a Grip on Climate Change in the Philippines : Extended Technical Report(Washington, DC, 2013-06)Philippines currently experience and will continue to face significant impacts from climate change. To ensure climate resilience, build a low-carbon economy, and increase its role in the global climate change dialogue, the Philippine government has launched strong climate policy and institutional and financing reforms, supported by a clear rationale for no-regrets action. However, transformative progress toward a more climate resilient society and low carbon economy remains limited. Carried out at mid-term of the first phase of the National Climate Change Action Plan (NCCAP), the Philippine Development Plan (2011-2016) and the current Administration, this review is an opportunity, and comes early enough, to ensure that first phase reforms are finalized and the groundwork for the second and third phases put in place. Recommendations consolidate the strategic direction of the NCCAP and set the stage for scaling up action over the next two phases. Specific activities are proposed to support eight objectives organized around three pillars: (i) strengthening the planning, execution, and financing framework for climate change; (ii) enhancing accountability through monitoring, evaluation, and review of climate change policies and activities; and (iii) building capacity and managing change.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08)The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.Publication Design Thinking for Social Innovation(2010-07)Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.Publication Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.Publication Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003)Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.Publication Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008(2009-06-01)This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.