Understanding institutional barriers in the climate change adaptation planning process of the city of Beirut: vicious cycles and opportunities

AbstractCities around the world are confronted with the need to put in place climate adaptation policies to protect citizens and properties from climate change impacts. This article applies components of the framework developed by Moser and Ekström (2010) onto empirical qualitative data to diagnose institutional barriers to climate change adaptation in the Municipality of Beirut, Lebanon. Our approach reveals the presence of two vicious cycles influencing each other. In the first cycle, the root cause barrier is major political interference generating competing priorities and poor individual interest in climate change. A second vicious cycle is derived from feedbacks caused by the first and leading to the absence of a dedicated department where sector specific climate risk information is gathered and shared with other departments, limited knowledge and scientific understanding, as well as a distorted framing or vision, where climate change is considered unrelated to other issues and is to be dealt with at higher levels of government. The article also highlights the need to analyze interlinkages between barriers in order to suggest how to overcome them. The most common way to overcome barriers according to interviewees is through national and international support followed by the creation of a data bank. These opportunities could be explored by national and international policy-makers to break the deadlock in Beirut.

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Creating a Novel Multi-Layered Integrative Climate Change Adaptation Planning Approach Using a Systematic Literature Review

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10114100 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 4100 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Mehdi Hafezi ◽

Oz Sahin ◽

Rodney Stewart ◽

Brendan Mackey

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Planning Process ◽

Treatment Options ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Small Island ◽

Integrative Approach ◽

Adaptive Responses ◽

Planning Approach

Climate change adaptation planning requires the integration of disciplines, stakeholders, different modelling approaches, treatment options, and scales of analysis. An integrated stepwise planning approach is a critical requirement for effective climate change adaptation in the context of small island developing states and coastal communities. To address this need, this paper reports on a systematic review of 116 research papers from an initial set of around 650 academic peer-reviewed papers. These papers were assessed and categorised based on their planning framework or the approach utilised, measured climate change impacts, employed methods and tools, and recommended adaptation strategies or options. This study identified three important dimensions of a fully integrated climate change adaptation planning process, namely, integration in assessment, integration in modelling, and integration in adaptive responses. Moreover, it resulted in the formulation of a novel multi-layered integrative climate change adaptation planning approach. Adopting this holistic and integrative approach is more likely to yield better climate change adaptation in planning outcomes over the long term.

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Climate Change Adaptation Strategies and Approaches for Outdoor Recreation

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11247030 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (24) ◽

pp. 7030

Author(s):

Daniel O’Toole ◽

Leslie A. Brandt ◽

Maria K. Janowiak ◽

Kristen M. Schmitt ◽

P. Danielle Shannon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Natural Resource ◽

Outdoor Recreation ◽

Planning Process ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Weather Conditions ◽

User Preferences ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

Stepping Stones

Climate change will alter opportunities and demand for outdoor recreation through altered winter weather conditions and season length, climate-driven changes in user preferences, and damage to recreational infrastructure, among other factors. To ensure that outdoor recreation remains sustainable in the face of these challenges, natural resource managers may need to adapt their recreation management. One of the major challenges of adapting recreation to climate change is translating broad concepts into specific, tangible actions. Using a combination of in-depth interviews of recreational managers and a review of peer-reviewed literature and government reports, we developed a synthesis of impacts, strategies, and approaches, and a tiered structure that organizes this information. Six broad climate adaptation strategies and 25 more specific approaches were identified and organized into a “recreation menu”. The recreation menu was tested with two national forests in the US in multi-day workshops designed to integrate these concepts into real-world projects that were at the beginning stages of the planning process. We found that the recreation menu was broad yet specific enough to be applied to recreation-focused projects with different objectives and climate change impacts. These strategies and approaches serve as stepping stones to enable natural resource and recreation managers to translate broad concepts into targeted and prescriptive actions for implementing adaptation.

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Assessing South Africa’s Potential to Address Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector

Frontiers in Marine Science ◽

10.3389/fmars.2021.652955 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Author(s):

Kelly Ortega-Cisneros ◽

Kevern L. Cochrane ◽

Nina Rivers ◽

Warwick H. H. Sauer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South Africa ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Fisheries Management ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Small Scale ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Marine Fisheries ◽

Address Climate Change

The marine fisheries sector is one of the most important income sectors in South Africa and plays an important role in food security for small-scale and subsistence fishers. Climate-driven impacts have resulted in distribution shifts and declines in abundance of important fisheries targets, with negative consequences to the users dependent on these resources. The sustainability of the sector depends on its readiness to adapt to climate change. The inclusion of climate change impacts and adaptation in fisheries management documents in South Africa is essential to ensure adequate climate adaptation responses are implemented at the short- and long-term. This study aims to 1) determine if the relevant fisheries national management documents address climate change and adaptation, 2) determine if the relevant national climate change documents address climate change and adaptation in the fisheries sector and 3) evaluate the extent to which fisheries management documents address climate change and adaptation. A content analysis of fisheries management and climate change documents was carried out to determine if they incorporated information on climate change impacts and adaptation and marine fisheries respectively. Fisheries management documents were then screened against nine pre-determined criteria (or themes) based on climate change adaptation to determine the level of inclusion of best practice for climate change adaptation. Results indicate that climate change impacts and adaptation are rarely incorporated in the main fisheries management documents, except for the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Plan for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. However, this document is still waiting to be adopted. The only direct reference identified in all the fisheries documents that supports climate change adaptation was ‘conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity’. With regards to indirect references to climate change adaptation, ‘equity,’ ‘participatory management,’ and ‘capacity building’ were most frequently incorporated in fisheries management documents. There is a need to explicitly incorporate information on climate change impacts and adaptation in South African fisheries management documents and increase the human and financial capacity at national institutions to ensure that the fisheries sector can adequately adapt to climate change.

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The Influence of Gender Relations on Women’s Involvement and Experience in Climate Change Adaptation Programs in Bangladesh

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/2158244018812620 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 215824401881262 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mumita Tanjeela ◽

Shannon Rutherford

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Power Dynamics ◽

Rural And Urban Areas ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

History Of ◽

Adaptation Practices

The nexus between poverty and climate change is a major concern, especially in a country like Bangladesh where lack of resources is a significant problem in both rural and urban areas. Climate change affects a wide demographic of the population in Bangladesh, and among those affected, women are more vulnerable to climate change impacts, as is evident from the history of climate-induced disasters in the country. Climate change increases women’s socio-economic vulnerabilities by directly impacting their family’s food security, water consumption, and livelihood. Hence, their roles and contributions are critical in responding through adaptation. Nonetheless, in Bangladesh, challenges remain to incorporate women as distinct actors and active agents in climate adaptation programs considering the gender power dynamics that exist. In this context, this study focuses on women’s contributions as individuals or as a group and reveals their significant influence in climate change adaptation practices.

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Climate Adaptation for Tropical Island Land Stewardship: Adapting a Workshop Planning Process to Hawai‘i

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-21-0163.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Planning Process ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Tropical Island ◽

Rapid Responses ◽

Invasion Species ◽

Island System ◽

First Time

Tropical island ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the multiple threats of climate change (Nurse et al. 2014; Bonan 2008). In response, agencies and organizations are tasked with developing land-management strategies to help ecosystems adapt to changing environmental conditions (Swanston et al. 2016). Research has shown that proactive planning can reduce climate change impacts by facilitating more efficient and rapid responses (Bierbaum et al. 2013). Complex socio-ecological conditions, environmental change related stressors (e.g., wildfire, pests, disease, and drought), a lack of resources, and shifting public policy and agency mandates (Nagel et al. 2017) can all hinder response effectiveness (Crausbay et al. 2020). Despite these challenges, considerable progress has been made in assessing climate vulnerabilities of forest ecosystems and in developing adaptation options for land managers (Swanston and Janowiak 2012; Janowiak et al. 2014; Swanston et al. 2016; Halofsky et al. 2018; Schmitt et al. 2021). Adaptation planning in response to significant anticipated changes is becoming increasingly sophisticated, especially with respect to anticipated changes in forest wildfire regimes, species invasion, species composition, ecosystem health, and hydrological functioning due to climate change. Here we describe our conversion of a highly successful adaptation workshop process (Schmitt et al. 2021) to a virtual environment in response to COVID-19. We effectively delivered content to managers and created an experiential learning environment in which they developed adaptation tactics for their management projects, integrating Indigenous science and knowledge into the workshop format and content. This workshop was additionally novel because it used an adaptation process (Janowiak et al. 2014, Ontl et al. 2018) that has been applied many times in the continental U.S. within primarily temperate and sub-boreal systems (https://forestadaptation.org/), and applied it for the first time to a tropical island system.

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Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Planning and Development: A Case Study in Northern Ireland

10.1007/978-3-030-80791-7_7 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 129-147

Author(s):

Cathy Burns ◽

Stephen Flood ◽

Barry O’Dwyer

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Local Government ◽

Northern Ireland ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Local Governments ◽

Planning Process ◽

Local Authority ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Adaptation Planning ◽

Policy And Planning

AbstractThis study outlines the adaptation planning journey undertaken by Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) in Northern Ireland and reflects how the prevailing policy context and level of organisational adaptive capacity create the conditions for mainstreaming climate adaptation into planning and development. This chapter explores the potential of local government in Northern Ireland to integrate local authority policy drivers such as disaster risk reduction (DRR), emergency planning, risk and assurance, and community resilience. The ability to communicate risks and solutions was identified as an important consideration when undertaking adaptation planning, particularly when discussing the adaptation planning process and securing input or support from colleagues. Moreover, a significant amount of engagement was required with local government agencies to increase understanding of the relevance of climate change and DRR. Embedding DRR and climate change adaptation (CCA) within local authority policy and planning can enable a greater understanding of specific risks to local governments and act as a catalyst for further action.

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Sustainable Distribution of Responsibility for Climate Change Adaptation

Challenges ◽

10.3390/challe11010011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 11

Author(s):

Åsa Knaggård ◽

Erik Persson ◽

Kerstin Eriksson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Value Theory ◽

Civil Servants ◽

Adaptation Measures ◽

Public Authorities ◽

Practical Implications

To gain legitimacy for climate change adaptation decisions, the distribution of responsibility for these decisions and their implementation needs to be grounded in theories of just distribution and what those affected by decisions see as just. The purpose of this project is to contribute to sustainable spatial planning and the ability of local and regional public authorities to make well-informed and sustainable adaptation decisions, based on knowledge about both climate change impacts and the perceptions of residents and civil servants on what constitutes a sustainable distribution of responsibility. Our aims are: (1) a better understanding of the practical implications of theories about just distribution of responsibility for the choice of local and regional climate adaptation measures; (2) knowledge about what residents and civil servants consider a sustainable distribution of responsibility for climate adaptation measures; and (3) a better understanding of conflicts concerning the distribution of responsibilities and systematic knowledge about the possibilities to manage them. In this interdisciplinary project, we study six municipalities and their residents, and two county administrative boards, all in Sweden, using mixed methods: value theory, document studies, interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

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DRAFT Climate Change Adaptation Indicators Framework for the City of Boston, MA

10.31230/osf.io/sabx2 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

SeaPlan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Action Plan ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Climate Action ◽

Change Climate ◽

Mitigate Climate Change ◽

Climate Action Plan ◽

The City

Despite global efforts to mitigate climate change, climate change impacts are occurring, and will likely increase in severity in the coming decades. The City of Boston has stated its commitment to mitigating climate change and preparing the city for its impacts through the establishment of the Climate Action Plan (2010). Through their report, the Climate Action Leadership Committee and the Community Advisory Committee of the City of Boston established the need for an indicators framework to track the progress of the City of Boston in preparing for climate change. “A Draft Climate Adaptation Indicators Framework for the City of Boston, MA” provides a pragmatic approach to establishing indicator metrics to better understand the City of Boston’s vulnerabilities and to evaluate and track its progress in implementing preparedness and resilience measures. This report describes the four-step methodology to develop a climate change adaptation (CCA) indicators framework, the resulting draft CCA indicators framework, and recommendations for next steps in implementing and honing this framework.

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Urban change as an untapped opportunity for climate adaptation

npj Urban Sustainability ◽

10.1038/s42949-021-00024-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Monika Egerer ◽

Dagmar Haase ◽

Timon McPhearson ◽

Niki Frantzeskaki ◽

Erik Andersson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Design Research ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Urban Climate ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

Climate Resilience ◽

Active Sets ◽

Windows Of Opportunity ◽

Social Ecological

AbstractUrban social–ecological–technological systems (SETS) are dynamic and respond to climate pressures. Change involves alterations to land and resource management, social organization, infrastructure, and design. Research often focuses on how climate change impacts urban SETS or on the characteristics of urban SETS that promote climate resilience. Yet passive approaches to urban climate change adaptation may disregard active SETS change by urban residents, planners, and policymakers that could be opportunities for adaptation. Here, we use evidence of urban social, ecological, and technological change to address how SETS change opens windows of opportunity to improve climate change adaptation.

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Indigenous climate change adaptation: New directions for emerging scholarship

Environment and Planning E Nature and Space ◽

10.1177/25148486211022450 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 251484862110224

Author(s):

Danielle Emma Johnson ◽

Meg Parsons ◽

Karen Fisher

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Indigenous Peoples ◽

Climate Adaptation ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Small Body ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Cultural Continuity ◽

Power Dynamics ◽

Indigenous Development

Although Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and concerns have not always been accommodated in climate change adaptation research and practice, a burgeoning literature is helping to reframe and decolonise climate adaptation in line with Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences. In this review, we bring together climate adaptation, decolonising and intersectional scholarship to chart the progress that has been made in better analysing and responding to climate change in Indigenous contexts. We identify a wealth of literature helping to decolonise climate adaptation scholarship and praxis by attending to colonial and neo-colonial injustices implicated in Indigenous peoples’ climate vulnerability, taking seriously Indigenous peoples’ relational ontologies, and promoting adaptation that draws on Indigenous capacities and aspirations for self-determination and cultural continuity. Despite calls to interrogate heterogenous experiences of climate change within Indigenous communities, the decolonising climate and adaptation scholarship has made limited advances in this area. We examine the small body of research that takes an intersectional approach to climate adaptation and explores how the multiple subjectivities and identities that Indigenous peoples occupy produce unique vulnerabilities, capacities and encounters with adaptation policy. We suggest the field might be expanded by drawing on related studies from Indigenous development, natural resource management, conservation, feminism, health and food sovereignty. Greater engagement with intersectionality works to drive innovation in decolonising climate adaptation scholarship and practice. It can mitigate the risk of maladaptation, avoid entrenchment of inequitable power dynamics, and ensures that even the most marginal groups within Indigenous communities benefit from adaptation policies and programmes.

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