scholarly journals Structuring Climate Adaptation through Multiple Perspectives

Author(s):  
Mohanasundar Radhakrishnan ◽  
Assela Pathirana ◽  
Richard Ashley ◽  
Chris Zevenbergen

Adaptation to climate change is being addressed in many domains. This means that there are multiple perspectives on adaptation; often with differing visions resulting in disconnected responses and outcomes. Combining singular perspectives into coherent, combined perspectives that include multiple needs and visions can help to deepen the understanding of various aspects of adaptation and provide more effective responses. Such combinations of perspectives can help to increase the range and variety of adaptation measures available for implementation or avoid maladaptation compared with adaptations derived from a singular perspective. The objective of this paper is to present and demonstrate a framework for structuring the local adaptation responses using the inputs from multiple perspectives. The adaptation response framing has been done by: (i) contextualizing climate change adaptation needs; (ii) analyzing drivers of change; (iii) characterizing measures of adaptation; and (iv) establishing links between the measures with a particular emphasis on taking account of multiple perspectives. This framework was demonstrated with reference to the management of flood risks in a case study Can Tho, Vietnam. The results from the case study show that multiple perspective framing of adaptation responses enhance the understanding of various aspects of adaptation measures, thereby leading to flexible implementation practices.  

2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 2251-2259 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. U. Hasse ◽  
D. E. Weingaertner

As the central product of the BMBF-KLIMZUG-funded Joint Network and Research Project (JNRP) ‘dynaklim – Dynamic adaptation of regional planning and development processes to the effects of climate change in the Emscher-Lippe region (North Rhine Westphalia, Germany)’, the Roadmap 2020 ‘Regional Climate Adaptation’ has been developed by the various regional stakeholders and institutions containing specific regional scenarios, strategies and adaptation measures applicable throughout the region. This paper presents the method, elements and main results of this regional roadmap process by using the example of the thematic sub-roadmap ‘Water Sensitive Urban Design 2020’. With a focus on the process support tool ‘KlimaFLEX’, one of the main adaptation measures of the WSUD 2020 roadmap, typical challenges for integrated climate change adaptation like scattered knowledge, knowledge gaps and divided responsibilities but also potential solutions and promising chances for urban development and urban water management are discussed. With the roadmap and the related tool, the relevant stakeholders of the Emscher-Lippe region have jointly developed important prerequisites to integrate their knowledge, to clarify vulnerabilities, adaptation goals, responsibilities and interests, and to foresightedly coordinate measures, resources, priorities and schedules for an efficient joint urban planning, well-grounded decision-making in times of continued uncertainties and step-by-step implementation of adaptation measures from now on.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Okuli William Swai

Although various long term adaptation measures are currently implemented by farmers to adapt to the effects of climate change in Tanzania, information regarding factors determining choice of adaptation options between men and women is scarce. A gendered analysis was done to analyze determinants of adaptation to climate change in Bahi and Kondoa Districts, Dodoma Region, Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was adopted whereby the data was collected from a sample of 360 respondents, 12 focus groups and 18 key informants. Analysis of quantitative data involved descriptive statistics and multinomial logit model using Nlogit 3.0 and qualitative data were summarized by using content analysis. Results revealed that the main occupation and land size were the main factors that determined adaptation options for men during food shortage while for women, the main factor was marital status. The village/location of respondents was the main factor that determined climate change adaptation option for women to adapt crops to climate change whereas, for men, access to agricultural knowledge was the main factor that encouraged men to use improved seeds, manure and deep cultivation, instead of selecting and keeping enough seeds for the next season. It is concluded that factors determining choice of climate change adaptation between men and women are not the same, emphasizing the need for gender differentiated interventions to promote climate change adaptation. Thus, planners and policy makers from Agriculture, Livestock and Environment sectors; Tanzania NAPA and other development practitioners dealing with climate change should use gender sensitive interventions to manage climate change.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 899-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nithya Natarajan ◽  
Katherine Brickell ◽  
Laurie Parsons

An emerging body of work has critiqued the concept of climate adaptation, highlighting the structural constraints impeding marginalised communities across the Global South from being able to adapt. This article builds on such work through analysis of debt-bonded brick workers in Cambodia, formerly small farmers. It argues that the detrimental impacts of climate change experienced by farmers-turned-workers across the rural – urban divide is due to their precarity. In doing so, this article draws on a conceptualisation of precarity which recognises it as emerging from the specific political economy of Cambodia, and as something that is neither new, nor confined to conditions of labour alone. As such, in looking to precarity as a means of conceptualising the relations of power which shape impacts of climate change, we advance a ‘climate precarity’ lens as a means of understanding how adaptation to climate change is an issue of power, rooted in a specific geographical context, and mobile over the rural–urban divide.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 617-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwame N Owusu-Daaku ◽  
Helen Rosko

As climate adaptation gains international prominence as one means for addressing climate change, it remains critical that just and equitable outcomes are maintained as adaptation technologies are deployed across various target populations. In this vein, subjectivity has been problematized by climate change adaptation scholars as a concept that needs further attention to understand the political nature of climate change adaptation. Extending frameworks of environmentality to cases of climate change adaptation, we engage the term adaptation subjects to distinguish individuals whose interests and desires align with broader understandings and goals of climate change adaptation. In this research, we situate the co-production of livelihoods and climate change adaptation interventions as projects of rule to understand subject-formation. Such an analysis allows for a move beyond econocentric framings of livelihoods that privilege material outcomes to also engage with the socio-political realities of these livelihoods and climate change adaptation more broadly. We apply the Livelihoods as Intimate Government approach to a case study of the Ada Sea Defense System in the Ada East District of the Volta River Delta of Ghana as a climate change adaptation project of rule, in order to illustrate the ways this adaptation technology discursively constructs (or not) different residents as adaptation subjects. Understanding the Ada Sea Defense System as a technology of adaptation constituted through socio-political practices has the potential to promote justice and equity when designing, implementing and evaluating such technologies in the future.


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Nyaga ◽  
Geofrey K. Gathungu ◽  
Justin Nyaga ◽  
Jafford R. Njeru

Africa is under pressure from climate stresses and is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In Kenya, agriculture is the backbone of the economy making it an important contributor to food security of rural households. Currently crop productivity is being affected by continued climate variations and decline in soil fertility. Adaptation to climate change requires to be given high and urgent priority for sustainable crop production. A study was conducted in Mavuria ward, Mbeere South Sub-County, Embu County to evaluate the effects of climate change adaptation on crop production. The study used both descriptive and experimental research designs. The primary data on adaptation measures was collected from farmers and institutions using questionnaires. In the data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to organize the climate data and that of the respondents into frequencies. Further, a Pearson correlation test was done to determine the relationship between farmer and institutional based mechanisms on adaptation to climate change at α=0.05. The main adaptation mechanisms identified were soil fertility improvement, soil and water conservation, early planting, pest and disease control, provision of certified seeds, and awareness creation. In view of these findings, the study recommends continuous implementation of these measures that can help strengthen farmers and institutional adaptation mechanisms towards climate change for improved crop production.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 445-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Michael Mullan ◽  
Jennifer Helgeson

Abstract:The development of national and sectoral climate change adaptation strategies is burgeoning in the US and elsewhere in response to damages from extreme events and projected future risks from climate change. Increasingly, decision makers are requesting information on the economic damages of climate change as well as costs, benefits, and tradeoffs of alternative actions to inform climate adaptation decisions. This paper provides a practical view of the applications of economic analysis to aid climate change adaptation decision making, with a focus on benefit-cost analysis (BCA). We review the recent developments and applications of BCA with implications for climate risk management and adaptation decision making, both in the US and other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We found that BCA is still in early stages of development for evaluating adaptation decisions, and to date is mostly being applied to investment project-based appraisals. Moreover, the best practices of economic analysis are not fully reflected in the BCAs of climate adaptation-relevant decisions. The diversity of adaptation measures and decision-making contexts suggest that evaluation of adaptation measures may require multiple analytical methods. The economic tools and information would need to be transparent, accessible, and match with the decision contexts to be effective in enhancing decision making. Based on the current evidence, a set of analytical considerations is proposed for improving economic analysis of climate adaptation that includes the need to better address uncertainty and to understand the cross-sector and general equilibrium effects of sectoral and national adaptation policy.


Water Policy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1014-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Timmerman ◽  
John Matthews ◽  
Sonja Koeppel ◽  
Daniel Valensuela ◽  
Niels Vlaanderen

Abstract Climate change adaptation in water management is a water governance issue. While neither climate change nor water respects national borders, adaptation in water management should be treated as a transboundary water governance issue. However, transboundary water management is, in essence, more complex than national water management because the water management regimes usually differ more between countries than within countries. This paper provides 63 lessons learned from almost a decade of cooperation on transboundary climate adaptation in water management under the UNECE Water Convention and puts these into the context of the OECD principles on water governance. It highlights that good water governance entails a variety of activities that are intertwined and cannot be considered stand-alone elements. The paper also shows that this wide variety of actions is needed to develop a climate change adaptation strategy in water management. Each of the lessons learned can be considered concrete actions connected to one or more of the OECD principles, where a range of actions may be needed to fulfil one principle. The paper concludes that developing climate change adaptation measures needs to improve in parallel the water governance system at transboundary scale.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huicheul Jung ◽  
Jaeuk Kim ◽  
Insang Yu ◽  
Sung-Hun Lee

<p>It is mandatory to establish a detailed implementation plan on measures for adaptation to climate change of local governments, based on the Article 48 of the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green Growth and Article 38 of the Enforcement Decree of the same Act of South Korea. However, it is difficult for local governments to establish such detailed implementation plan due to high budget spending, lack of experts in climate change field and the shift in cyclical positions of government officials. The Korea Adaptation Center for Climate Change(KACCC) has developed a system for supporting local governments to overcome the difficulties. The system provides integrated data regarding climate change adaptation, such as general information, current status and prospect of climate change, climate change impact analysis, vulnerability and risk assessment to climate change using VESTAP (Vulnerability Assessment Tool to Build Climate Change Adaptation Plan) for each region. Based on the integrated information regarding adaptation to climate change, local governments conduct a survey targeting general public, civil servants, experts, etc. using the questionnaire on adaptive awareness provided by the system. Each local government can analyze the information and inventory of adaptation measures and diagnose the policies to establish detailed implementation plans for each sector. By establishing the system, it is expected to support government officials’s task through standardization and automation of detailed implementation plans and reduce budget and time required for data collection and analysis. It is possible to improve the quality and maintain the consistency of plans by local governments. The system also supports decision making by rapid and reasonable adaptation measures leading to establishing highly effective and managed implementation plans for local governments.</p><p>※ This work was supported by Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute(KEITI) through Climate Change Correspondence Program, funded by Korea Ministry of Environment(MOE)(2018001310004).</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana Setzer ◽  
Elisa Sainz de Murieta ◽  
Ibon Galarraga ◽  
Fernando Rei ◽  
Mariângela Mendes Lomba Pinho

Non-technical summary Adaptation to climate change has traditionally been framed as a local problem. However, in recent years, adaptation has risen on the global policy agenda. This article contributes to the study of transnational climate adaptation through an investigation of international connectivity on climate adaptation between regional policy-makers. We examine the RegionsAdapt initiative, the first global commitment to promote and track the progress of regional adaptation. While adapting to climate change at the regional level is crucial, we suggest that transnational adaptation governance not only helps to promote adaptation measures, but also improves the process of tracking the progress of such action, its visibility and its aggregation.


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