Adapting to Climate Change: Urban Cities

Adapting to climate change is not only important in agricultural practices, but it is also important for urban cities to adapt as well. In this blog, I want to briefly introduce the different ways in which adaptive measures to climate change are adopted by comparing two case studies of two cities.

The first case study is Kampala city, this is the largest city in Uganda and it is expected to experience greater incidences of flooding as a result of climate change; flood-related problems such as pollution of water supplies, health risks and the spread of diseases are more likely to occur (Lwasa, 2010). Lwasa (2010) stresses the importance of identifying the impacts of climate change on urban populations, and subsequently determining the vulnerability of the urban population before attempting to apply adaptive measures. For example, in 2007, there were eight flood events and urban poor settlements such as Natete and Katwe were most vulnerable to these floods. This is because these settlements were informal and lacked the necessary infrastructure to withstand such floods. Hence, improving urban infrastructure, and addressing runoff and floods through building dams or planning crop cover to reduce storm flow are some adaptive measures that can be adopted. Other secondary impacts of the floods must not be ignored; worsening health conditions, economic damages and disrupted transport networks, and the overall lowering of the water table of Lake Victoria, can equally worsen livelihoods in many communities. Communities are willing to adapt but lack the means to do so, hence local and national governments must also be willing to take part in helping communities to adapt to climate change impacts. The Kampala City Council has an important role in governing the funds and allocation of resources, and the decision-making processes to adapting to climate change but cooperation with the community and their knowledge is also required to effectively increase the resilience of many communities to climate change impacts. Lwasa (2010) stresses the importance of understanding the context of urban cities and communities before choosing suitable adaptation strategies.

The second case study is Cape Town, South Africa, whereby water quantity, access and quality are the main problems that will occur because of climate change. Cape Town relies on surface and groundwater resources in the local area, however climate change scenarios such as an increase in average temperature by 1C by 2050 in Western Cape, or a general drying in most seasons in the south-eastern region of Western Cape can make these resources highly vulnerable (Ziervogal et al., 2010). Ziervogel et al. (2010) case study in Cape Town explains that while lower rainfall yields are a problem, the increasing demand for water due to population increases, poor wastewater management and underinvestment in infrastructure remains the largest problems and threats to water security in the city. To address these issues, climate change scenarios are incorporated into water management policies and planning, however, actors (communities, local governments, and national government actors) at all levels will need to agree that climate change adaptation is required and how it should be implemented. A combination of both supply and demand-side policies should be used; supply-side policies include building larger dams, improve water treatment processes, and exploiting other water resources, and demand-side policies include limiting water consumption and distribution. Ziervogel et al. (2010) noted that supply-side policies raised the cost of water and thus was too expensive for locals, and demand-side policies were more favourable and effective such that after the restrictions was imposed the demand for water reduced.

Adapting to climate change requires an understanding of the socio-economic background, and more specifically how climate change will have an impact on the urban city. The Kamapla case study saw the direct impacts of climate change on the city through floods and health-related impacts, which acted as a stronger incentive for adaptive measures. The Cape Town case study, however, experienced threats to their water supply through higher temperature and evapotranspiration rates, so it was more difficult to experience the impacts of climate change in the immediate term and this led to discussions about the priority of addressing and adapting to the impacts of climate change. This blog very briefly introduced how urban cities adapt to climate change through two examples but adaptation is much more complex than what was explained here, but I wanted to highlight the different factors and incentives that may govern the way an urban city would react to climate change.