Climate adaptation in cities: from risk management to an ideal image
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By Eva Boon, Hasse Goosen and Felix van Veldhoven
06 / 03 / 2022
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Photographer: Nanda Sluijsmans
Together with Wageningen Environmental Research (WEnR) and others, we wrote an essay for the journal Social Sciences on how cities integrate climate adaptation into urban spatial planning. The essay explains that there are two visions of climate adaptation in cities. These visions each lead to different approaches and different long-term outcomes. For this essay, we used our experience in the project in which we developed trainings for the C40 cities network and the case studies from the INNOVA project of WEnR and European partners.
Dominant vision: seeking solutions to risks
The first vision aims to avoid or reduce climate risks: the city wants to protect its inhabitants and infrastructures from climate effects. At the moment, this vision seems dominant. From this vision, a city first explores where the climate risks are and then looks for solutions to those risks. But if a city approaches climate adaptation from this vision, there is a chance that the city mainly opts for sectoral and technical solutions. This approach often leads to small changes and short-term solutions: the city remains the same as much as possible. As a result, the city misses opportunities for long-term sustainable urban development. Cities do try to combine goals from different departments, but often these are short-term goals.
Promising vision: an ideal image for the city’s future
The second vision of climate adaptation is based on opportunities. The city thinks about an ideal image and asks itself the question: what kind of city do we want to have in 100 years? By developing a vision of an attractive, resilient and sustainable city, the city can discover new solutions to climate threats. Instead of seeking solutions to short-term risks, it develops a vision that focuses on the long-term transformation of the city. This requires policymakers and urban planners to think less in terms of sectors and risk mitigation, and more in terms of a positive vision for the city. Opportunities will then arise to link climate risks to other challenges, such as sustainability, health, mobility and biodiversity. Cities could thus use climate change as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. There are already examples where such a positive and integral vision has been developed, such as the vision for the Netherlands in 2120.
Proposal: add an extra step to the adaptation process
In our essay, we further propose adding an extra step to the adaptation process. In this step, a city first develops a positive image and a transformative approach for the long term before selecting concrete measures. We propose this extra step because most current roadmaps, frameworks and guidelines do not invite cities to tackle climate adaptation from a possible ideal vision of the future. Instead, many of these tools lead cities directly from risk analysis to targeted adaptation solutions. As a result, cities often opt for technocratic, sector-based measures. Examples of tools from this dominant vision are the IPCC’s risk management process (2014), the ‘adaptation cycle’ (Willows et al. 2003), the European Adaptation Portal’s Adaptation Support Tool (Climate-Adapt), and the recent ISO standard 14091 (ISO 2021).
Dominant vision: seeking solutions to risks
The first vision aims to avoid or reduce climate risks: the city wants to protect its inhabitants and infrastructures from climate effects. At the moment, this vision seems dominant. From this vision, a city first explores where the climate risks are and then looks for solutions to those risks. But if a city approaches climate adaptation from this vision, there is a chance that the city mainly opts for sectoral and technical solutions. This approach often leads to small changes and short-term solutions: the city remains the same as much as possible. As a result, the city misses opportunities for long-term sustainable urban development. Cities do try to combine goals from different departments, but often these are short-term goals.
Promising vision: an ideal image for the city’s future
The second vision of climate adaptation is based on opportunities. The city thinks about an ideal image and asks itself the question: what kind of city do we want to have in 100 years? By developing a vision of an attractive, resilient and sustainable city, the city can discover new solutions to climate threats. Instead of seeking solutions to short-term risks, it develops a vision that focuses on the long-term transformation of the city. This requires policymakers and urban planners to think less in terms of sectors and risk mitigation, and more in terms of a positive vision for the city. Opportunities will then arise to link climate risks to other challenges, such as sustainability, health, mobility and biodiversity. Cities could thus use climate change as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. There are already examples where such a positive and integral vision has been developed, such as the vision for the Netherlands in 2120.
Proposal: add an extra step to the adaptation process
In our essay, we further propose adding an extra step to the adaptation process. In this step, a city first develops a positive image and a transformative approach for the long term before selecting concrete measures. We propose this extra step because most current roadmaps, frameworks and guidelines do not invite cities to tackle climate adaptation from a possible ideal vision of the future. Instead, many of these tools lead cities directly from risk analysis to targeted adaptation solutions. As a result, cities often opt for technocratic, sector-based measures. Examples of tools from this dominant vision are the IPCC’s risk management process (2014), the ‘adaptation cycle’ (Willows et al. 2003), the European Adaptation Portal’s Adaptation Support Tool (Climate-Adapt), and the recent ISO standard 14091 (ISO 2021).