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Article Two
Cities and Climate Change: Response and Adaptation
Sarah Shubinsky
“Adaptation is crucial to deal with the unavoidable impacts of climate change to which the world is already committed.” - Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, 2006.
Cities around the world are waking up to the potential risks posed by climate change, with policymakers from Paris to Philadelphia planning how best to adapt to heatwaves, droughts and floods.
This article presents a brief overview of how selected cities plan to adapt to climate change. In some cases, cities vulnerable to high temperatures and flooding have had relevant adaptation strategies for some time, whilst others have begun to respond specifically to climate change. Hotter countries may be able to share best practice with their temperate counterparts as the latter prepare to deal with potentially warmer weather.
London
The London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP) was set up by the former Mayor in 2001 to embed adaptation into London policy documents, increase the level of adaptation in new and existing buildings and to provide accessible information for the public.
The partnership’s 2006 report Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons for London notes that climate change could exacerbate London’s existing air pollution problems. Hotter conditions could lead to rising emissions from trees of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including isoprene and other ozone precursors. London already experiences an Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, in which summer night-time temperatures can be high enough to cause health problems. Research suggests more street trees and green roofs (vegetated roofs that reduce stormwater runoff and help cool the building in the summer and insulate it in winter) will be needed. Regional planning guidance published in 2004 also supports the use of such roofs.
The economic impacts of climate change could be considerable. Last year, the City of London Corporation, which provides local government services for City, published a Climate Adaptation Strategy. Rising to the Challenge suggests that developers should install sustainable drainage systems and green roofs in new developments or redevelopments in flash flood ‘hotspots’. Measures that benefit biodiversity and provide cooling (including tree-planting and green roofs) will be made a requirement in the corporation’s Local Development Framework (LDF). To take forward the strategy, each City of London Corporation Department has been developing adaptation action plans.
The London Assembly is due to publish its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy later this summer.
Paris
Following the summer 2003 heatwave, in which even night-time temperatures regularly exceeded 25°C and many elderly and vulnerable people died, France launched a Heatwave Plan (Plan Canicule). The plan consists of four different levels of intervention. The first level monitors action plans and keeps the public informed from June to September; at the fourth level the army can be drafted in. The national plan is supported by a series of action plans focusing on specific areas, such as care homes for the elderly.
In Paris, the City Council’s Plan Climat encourages elderly and disabled people to be listed on a register called CHALEX (extreme heat). An emergency call number enables them to find information about preventative measures and to be visited at home if necessary.
Like London, Paris experiences a heat island effect, and hence plans to increase the amount of green space in the city. It is also looking at ways of making buildings cooler and better ventilated, whilst recognising that air-conditioning is far from a sustainable solution, as it generates CO2 emissions. Nationally, however, France’s health ministry has also allocated over £20 million to install air-conditioning in the homes of elderly people so they can have at least one cool room per establishment.
Paris’s Plan for the Prevention of Flooding Risks (PPRI) specifies that equipment and public infrastructure must be capable of fulfilling their normal function in case of flooding, or at least of withstanding structural damage resulting from several days’ immersion in floodwater. Electricity companies must be able to ensure supply is maintained in flooded buildings and to ensure that it is possible to separate the electricity supply to lower and higher floors.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Netherlands plans to develop amphibious and other types of flood-resistant structures in 15 flood-prone areas, where construction has not been permitted before. A ‘floating city’ for 12,000 people is being planned for near Schipol Airport near Amsterdam, and is partially funded by the government.
Antwerp and surrounding areas, Belgium
Mean high tide levels in Antwerp have risen by 56cm over the past century, and the frequency of storm events has increased, making it apparent that simply continuing to raise the height of dykes is not sustainable.
Belgium’s Sigma Plan, originally drawn up in the late 1970s and now being revised, aims to manage flood risks along the Scheldt Estuary, including Antwerp, through a system of Controlled Inundation Areas (CIAs). CIAs are parcels of land close to the River Scheldt that flood occasionally, protecting built-up areas from tidal flooding during storm surges. The revised plan requires around 6,000 hectares of land, mostly farmland, to be converted to natural estuarine habitat. However, full implementation of the plan is expected to take around 25 years, with the most urgent areas taking priority.
New York
New York has established a Climate Change Task Force to evaluate adaptation and mitigation options for infrastructure design, investment and policy planning. The task force is collaboration between New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University.
DEP will assess the cost, environmental impact, and engineering feasibility of a range of adaptation strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change on drainage, wastewater management facilities, and harbour water quality. It will develop a long-term strategy for monitoring impacts and implementing adaptation measures throughout New York City.
Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Hot Weather–Health Watch/Warning System (PWWS) was developed in 1995 and is the basis for more than 20 other heat–health watch warning systems in cities around the world, including Shanghai.
The PWWS is an early warning system to predict periods when there is a high risk of particular types of ‘airmass’ associated with heat-related mortality. The system forecasts airmass type for the next three days during the summer, with a health warning generated if four or more heat-related deaths are forecast. The local National Weather Service office then decides whether to issue a warning to the Philadelphia Department of Health based on the PWWS forecasts, the heat index, and other information.
Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo has produced a Thermal Environment Map showing the factors that affect the city’s heat island effect. It is using this to designate areas to reduce this effect, including introducing greenery on walls and creating “ventilation paths” so that breezes can pass through parts of the city.
Shanghai, China
Shanghai’s Heat Health Warning System predicts the risk of dangerous weather conditions in the city. Shanghai’s Municipal Health Bureau and other agencies are responsible for ensuring the public are warned to expect hot weather by the media, hospitals are prepared and that adequate water, power and air-conditioned facilities are available. The HHWS identifies specific air mass types that have been shown to increase mortality levels in Shanghai, and provides warnings when these air masses are predicted.
Australia
The New South Wales Greenhouse Plan, published in 2005, sets out key measures for adapting to climate change. A number of research programmes have been funded under the plan’s Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Program. In Melbourne, where as in most Australian cities drought is a recurring problem, drought response plans have been drawn up to introduce staged water restrictions. Permanent Water Saving Rules are in place to curb domestic use. The City of Melbourne local government has developed the Water Sensitive Urban Design Guidelines, detailing how the public and businesses can use the principles of water-sensitive urban design.
Cape Town, South Africa
Cape Town is at risk from higher temperatures and changes in rainfall variability. Urban water supplies, storm water management, biodiversity, fire management, coastal zones and health have been identified as key sectors in which adaptation strategies need to be developed.
The Framework for Adaptation to Climate Change in the City of Cape Town (FAC4T) was prepared by Pierre Mukheibir and Gina Zervoegel of the University of Cape Town in 2006. Commissioned by Cape Town’s Environmental Planning Department, it sets out a city-wide approach to the potential short- to medium-term impacts of climate change in the metropolitan area. This will be used to develop a City Adaptation Plan of Action (CAPA).
FAC4T will assess current climate trends and future projections; identify current vulnerabilities based on current and future climate risks and trends; develop adaptation options and evaluate adaptation strategies.
Although National Adaptation Plans of Action (NAPA) have been developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for Least Developed Countries (LDCs), to date there has not been a coordinated approach to adaptation at the municipal level. In response to this, Mukheibir and Zervoegel have proposed a sample framework that can be used by cities in LDCs to develop local adaptation strategies.
Conclusion
Many adaptation strategies focus on high temperatures and flooding. The London Climate Change Partnership concludes that making cities habitable, sustainable and economically productive despite these risks will require political commitment, fiscal incentives, effective communication, investment and the appropriate use of technology.
Climate change should not be considered in isolation but as an integral part of all long-term decision-making. Cities that recognise the need for joined-up government and city-wide planning are likely to be most successful in adapting to climate change.
Adaptation may be regarded as treating the symptoms rather than preventing them from occurring, and as the Stern Review concluded, “there are limits to what it can achieve”. The LCCP states that London currently accounts for 8% of the UK’s CO2 emissions, producing 44 million tonnes each year – predicted to increase to 51 million by 2025. The capital will need to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 4% annually if it is to meet the target of stabilising them at 60 % below 1990 levels by 2025. Policy-makers must ensure they do not lose sight of mitigation whilst implementing adaptation.
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References (Links)
Adapting to Climate Change – Lessons for London. London Climate Change Partnership, July 2006
Action Today to Protect Tomorrow - The Mayor's Climate Change Action Plan
Rising to the Challenge - The City of London Corporation’s Climate Adaptation Strategy, January 2007. Pdf available at http://tinyurl.com/47hjsy
Plan Climat de Paris, October 2007 (in French).
The NYC DEP Climate Change Program Assessment and Action Plan: A Report Based on the Ongoing Work of the DEP Climate Change Task Force; May 2008, Report 1. Chapter 3: Potential Adaptation Strategies for DEP (pdf)
Mukheibir, Pierre and Ziervogel, Gina (2007). Developing a Municipal Adaptation Plan (MAP) for climate change: the city of Cape Town. Environment and Urbanization 19 (1), 143-158.
Mukheibir, Pierre and Ziervogel, Gina (2006). Framework for Adaptation to Climate Change in the City of Cape Town
New South Wales Greenhouse Plan (2005)