A systematic map of responses to climate impacts in urban Africa

Abstract

Over time African cities and their residents have responded to climate impacts in increasingly creative ways, based on local knowledge and available resources. Overviews of adaptation policy, plans and actions have largely been lacking for Africa, particularly at the local, city level. We applied a systematic map to assess what the human responses to climate impacts are in African cities, noting the climate drivers of these actions, the range of responses, where they have taken place, and who the actors are. Standardized, pre-selected search terms were used to systematically search peer-reviewed and grey literature, using Web of Science, Scopus, and Google. Publications were screened based on pre-approved inclusion criteria, and actions described in included articles were coded using categories from key conceptual framing papers on climate change adaptation. Of 2 042 peer-reviewed and 60 grey-literature publications, 252 underwent full-text screening, with 121 included for coding. We recorded 1 504 actions, taking place in 41 cities from 21 African countries, in response to various climate drivers. Anticipatory and reactive actions were taken by actors, from individuals to international agencies, and we highlighted successful adaptations, those taking advantage of climate impacts, and maladaptive actions. Combinations of climatic and non-climatic stimuli induced adaptive responses, which were frequently based on local knowledge, and provided a base upon which government action could build. Residents of informal settlements had less adaptive capacity than those in formal settlements, and government action could build their resilience. Since development is affected by climate impacts, climate change information should be integrated into development programmes.

Subaltern forms of knowledge are required to boost local adaptation

“…A recent synthesis 53 found that a majority of these assessments focus on developed regions, particularly North America and Europe, 13,15,18,23,54 although some recent analyses include progress data from the Global South. 14,16,17,19,22 Furthermore, diverse methodological approaches are used to systematize information. Yet, most assessments focus exclusively on standalone physical ''plans'' rather than on other policy outputs.…”

“…A large number of initiatives have emerged over the past decade; hundreds (and possibly thousands) of cities and localities across the world are preparing for climate change through plans, pol-icies, privately supported projects, and community-based actions. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Many of these efforts focus on assessing local risks and building internal local capacity, leadership, and resources to plan for future risks. 24 Although efforts over the past decade have increased awareness of climate change in cities and localities worldwide, recent scientific assessments of these efforts paint a very mixed picture about the extent to which adaptation outcomes have been broadly effective, equitable (especially across divides in wealth, education, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, abilities, values, or worldviews), and legitimate across different social and geographical contexts.…”

Climate change and strategic low-carbon planning in African cities after COVID-19: inclusiveness or chaos?

“…They can mitigate the impact of flooding by organising the clean-up of drains, they can protect their houses from storms by reinforcing their roofs, and they can keep or establish networks with social relations in rural areas to allow the transit of food. Nevertheless, private initiatives which constitute the majority of action to prevent short-term climate variability cannot compensate for a complete lack of planning in response to long-term climate change (Hunter et al 2020, Mashi et al 2020. On the other hand, municipalities have limited capacity for intervention.…”

Institutionalisation of urban climate adaptation: three municipal experiences in Spain

“…Recent assessments of urban climate adaptation have evaluated the contents, quality, means and scope of adaptation (e.g. Aguiar et al 2018;Araos et al 2016;Carmin et al 2012;Guyadeen et al 2019;Hunter et al 2020;Le 2020;Lesnikowski et al 2019;Olazabal et al 2019b;Olazabal & Ruiz De Gopegui 2021;Reckien et al 2018;Shi et al 2015;Woodruff & Stults 2016). This body of literature offers an incomplete analysis of how urban adaptation is institutionalised (Patterson 2021).…”

“…With a few exceptions (e.g. Hunter et al 2020), assessments focus on identifying and evaluating adaptation policies and plans Patterson 2021). Studies of the dimensions and diversity of adaptation institutions and their formation (Patterson 2018(Patterson , 2021 have not yet engaged explicitly with integrating adaptation institutions into existing governance processes.…”