Mapping evidence of human adaptation to climate change

Abstract

We present the first systematic, global stocktake of the academic literature on human adaptation. We screen 48,316 documents and identify 1,682 articles that present empirical research documenting human efforts to reduce risk from climate change and associated hazards. Coding and synthesizing this literature highlights that the overall extent of adaptation across global regions and sectors is low. Adaptations are largely local and incremental rather than transformative. Behavioural adjustments by individuals and households are more prevalent than any other type of response, largely motivated by drought and precipitation variability. Local governments and civil society are engaging in risk reduction across all sectors and regions, particularly in response to flooding. Urban technological and infrastructural adaptations to flood risk are prevalent in Europe, while shifts in farming practices dominate reporting from Africa and Asia. Despite increasing evidence of adaptation responses, evidence that these responses are reducing risks (observed and projected) remains limited.

The role of indigenous knowledge and local knowledge in water sector adaptation to climate change in Africa: A structured assessment

“…This review identi ed and mapped the evidence of water adaptation responses implemented in Africa in peer-reviewed literature recorded between 2013-2019, highlighting those in uenced by IK and LK. Consistent with previous studies, droughts and precipitation variability were the most frequently responded to climate hazards in Africa (Niang et al, 2014;Berrang-Ford et al, 2021b) (see Figure 2). Overall, there is high evidence of water adaptation responses implemented in east, west and southern African regions and little evidence in north and central Africa.…”

“…Of the water adaptation responses, high evidence of IK and LK in uence was identi ed in Ghana for west Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa for southern Africa and Kenya in west Africa. Knowledge on scalability of these responses to regional scale is not yet established partly due to the early stage of implementation of most adaptation actions in Africa (Berrang- Ford et al, 2021b). Given the proposed increase of multilateral funding for adaptation 2020-2030 from the four major climate and development funders -Green Climate Fund, Adaptation Fund, Global Environment Facility and the International Climate Initiative, there is a window of opportunity for these measures to be scaled up through better integration of IK and LK (United Nations Environment Programme, 2021).…”

“…GAMI articles were retrieved from Web of Sciences, Medline, and Scopus. Details on how the articles were retrieved, the screening process (machine learning plus human screening), and coding are provided in Berrang-Ford et al (2021b) with accompanying protocols by Berrang-Ford et al (2021a), Fischer et al (2021 and Lesnikowski et al (2021). The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the articles used in the GAMI is explained in Fischer et al (2021), particularly, documents that reported on responses that constituted adaptation based on a strict de nition of the term: behaviours that directly aimed to reduce risk or vulnerability.…”

“…Understanding which adaptation actions are being implemented, how, and the effectiveness of speci c responses for reducing risk is crucial for adaptation planning (Owen, 2020;Berrang-Ford et al, 2021b;Williams et al, 2021). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) de nes climate adaptation in human systems as the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit bene cial opportunities (IPCC, 2018).…”

“…The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) de nes climate adaptation in human systems as the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit bene cial opportunities (IPCC, 2018). Since the publication of the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5) in 2014, there has been a substantial increase in peer-reviewed publications documenting evidence of climate adaptation responses, with the greatest increase evident in the literature on Africa (Berrang-Ford et al, 2021b;United Nations Environment Programme, 2021). Although most of these adaptation processes are still at the early implementation stage (Berrang-Ford et al, 2021b;United Nations Environment Programme, 2021), this growing literature record has improved information on where and how adaptation is taking place, including possible maladaptation threats.…”