Strategies for improving adaptation practice in developing countries

Conway, Declan; Mustelin, Johanna Orvokki

doi:10.1038/nclimate2199

Cited by 112 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, in many vulnerable areas, long-term issues related to SLR are not considered due to the urgency of other risks, such as cyclones, earthquakes or industrial risks, and also because of institutional, social and economic barriers to their prevention and management [69]. For example, developing countries have large immediate development concerns, which inevitably consume the limited human, technical and financial resources at the expense of multi-decadal to multi-centennial issues.…”

Section: Example 4: Critical Settlements and Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Cozannet

Nicholls

Hinkel

et al. 2017

JMSE

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For many climate change impacts such as drought and heat waves, global and national frameworks for climate services are providing ever more critical support to adaptation activities. Coastal zones are especially in need of climate services for adaptation, as they are increasingly threatened by sea level rise and its impacts, such as submergence, flooding, shoreline erosion, salinization and wetland change. In this paper, we examine how annual to multi-decadal sea level projections can be used within coastal climate services (CCS). To this end, we review the current state-of-the art of coastal climate services in the US, Australia and France, and identify lessons learned. More broadly, we also review current barriers in the development of CCS, and identify research and development efforts for overcoming barriers and facilitating their continued growth. The latter includes: (1) research in the field of sea level, coastal and adaptation science and (2) cross-cutting research in the area of user interactions, decision making, propagation of uncertainties and overall service architecture design. We suggest that standard approaches are required to translate relative sea level information into the forms required to inform the wide range of relevant decisions across coastal management, including coastal adaptation.

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Section: Example 4: Critical Settlements and Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Cozannet

Nicholls

Hinkel

et al. 2017

JMSE

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“…However, as the history of integrated resource management and other interconnected approaches have shown, established institutional and administrative arrangements can be highly resistant to change, with reform usually being a slow and imperfect process. Experiences from IWRM and climate change adaptation in developing countries demonstrate how complex externally driven agendas can fail to take hold and even have a demotivating effect on staff tasked to deliver poorly specified objectives without effective capacity support (Biswas 2004;Conway and Mustelin 2014). It will thus be important to identify priority WEF linkages and to consider the most effective entry points for dealing with them.…”

Section: Implementing Nexus Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Leck¹,

Conway²,

et al. 2015

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The 'nexus' between water, energy and food (WEF) has gained increasing attention globally in research, business and policy spheres. We review the premise of recent initiatives framed around the nexus, examine the challenge of achieving the type of disciplinary boundary crossing promoted by the nexus agenda and consider how to operationalise what has to date been a largely paper exercise. The WEF nexus has been promoted through international meetings and calls for new research agendas. It is clear from the literature that many aims of nexus approaches pre-date the recent nexus agenda; these have encountered significant barriers to progress, including challenges to cross-disciplinary collaboration, complexity, political economy (often perceived to be under-represented in nexus research) and incompatibility of current institutional structures. Indeed, the ambitious aims of the nexus-the desire to capture multiple interdependencies across three major sectors, across disciplines and across scales-could become its downfall. However, greater recognition of interdependencies across state and non-state actors, more sophisticated modelling systems to assess and quantify WEF linkages and the sheer scale of WEF resource use globally, could create enough momentum to overcome historical barriers and establish nexus approaches as part of a wider repertoire of responses to global environmental change.

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“…Identifying appropriate entry points for targeting climate services in line with national priorities is essential for more effective use of medium-term climate information in decision making (Conway & Mustelin, 2014). However, there is a lack of empirical studies assessing the use of such information (Rose, 2014), especially in SSA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying climate services needs for national planning: insights from Malawi

et al. 2015

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The importance of climate services, i.e. providing targeted, tailored, and timely weather and climate information, has gained momentum, but requires improved understanding of user needs. This article identifies the opportunities and barriers to the use of climate services for planning in Malawi, to identify the types of information that can better inform future adaptation decisions in sub-Saharan Africa. From policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, and a national workshop utilizing serious games, it is determined that only 5-10 day and seasonal forecasts are currently being used in government decision making. Impediments to greater integration of climate services include spatial and temporal scale, accessibility, timing, credibility and the mismatch in timeframes between planning cycles (1-5 years) and climate projections (over 20 years). Information that could more usefully inform planning decisions includes rainfall distribution within a season, forecasts with 2-3 week lead times, likely timing and location of extreme events in the short term (1 -5 years), and projections (e.g. rainfall and temperature change) in the medium term (6 -20 years). Development of a national set of scenarios would also make climate information more accessible to decision makers, and capacity building around such scenarios would enable its improved use in short-to medium-term planning. Improved climate science and its integration with impact models offer exciting opportunities for integrated climate-resilient planning across sub-Saharan Africa. Accrual of positive impacts requires enhanced national capacity to interpret climate information and implement communication strategies across sectors. Policy relevanceFor climate services to achieve their goal of improving adaptation decision making, it is necessary to understand the decision making process and how and when various types of weather and climate information can be incorporated. Through a case study of public sector planning in Malawi, this article highlights relevant planning and policy-making processes. The current use of weather and climate information and needs, over various timescales -sub-annual to short term (1-5 years) to medium term (6 -20 years) -is outlined. If climate scientists working with boundary organizations are able to address these issues in a more targeted, sector-facing manner they will improve the uptake of climate services and the likelihood of climate-resilient decisions across sub-Saharan Africa.

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Strategies for improving adaptation practice in developing countries

Cited by 112 publications

References 36 publications

Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Sea Level Change and Coastal Climate Services: The Way Forward

Tracing the Water–Energy–Food Nexus: Description, Theory and Practice

Identifying climate services needs for national planning: insights from Malawi

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