Transformational Adaptation in the Context of Coastal Cities

Abstract

Coastal cities, home to more than three billion people and growing rapidly, are highly vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly, there are calls for climate adaptation that goes beyond business-as-usual approaches, transforms socioeconomic systems, and addresses underlying drivers of vulnerability. Although calls for transformational adaptation are growing, greater clarity is needed on what transformation means in context in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice. This article reviews the theoretical literature on transformational adaptation, as well as practitioner frameworks and case studies of urban coastal adaptation. The article discusses specific challenges for transformational adaptation and its governance in coastal cities. In doing so, this review contributes to the growing debate about operationalizing the concept of transformational adaptation in the context of coastal cities and offers insights to ensure that transformation processes are inclusive and equitable. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 46 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Planning for Climate Transformations

“…Academic calls for transformative change reflect diverse aspirations and approaches-from introducing or transferring innovations to new places to dramatically restructuring the look and function of a place to shifting society onto different pathways (Kates, Travis, and Wilbanks 2012;Kuhl et al 2021). Transformative strategies, scholars argue, also should be multi-scalar, replicable, sustainable, persistent, and systemwide (Fedele et al 2019).…”

“…First, scholars from diverse streams of transformation research argue that transformative change must be replicable, sustainable, and implemented at a large enough geographic scale to be meaningful (Fazey et al 2020;Fedele et al 2019;Kates, Travis, and Wilbanks 2012;Kuhl et al 2021).…”

“…In short, while climate action is growing, observers note that it is not enough, uncoordinated, and inequitable. In response, many scholars now advocate for transformative climate action that advances the three aims of systemic paradigm change at scale in ways that center social justice (Kuhl et al 2021). The 5th IPCC Assessment Report (2014) dedicated a chapter to transformation, which inspired numerous articles, special issues, and conferences on the topic (Blythe et al 2018).…”

Towards adaptive and transformative finance for urban areas? A framework to analyse the responsiveness of adaptation finance to urban challenges in the global South

“…Catalytic effects are those outside the immediate areas of interventions, influencing wider processes towards individual, collective and institutional change. (29) These include, for instance, identifying key stakeholders to promote change and facilitate knowledge-sharing; promoting and investing in new or alternative adaptation options; deploying development opportunities; creating cross-scale and multi-stakeholder partnerships, and multilevel governance arrangements; institutionalizing new practices and frameworks; and providing political and funding support to long-term actions. (30) Upscaling effects, by contrast, can ensure that interventions benefit large numbers of people outside the targeted ones, either directly or by influencing policies and institutions.…”

Improving Housing Resilience through Disaster Knowledge Management (DKM) Assessment

“…According to Kuhl et al (2021), 3.4 billion people live in highly vulnerable areas to at least one natural disaster with 2.3 billion vulnerable to flooding and 328 million to earthquakes.…”