Moving towards inclusive urban adaptation: approaches to integrating community-based adaptation to climate change at city and national scale

In a world in which the majority of the population lives in urban centres, the importance of addressing urban vulnerability to climate change cannot be underestimated. Urban areas represent complex systems and concentrations of risk, and both rapid and slow onset disasters can be seen as a result of failures in urban governance (Dodman & Satterthwaite, 2008), with the potential to be aggravated if the impacts of climate change are not adequately planned for. One billion people across the world live in informal settlements, lacking infrastructure, basic services, and secure housing, and are, therefore, particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change (Satterthwaite & Mitlin, 2014). Adequate building regulations, universal provision of infrastructure and services, and emergency preparedness may frequently be beyond the capacity or power of local authorities, while appropriate legal, financial, and insurance systems may be lacking (Dodman & Satterthwaite, 2008; Satterthwaite, Huq, Reid, Pelling, & Romero Lankao,

2007). There is, therefore, also a role for civil society to prepare for climate change, both through local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities, such as through community-based adaptation (CBA), which integrates governance approaches and tools for participatory planning.