What is it about?
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean and the Pacific,are amongst the most vulnerable countries in the world to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. Yet urban planning and management systems and practices in these rapidly urbanizing countries - including 'best practice' adaptation investments, disregard the potential benefits of well-managed, evidence-informed urbanization and inadvertently serve to further marginalize the urban poor living in extra-legal, informal settlements on hazardous lands. We put forward a number of successful lessons from the field for better targeted climate change adaptation measures in these small, vulnerable countries, so as to be more inclusive of the poor.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The paper draws on practice-oriented research that sits at the nexus of urban planning approaches for low income earners and the complex science of accurately understanding the probability of multiple natural hazard risks and predicting the long-term consequences of climate change at a small island scale. The case studies provided are from some of the smallest and most remote island countries on the globe and at the forefront of the impacts of climate change that is not of their own making.
Perspectives
Writing this article was an opportunity for me to reflect on the underlying cycle of urban deterioration and environmental degradation that I observed repeated again and again in nine of the remarkable small island developing states that I worked in over the course of a decade. I realised too that many climate scientists speak a language and make use of modelling tools that are extraordinarily difficult to 'translate' for everyday planning tasks or to inform policy makers or to be useful to urban poor communities. However, I was privileged to meet, work with and learn from many, many dedicated professionals who are determined to bridge this gap. I hope you will find the article thought provoking.
Dr Colleen Butcher-Gollach
University of Melbourne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Planning, the urban poor and climate change in Small Island Developing States (SIDS): unmitigated disaster or inclusive adaptation?, International Development Planning Review, April 2015, Liverpool University Press,
DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2015.17.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
