Coastal cities are vital to the global economy and serve essential functions for society as a whole. However, they are heavily impacted by climate change, making their role in global climate adaptation very important. To explore how these cities are adapting, an international research team led by Professor Matthias Garschagen, a geographer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), has conducted an analysis of their current adaptation strategies.
Coastal cities are vital to the global economy and serve essential functions for society as a whole. However, they are heavily impacted by climate change, making their role in global climate adaptation very important. To explore how these cities are adapting, an international research team led by Professor Matthias Garschagen, a geographer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), has conducted an analysis of their current adaptation strategies.
The researchers examined 199 cities across 54 countries to assess how cities consider various risk factors in their adaptation measures. Important climate factors such as rising sea levels, severe storms, flooding, and heat were included in their analysis. Additionally, they looked at the exposure and vulnerability of populations, infrastructure, and ecosystems in the regions studied.
Climate measures are mostly inadequate
The majority of adaptation efforts focus primarily on challenges like sea level rise, flooding, and, to a lesser degree, storm surges, cyclones, and erosion. In wealthier areas such as North America and Europe, technical solutions like large-scale levees and innovative urban planning are more prevalent. In contrast, in less wealthy areas, especially in many parts of Africa and Asia, actions are more behavior-oriented, often leaving affected households and businesses to fend for themselves.
Overall, researchers from LMU concluded that most adaptation strategies are insufficient regarding their depth, breadth, and pace, irrespective of the region’s wealth. There was also limited evidence indicating that the measures implemented have sustainably reduced risk.
“Our findings indicate that there remains significant work to be done at every level,” Prof. Matthias Garschagen states. “There has been little transformative change that fundamentally reevaluates risk management. Cities tend to enhance their disaster management based on historical experiences without critically assessing whether those approaches will be effective in the future,” Garschagen explains.
Global research on climate change needs to be done in all regions of the world
The study also revealed that adaptation planning rarely relies on measurable factors. While cities consider future natural risks like flooding and heat, they seldom account for socioeconomic elements, such as anticipated changes in societal vulnerability or urban expansion. “These trends are crucial,” Garschagen emphasizes, “because the Lagos or Jakarta we see today will be very different in 20 years. There are significant research gaps, and we need to develop improved scenarios and modeling techniques. We also need to evaluate when it might be more sensible to abandon coastal defenses and explore relocating communities instead.”
Matthias Garschagen advocates for a substantial increase in research efforts in the Global South, as most existing studies have focused on cities in the Global North. “A comprehensive global climate change research that encompasses all world regions would equip us to tackle the climate crisis more swiftly and effectively,” says Matthias Garschagen.
