Climate Change and development - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 277

RS
L
PRACTICAL
Outcomes
for sustainability
Behaviours and
technical
responses
d
ew
Figure 15.1 The three spheres of transformation (source: based on O'Brien and
Sygna 2013)
Adaptation through transformation in the practical sphere
Adaptation strategies and measures tend to focus on the practical sphere, where
outcomes and benefits can be most easily measured and monitored. Adaptation
in the practical spheres includes a wide array of technical responses, ranging
from hard structural measures, such as infrastructure and technological projects,
to soft policy measures such as climate services and behavioural changes.
Trærup and Christiansen (this volume) distinguish three types of technologies
for adaptation: hardware, software and orgware. Their research acknowledges
the importance of hardware (e.g. capital-intensive technologies), but also
of software such as improved soil, water and crop management, ecosystem
restoration, improved extension services. Moreover, orgware relating to the
ownership and institutional arrangements, such as the creation of water-user
associations and adaptive co-management schemes, is recognized as important
to adaptation processes.
We have seen how adaptation in the practical sphere has been an important goal
of many development interventions. This is exemplified by efforts in the Lake
Victoria Basin to optimize timing for planting crops through the use of climate
information accessed by mobile phones, develop drought- and flood-resistant
seed varieties, or improve carbon storage in soils (Gabrielsson Chapter 5 ).
It can be seen in the Afar State Adaptation Plan of Action's emphasis on