Building adaptive Capacity in the informal settlements of maputo - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 31

Knowledge and information
Much of the knowledge on the impacts of climate change for Mozambique
is generated outside the country with the help of international organizations.
The most comprehensive translation of this into and assessment of impacts
and vulnerability in Mozambique has been carried out by the INGC, although
smaller-scale case study examples also exist (Hahn et al. 2009). In discussing
the potential climate change impacts and the resulting vulnerability, their
approach mirrors that taken by the established management approach to
adaptation ( Table 2.2 ) . The knowledge technologies adopted so far have focused
on identifying impacts through scenarios, risk analysis and planning, and
to a limited extent on wider concepts of vulnerability (Keskitalo et al. 2012).
Vulnerability to climate change has been framed through scenarios, with socio-
economic vulnerability seen mainly in terms of economic assessments and the
total number of people affected . 8 What this implies is not only an outlook that
focuses on the economic - rather than the social and environmental - wellbeing
of the city, but also that knowledge is narrowly constructed in terms of the
perspectives that are assumed to be significant in its creation. Overall, this
approach reflects first-generation adaptation approaches that rely on predicted
impacts to stimulate technical and infrastructural changes. This contrasts with
more contextualized assessments of social and ecological vulnerability that
recognize future uncertainty and the potential for maladaptation (Burton et al.
2002; Eriksen et al. 2007; Eriksen and Brown 2011). Furthermore, this approach
fails to recognize the strong awareness that the people of Mozambique have as
regards flooding events and other potential impacts of climate change, as well
as their clear understanding of the consequences for their livelihoods (see also
O'Brien et al. 2009b).
More recently, greater localized knowledge and information is being
generated and collated by the municipal council. Under the CCCI initiative, an
Environmental Information Management System has been constructed to create
a database mapping vulnerability to impacts across Maputo, with the intention
of linking into the city cadastre system to integrate environmental risks into
planning. The CCCI project is also working with the municipality to explore
local perceptions of risk. This development entails small group studies, and has
come in response to the experience of flooding in January 2012 and recognition
of the need to understand where and how decisions are made in responding to
risks. 9 Avsi's work for the municipality does not include climate change, so there
are no climate-change specialists on the Avsi team. However, they have a focus
on environmental education, and their baseline data survey gathered household
perceptions of environmental risk, allowing detailed mapping of flood-prone
areas within the bairro. 10 From the perspective of adaptive capacity, what appears
to be lacking with this and other sources of knowledge within the city is a plan
for how and with whom such capacities are to be shared so as to be effective in
informing decision-making on adaptation.