Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 64

Vulnerability reduction
Most deliberate coping strategies are means to reduce people's physical vulnerability
(systematized in the second column in Tables 4.1 and 4.2 ) . In contrast to hazard
reduction and avoidance, these are aimed to withstand potential hazard impacts.
Physical or structural protection is often taken into consideration during the
construction and maintenance of buildings - for instance, foundation depth,
length of roof projections, height of door sills and regular house painting to
prevent water infiltration. However, many Rio and San Salvador dwellers
describe how they are increasingly being forced to strengthen their housing even
further to become better adapted, a point echoed in other studies, for example
by a young resident of the Linda compound, Lusaka:
'[…] people have learned the hard way. If you go around the compound
now, people are using burnt bricks or cement blocks because houses built
from these are stronger.'
(Simatele 2010:21)
For instance, people replace flimsy doors with more flood-proof ones;
improve wall and roof insulation; construct additional drains; build long
projecting pipes to discharge rainwater towards the street (a typical measure
in Medellín: see Inteligencias Colectivas 2011b); and change the direction or
degree of roof incline, to discharge run-off water without causing erosion or
damaging roof construction .
Innovative examples of how urban dwellers reduce their physical vulnerability
can be found for nearly all hazard types. Examples include floating houses (Tudehope
2011); creating outlets at the rear of the house to allow water levels to sink faster
during flooding (Douglas et al. 2008; Jabeen et al. 2010); and construction on poles
or other techniques to raise the floor platform to mitigate flooding and improve
ventilation (Douglas et al. 2008; Jabeen et al. 2010; Pelling 2011). 8
People use many other physical measures besides structural improvements
to houses to reduce their location-specific vulnerability. Examples are putting
wood or bricks on the roof to hold it in place during storms; gluing objects to
furniture to prevent them falling during earthquakes; or increasing the height
of furniture in flood areas, as illustrated by this statement from a woman in the
Alajo community in Accra, Ghana:
'Our furniture has been custom-made to help keep our things dry from
the water […] our tables are very high and so also are our wardrobes.'
(Douglas et al. 2008:197)
To mitigate heat, people also paint their houses white (Cheikh and Bouchair
2008); and/or use ventilation holes, which they then cover with various materials
for mosquito protection (Jabeen et al. 2010).