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wealth of knowledge, experience and capacities that people living in such areas
possess and, within that perspective, their need for more disaster-resilient
housing, water and sanitation. This second view opens the way to a different
path: one that can lead to sustainable transformation, not least by changing the
power relations that dictate the management of risk.
This chapter has presented an overview and systematization of the scarce and
fragmented knowledge regarding urban residents' coping strategies, together
with critical insights into the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies. This
analysis shows the richness and diversity of local adaptive capacities, as well
as the similarities in problems faced by urban residents across the developing
world and their ways of tackling them.
We conclude that city dwellers' ways of coping with climate variability
and extremes should not automatically be dismissed as maladaptive. Whether
urban communities manage to achieve resilience and move on to sustainable
transformation hinges not on the effectiveness of single coping strategies, but
on the flexibility and inclusiveness of individual, household and community
coping systems - the combined set of strategies used - and in line with this,
increased local participation in the governance of urban risk.
To support coping systems for more sustainable adaptation and
transformation, the first step is their assessment. For this study, we have
elaborated an analytical framework (presented in 'Coping and adaptive capacity
- an analytical framework' and
Table 4.3
) that can be used by city authorities and
aid organizations to bring to light the system aspects of coping, inclusiveness,
flexibility and equity, which they might otherwise not recognize. If put into
practice, that framework can help such bodies take advantage of local capacities,
so that they can provide assistance in line with the various perspectives and
efforts of urban residents - assistance that ensures that measures are context-
specific, and get effectively implemented and maintained. It also ensures that
other adaptive capacities not readily apparent in people's coping strategies and
associated coping systems are identified, as well as any barriers to using those
capacities. The framework can further assist to extract the elements of principles
that can be transferred from one location to another, ultimately enabling more
flexible and inclusive structures for risk reduction and adaptation.
To act on these findings and transform 'development as usual' into something
more sustainable, city authorities and aid organizations need to support urban
dwellers in negotiating their needs and rights, so that the coping systems they use
become more flexible, more inclusive and more viable in today's society. Specific
measures may include improving and accelerating communities' inherent learning
mechanisms, shared learning dialogues, raising local educational levels, improving
access to the formal job market and providing more end-of-pipe solutions, like
encouraging or upscaling existing strategies, and offering new or alternative
inclusive urban risk-governance system in which people at risk can take an active
stake. Greater diffusion or distribution of power to include the local people
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