Adaptive Capacity - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 77

themselves can trigger more effective learning in a context of rapid change, and
provide a better platform for 'experimenting' where conditions are uncertain and
situations are in a constant state of flux. This can allow 'home-grown' approaches
and methods to evolve, as well as improving the understanding of local causes
of harm, which can then be addressed through participatory, community-based
efforts formulated within the larger policy context.
Transformation could thus involve a set of incremental improvements that
are able, in combination with (more) transformative measures at community
and city levels, to alter current coping systems from within. That said, however,
the idea of transformation should not become a new pretext for external
interference. Ultimately, this is not a debate between inherent local and external
institutional systems as such; it is a question of finding the most appropriate
approach for each situation.
notes
1 'Sustainable urban development' is here conceived of as the creation of liveable,
inclusive, ecologically healthy, resource-efficient, prosperous and attractive cities
(see McCormick et al. 2012).
2 This is despite the lack of global data on urban disasters, because of low emphasis on
the urban in development and disaster risk research and policy (Pelling 2007).
3 These studies were identified via databases such as Scopus and Web of Knowledge, in
which the following search terms were combined: 'urban', 'cities', 'climate change',
'adaptation', 'disaster risk reduction', 'local', 'community-based', 'community-
driven', 'coping', 'grassroots', 'traditional'. Cross-country studies analysed were
Douglas et al. 2008; SAARC 2008; Shaw et al. 2008; Pelling 2011; Singh 2011; Béné
et al. 2012; Hamza et al. 2012; Soltesova et al. 2012. Single-country studies were
Alam and Rabbani 2007; Khan 2008; Shaw et al. 2008b; Ayers and Forsyth 2009;
Jabeen et al. 2010; Ahammad 2011; Audefroy 2011; Banks et al. 2011; Carcellar
et al. 2011; Esdahl 2011; Johnson 2011; Ramachandraiah 2011; Thompson 2011;
Simatele 2012. Cases analysed include studies from Bangladesh, Belize, Dominican
Republic, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria,
Philippines, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia.
4 The projects were funded by Resilient Regions ( www.resilientregions.org/en/) and
the European Research Council, respectively.
5 Root causes can here be defined as an interrelated set of structural factors and
processes within a society, which often have arisen in another time or place and are
typically so entrenched in today's society that they become 'invisible' and thus hard
to detect (Wamsler 2014).
6 Only the three main dimensions of analysis are described here. For further aspects
see Table 4.3 .
7 The term refers mainly to the shape and the structural or constructed aspects of
a cityscape. Physical changes include engineering or constructed measures as well
as other changes to the built environment, often referred to as 'hard measures' (as
opposed to 'soft measures').
8 An example of the latter from the Dominican Republic can be found at: www.
inteligenciascolectivas.org/vivienda-elevada .
9 Economic diversification means that people engage in many different income-
earning activities. Renting out rooms, owning a home-based business, and working
at different service jobs are common income sources that the urban poor often 'run'