About the First Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3)

The First Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities (ARC3) presents a comprehensive assessment of the most significant issues for cities as they face the climate change challenge. It was launched by the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) in November 2008, with the goal of providing the scientific basis for city action in the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. The ARC3 seeks to synthesize our current state of knowledge about how cities will be affected by climate change and the steps being taken to address climate change at the local level. It is specifically intended both to identify and to fill data gaps in the existing climate change literature, the majority of which has been compiled to analyze the information at a global, national, or regional scale.

To ensure that the information provided would be of use to urban decision-makers, UCCRN first conducted a needs assessment via a survey of city leaders in both developed and developing countries around the world. The content and structure of ARC3 reflects feedback received from respondents to this survey.

The report encompasses nine topics which are divided into four sections: Introduction (Urban climate change in context), Defining the risk framework (Cities, disasters, and climate risk; and Urban climate: processes, trends, and projections), Urban sectors (Climate change and urban energy systems; Climate change, water, and wastewater in cities; Climate change and urban transportation systems; and Climate change and human health in cities), and Cross-cutting issues (The role of urban land in climate change; and Cities and climate change: The challenges for governance). The report represents the work of more than 100 lead and contributing authors from over 50 cities around the world. ARC3 authors are experts in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and include physical scientists, geographers, planners, engineers, social scientists, and policy experts. Each topic of ARC3 has gone through a multi-stage expert review process.

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