beyond this role to involve the residents of these settlements in identifying and asking questions, to cover all households (not just a sample) and to return data to households and neighbourhood organizations. These enumerations provide detailed data on existing infrastructure and services—an essential component of planning for urban development or climate change adaptation (Karanja, 2010). They can be used to gather detailed information on the experiences of past adverse climatic events as a means of highlighting appropriate methods for strengthening resilience at the local level. These enumerations can thus have a place in providing data inputs for assessing vulnerability and building adaptation programming. This means designing vulnerability assessments that incorporate bottom-up information and go deeper than the systemic definitions of vulnerability by detailing how vulnerability varies across populations in specific contexts.
The Relevance of Exposure Exposure to climate impacts is often understood as being static: a simple description based on geographical location in relation to the direct impacts of disasters or climate change. In this regard, exposure is frequently seen as an underlying factor that influences vulnerability, rather than itself being shaped through a range of social and demographic processes. In this section of the chapter, perspectives of exposure that are based on the relationship between geography and the built environment are presented first. By this definition, for instance, the global distribution of urban areas in Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZs) means high exposure to sea level rise. Next, the ways in which this geographic and built environment exposure are actually shaped by broader issues of poverty and development at a variety of scales, but particularly within urban areas (especially in relation to access to land by different groups), are explored. From this, the specific concerns of population dynamics and demographic change and the ways in which this will alter exposure in the long term are examined. Many assessments of climate risk are based primarily on a limited analysis of exposure to hazards, neglecting the more complex social, political and demographic processes contributing to vulnerability. For example, the World Bank’s “urban hot spots” methodology (World Bank/UNISDR, 2008, p. 41) identifies vulnerable locations as being characterized by: • moderate to high level of one or more natural hazards; • medium or high observed vulnerability in past disasters; • moderate- to high-sectoral vulnerability to climate change; • poor or non-existent urban development plan; • poor compliance with urban development plan; • poor quality of building stock; • high population density; • medium or high slum density; • no comprehensive disaster response system; • economic or political significance to country region.
Po pul at i ng Adap tat i o n I nco rp o rat i ng P o p ul at i o n Dy nam i c s i n C li m at e Ch ange Adap tat i o n P o li c y an d P ract i c e
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