Jacqueline Bleicher

Climate change impacts cascade across sectors and regions affecting all of humanity. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) advise global warming is ‘heading towards two-point-two degrees to three-point-five degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate that three-point-three to three-point-six billion human lives are endangered by climate change. Global hotspots for high human vulnerability to climate change impacts are concentrated in East, Central and West Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, Small Island Developing States (SIDs) and the Arctic. From 2020 to 2040, some sixty-eight-point-eleven million people are at risk of coastal flooding due to sea level rise. Small Islands are the regions with the highest certainty for adverse impacts affecting human settlements, ecosystems, health, water supply and food production. Some territories will be inundated by sea level rise and will no longer be habitable, in parts or completely, requiring the relocation or migration of resident populations, as well as the development of new climate resilient, sustainable communities, critical infrastructure, services, and amenities in safe zones. Climate change impacts are already evident, with spatial and socio-economic consequences that require immediate action, such as the accommodation and integration of climate change refugees into host societies, the need to prepare for the imminent risk of new pandemics, and recurring economic crisis and terrorism, in urban areas. The climate crisis is so urgent that the IPCC are asking developed countries to decarbonize by 2040, instead of 2050, in conjunction with global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions, while eliminating inequality. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) advise that to address the challenge of climate change, developed countries will need to rebuild existing city infrastructure, and developing nations should be supported to adopt resilient, sustainable infrastructure technologies. The UNEP, estimate that some seventy-five percent of the infrastructure required in cities by 2050 has not been planned or constructed. The significance of the IPCC’s and UNEP’s information is that climate adaptation measures need to accelerate to halve carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in 2020-2030, inclusive of retrofitting and rebuilding existing urban infrastructure. Adaptation and mitigation measures encompass urban settlements, sustainable green urban infrastructure, energy efficiency, and the sustainable transition of industry sectors, including water, energy, transport, food production, waste, finance and investment. The IPCC also highlight the importance of protecting habitats, species, and biodiversity, inclusive of a fifty-percent allocation for nature reserves. Measures to adapt to climate change integrates sustainable, climate resilient design and development, including advance and planned relocation of vulnerable human settlements, with actions to reduce or avoid emissions and provide wider benefits for all, such as improving peoples’ health and livelihoods; reducing poverty and hunger; clean energy, water and air. The Urban Design and physical, spatial issues highlighted require Urban Design and spatial solutions. However, academic researchers identify a gap in academic knowledge and research on Urban Design and spatial planning interventions for climate change mitigation and adaptation at the neighbourhood and district scale, particularly a dearth in knowledge of how scientific climate change projections should be interpreted, to inform spatial urban design solutions across different regions.