Adaptation strategies for people: mitigating climate-change-related risks in low-income and informal urban communities through co-production

Abstract: Traditional top-down strategies to reduce climate-change-related risks have often failed to produce tangible results in vulnerable urban areas of the Global South. Approaches based on the co-production of adaptation solutions between diverse stakeholders offer promising alternative strategies. This contribution draws on our experiences in growing informal and low-income urban areas in two Latin American cities, Medellín (Colombia) and Puebla (Mexico). These communities lack adequate access to clean water and are exposed to risks related to increasingly frequent high-intensity rainfall events, making water management a key consideration for risk reduction. However, the factors driving insufficient water access and the perceptions of risks vary in each location, demonstrating the need for context-specific solutions. We explore how increasing community agency and co-creating knowledge for risk management between diverse stakeholders at a range of geographical scales can contribute to redressing existing social and environmental injustices, by identifying, implementing, and scaling up technically appropriate and culturally sustainable solutions aimed at reducing climate-change-related risks.

Keywords: Climate change, resilience, mitigation, adaptation, informal urban communities, co-production, integrated risk management, integrated water management, community agency.

Article posted to the Journal of the British Academy, volume 9, supplementary issue 9 (The Urban Impacts of Climate Change)