The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has developed a number of free resources designed to assist urban professionals with the planning and management of cities in relation to the unique challenges posed by climate changes.
The first resource is a guidebook outlining a ‘strategic, values-based approach’ to planning for climate change. It has been developed to enable ‘city planners and other allied professionals to better understand, assess, and take action on climate change at the local level’.
It includes a useful overview of current climate trends, their urban impacts and the urgency of forging a link between urban planning and climate change adaptation. Click here to download this document.
A second useful resource is the summary report of a climate change assessment for Sorsogon City (Philippines), undertaken as part of UN-Habitat’s Cities and Climate Change Initiative, a key component of the Sustainable Urban Development Network (SUD-Net).
The Initiative’s overall aim is to provide insights on climate change adaptation and mitigation capacity in cities in developing and least developed countries. The rationale behind this report is to disseminate the early lessons of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative.
It includes an analysis of the geographic, policy-based and institutional context for planning in Sorsogon City and culminates in a number of recommendations for planning-related actions at the national and urban levels. The report would be useful as a teaching case study for a planning educational course dealing with climate change. Click here to download this document from the UN-Habitat website.
