November 1, 2024
SCARP PhD student Ana Polgár is thrilled to share that her first first-author article has just been published, in Urban Forum - a journal focusing on urban Africa.
There's more and more research nowadays about climate change and the vulnerability and risk it represents, helping cities plan better ways to adapt to climate change.
Integrated Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments (CRVAs) at the city level are becoming especially important for African cities, which are facing greater risks due to local climate issues and rapid urban growth. With that, Ana Polgár offers her research insights, "A Quick-Scan Methodology Incorporating Local Knowledge for Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments Applied in Kampala".
Click here for an intro into Polgar's extraordinary work
Polgár's article introduces a 'quick-scan CRVA' which addresses key challenges faced in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as limited research capacity, diverse settlements and infrastructure, data availability and accessibility issues, and the need to incorporate local knowledge. This method was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and tested in Kampala, Uganda, in collaboration with local partners.
"It allowed us to map urgent climate threats across districts, resulting in ‘neighbourhood profiles’ that highlight different types of risks and vulnerabilities."
-Ana Polgár
Polgár's quick-scan CRVA approach offers a practical solution for cities facing resource and data constraints, because it:
- Can be conducted under tight time and budget constraints
- Filters and classifies diverse needs across districts, creating a ‘city-wide scan' that identifies hotspots, such as where climate threats are urgent and vulnerability is high, and ‘neighbourhood profiles’ of challenges and options for coping response
- Integrates local knowledge with external expertise
- Enables collaboration across geographic and institutional boundaries, with a bridging organization or consortium to mediate between CBOs, NGOs, and local government, and connect community-based adaptation strategies to support at higher and formal levels
- Moves toward a more encompassing and locally informed understanding of vulnerability
Polgár's findings show the quick-scan CRVA's scalability and relevance in African cities, especially where comprehensive assessments can't be financed. This method can offer a first phase for smaller budgets, using their report to justify targeted climate adaptation assessments and policies.
The work of Polgar's team in the Kalerwe and Bwaise neighbourhoods of Kampala illustrates how community mapping empowers informal communities, generates valuable local data, and informs policymaking, leading to more context-specific planning and a thorough understanding of climate vulnerability.
Below: Adaptive capacity or coping mechanisms as recorded as local observations.
About Ana Polgár
Polgár researches how nature-based solutions for climate-change adaptation affect, reinforce or respond to socio-spatial inequalities in cities in the Global South. Through a number of case studies in the Global South, Polgár aims to recognize and address the realities of urban socio-spatial inequalities. This approach aims to support the localized management of resilience needs, and will help cities to more appropriately respond to the specific vulnerabilities of local communities with NBS.
As a PhD student at SCARP, this is a big milestone in my academic journey, and I’m incredibly grateful for the support I've received from the SCARP community (especially James Connolly and Holly Caggiano for their constructive input during the writing process). I hope this methodology can be useful for cities across the world dealing with these challenges.