Integrating Climate Change into City Development Strategies (CDS)
1.1. Who should use this guide The guide is intended to be of particular benefit for the following groups: • Planners working in local governments cities in low- and middle-income countries that are developing a City Development Strategy, have some knowledge of climate change and want to integrate this aspect.
• City planners working in local governments who have developed a City Development Strategy and have integrated climate change but want to review or refine the process with specific regards to climate change aspects.
• City planners working in local governments who have no previous experience in developing a City Development Strategy but who are planning to do so in the future, have basic knowledge of climate change and are actively seeking ways to integrate this aspect. This guide may also be useful for professionals in the urban development field in cities where local governments lack specific personnel working on town planning.
1.2. How to use this guide This guide takes as a starting reference the three phases of the City Development Strategy process as highlighted in the Cities Alliance conceptual framework (Cities Alliance, 2011) and, for each phase, details the relevant steps to undertake in order to ensure that climate change concerns are streamlined in the process. At each stage it incorporates important messages and, where appropriate, suggests principles to guide city planners and also showcases existing decision-making tools from a variety of sources4. At the end of Phase A and B, summary graphs show the steps that need to be taken to move the process on. Throughout the report we present: Light green coloured boxes that illustrate evidence of good or bad practices found in seven case study cities researched for this project or coming from a review of relevant literature. Orange coloured boxes to present in more depth definitions or concepts presented in the main text. Yellow signposts to highlights process steps that are particularly important for communication with community members and larger stakeholders and their participation in the planning for climate change process.
1.3. Methodology This guideline was composed using desk-study research, extensive literature review of the linkages between the City Development Strategy thematic areas and climate change and of existing climate change planning tools and guidelines for cities. Specifically, the methodology builds upon the lessons learned from the empirical review of experiences from seven case study cities investigated by city-based researchers selected for this occasion. The choice of the seven cities was based on a pre-selection of 38 cities in 21 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America5. The selected cities are presented in Figure 1 and are: Kampala (Uganda), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Da Nang (Vietnam), Cape Town (South Africa), Sorsogon (as primary focus in the Philippines and complemented with a quick assessment of Olongapo), Santa Tecla (El Salvador) and Esmeraldas (Ecuador). A case study protocol to increase the understanding about climate change integration in strategic planning and City Development Strategy processes was prepared and administered in aforementioned cities. The variables for the case study protocol were developed around the thematic focus areas and process steps of the City Development Strategy.
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