Adapting to Climate Change through Retrofitting Unused Urban Spaces

According to the MENAFN article, South African cities are experiencing climate change through higher temperatures, more heat waves, and less rainfall. To adapt to climate change’s effects, cities should retrofit or repurpose unused spaces.

Cities worldwide occupy only a tiny portion of the earth’s total land area, yet they are home to almost half the global population. Cities are hubs of trade, transportation, commerce, education, skills, and services, consuming three-quarters of total global energy and emits 75% of CO2.

Cities are the highest contributors to climate change due to the concentration of population, consumption, and emissions.

In South Africa and perhaps in other cities, adaptation policies tend to focus on a macro level, such as large infrastructure, agrarian, and ecosystem-based plans. While these initiatives have their own merits, local and community-level adaptation is sometimes overlooked.

For instance, unused or underutilised space in cities, like parking lots, pavements, and roofs, makes up 67% of a neighbourhood or city area.  Building materials for these structures are primarily non-porous and materials that store vast amounts of heat.

These areas are exposed to much sun and rainfall and can be retrofitted to produce food, use for vegetation, harvest solar energy, and absorb rainwater. These can alleviate higher temperatures and prevent flooding, benefiting the community.

Younger cities built in the 20^th century were designed around efficiency, dividing or zoning land use according to purpose – for instance, residential or industrial use.

The article says that zoning results in many unused, underutilised, and simply left-over spaces—spaces that could be retrofitted or repurposed to adapt to climate change and build resilience for the city.

Read the entire article by clicking the link in the “Source” section below.