Climate Adaptation Strategies

“Even if we stopped emitting all greenhouse gases today, global warming and climate change will continue to
affect future generations”. – NASA, 2020

Reports from the IPCC and statements from the scientific community affirm that global temperatures are rising, mainly due to human activities or anthropogenic impacts.

Climate change is a complex issue involving many areas, including politics, science, society, economics, and moral and ethical questions (Responding to Climate Change, 2020). It affects all of us and all living things on the planet.

The critical thing to remember is that even if all emissions stop today, global warming will continue to affect future generations because of the presence of gases in the atmosphere. So, humanity is already on the path to climate change. To what extent will depend on how much emissions continue and how our climate system responds to these emissions (Responding to Climate Change, 2020).

In our previous blog, we discussed climate adaptation. This post will discuss climate adaptation strategies and what they cover.

Why is it important to have adaptation strategies?

Having climate adaptation strategies is essential because they will prevent or minimise the damage that climate change causes. These strategies take advantage of opportunities that may arise from climate change. Well-planned adaptation actions will save money and lives.

Most of the time, these measures are not new but things that have been done in the past, only with more planning, use of innovation and technology, and creative thinking in anticipation of the adverse effects of climate change. Examples of practical adaptation measures includes: using scarce water more efficiently, adapting building codes to future climate conditions and extreme weather, building flooding defences, raising dykes, developing drought resilience crops, planting tree species and forestry practices that are resilient against fire and storms, and better for ecosystems, and setting aside land (refuge) for plants and species to migrate to ensure their survival (Adaptation to climate, n.d.)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also has an excellent resource on climate adaptation strategies on its website. It covers air, water, waste, public health, and ecosystem protection. The EPA’s information aims to inform communities about what they can do and help them identify potential alternatives and possible ways to address climate change. The site also acknowledges that not everything here would be suitable or appropriate for some communities and that adaptation measures should consider the local context.

Below are some highlights from the EPA website. To access all the information, refer to the citations at the bottom of the blog post.

Climate adaptation to maintain air quality

Climate change will impact the quality of air, both outdoor and indoor. Poor air quality can aggravate lung diseases and lead to early death. One solution for outdoor air is to manage air pollution and emissions to maintain air quality. For indoor air, proper building ventilation can control moisture and dilute pollutants. Climate change may disrupt the power supply, lengthen dry and hot days, or even cold and damp days.

A strategy to counter this problem is to maintain acceptable thermal conditions using passive building designs or modification strategies, such as reducing urban heat islands or heat island cooling strategies by incorporating vegetation or plants in urban buildings and pavements.

Climate adaptation to maintain water quality

Climate change can make it challenging for communities to provide drinkable water and wastewater services, protect water quality, and maintain healthy aquatic environments like oceans, rivers, lakes, streams, etc. Adaptation measures protect water utilities, water quality, and ecosystems against climate change.

Some adaptation strategies suggested for maintaining water utility against climate change are constructing new infrastructures, like flood barriers or those needed for aquifer storage and recovery. Another approach is to increase system efficiency, such as energy efficiency. Water utilities need electricity to function.

Energy efficiency will make water utilities more resilient to climate change and prevent power disruptions due to increasing demands and outages. Other water utility adaptation measures include modelling climate risk, modifying land use, modifying water demand, planning for climate change, and repairing and retrofitting facilities.

Adaptation measures to maintain water quality include using climate and land use data, applying green infrastructure strategies, considering stormwater management logistics, using natural infrastructures, building staff capacity, and providing public awareness and coordination.

Lastly, protecting ecosystems from climate change includes these adaptation strategies: maintaining or restoring wetlands, preserving coastal land and development, soft shoreline maintenance like applying breakwater, sand fill, and planting vegetation, rugged shoreline maintenance includes fortifying dykes, hardening of shorelines with breakwater, etc., and habitat preservation.

Adaptation strategies are also developed according to climate risks such as drought and saltwater intrusion, sea-level rise, flooding, stormwater management, erosion, and sedimentation.

Climate Adaptation in managing wastes

Climate change will make managing waste, both hazardous and non-hazardous, challenging. Possible ways to address climate change when managing waste are to create a waste facility protection adaptation strategy and develop a waste management plan.

Under waste facility protection strategies, it includes strategies like:

• Site containment (e.g. building armour along coastlines),
• Groundwater remediation (e.g. alarm networks that can trigger system shutdown or allow for manual shutdown when specified parameters are exceeded),
• Contaminated site remedy (armour enhancement, for example, additional or deeper layers of stone or gravel above the base layer to withstand the forces of ice jams), and
• Use Engineered structures (e.g. jetty, level, riprap, retaining walls).

These strategies are designed to prevent waste spills, contamination, and water intrusions, either from flooding or ocean water intrusion, that can impact waste facilities as well.

Climate Adaptation in Public Health

Due to climate change, more heat waves and more prolonged droughts are anticipated. Heat waves are a health threat and can even be fatal. In some areas, flooding can drown people, hurt them, and cause waterborne diseases.

The EPA uses a 5-step process that enables health practitioners to develop their health adaptation strategies (Public Health Adaptation, 2019 ). This includes:

• First, anticipate climate impacts and assess vulnerabilities. Consider what health problems will arise from climate change and identify vulnerable people in the community. 
• Second, estimating the additional health burden it will add to the public health sector.
• Third, the most suitable health interventions must be identified for the identified health impact. For instance, waterborne diseases will likely increase in flood-prone areas.
• Fourth, develop a climate-related health adaptation plan. This needs to be updated regularly, and implementation must also be monitored.
• Fifth, evaluation and improvement. Evaluate the strategies, update and improve information if needed.

Climate change has a global impact. It affects every sector of society, including infrastructure, economy, health, ecosystems, and policies.

The climate adaptation strategies we mentioned provide valuable information and a guide for communities to develop their climate adaptation strategies that are relevant and in context with the local perspective.