Climate Resilient Urban Development

In addition to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), the Paris Agreement on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the New Urban Agenda (UN-Habitat), have all been recently endorsed to help shape more sustainable and resilient urban development pathways. A second theme cutting through the papers focuses on different approaches for assessing climate vulnerabilities and risks, or for identifying potential adaptation measures e.g. the value of microclimate modelling for climate sensitive urban design [6]; the utilization of climate risk assessments in a European context [7]; assessing livelihood vulnerabilities in the context of increasing flood risks [8], the use of computational fluid dynamics and GIS in the development of urban ventilation corridors [9], participatory impact assessments for heat waves [10], and operationalizing vulnerability assessments in Mexico [11]. [6] addressed new decision support tools and methods, specifically “A New Framework to Evaluate Urban Design Using Urban Microclimatic Modeling in Future Climatic Conditions”, which was designed to better link existing methodologies to more accurately determine energy heating and cooling demand under different future climate scenarios. Sustainable urban development is argued to be undermined by a lack of land use regulations and ineffective water governance, inadequate monitoring of development, an increase in impervious surfaces, and insufficient wastewater treatment.