Urban agglomeration worsens spatial disparities in climate adaptation

• Main Authors: KIM, Seung Kyum, BENNETT, Mia M., VAN GEVELT, Terry, JOOSE, Paul
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Climate change adaptation; Urban climate; Resilience; Urban Studies and Planning
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/48; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1047/viewcontent/s41598_021_87739_1.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Many countries promote urban agglomeration to enhance economic competitiveness, but the impacts of this strategy on local climate adaptation remain poorly understood. Here, we use variation in greenspaces to test the efectiveness of climate adaptation policy across climate impacts and vulnerability dimensions. Using satellite imagery and logistic regression, we analyze spatiotemporal correlation between greenspace and climate vulnerability in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, an area comprising~ 70 million people and 11 cities, making it a useful natural experiment for our study. We fnd that while greenspace increases proportionally with climate exposure and sensitivity, many cities exhibit discrepancies between greenspace variation and climate vulnerability. Green adaptation funnels into wealthier, less vulnerable areas while bypassing more vulnerable ones, increasing their climate vulnerability and undermining the benefts of urban agglomeration. The results suggest that centrally-planned climate adaptation policy must accommodate local heterogeneity to improve urban sustainability. By neglecting local heterogeneity, urban agglomeration policy risks exacerbating spatial inequalities in climate adaptation.