38
of the Eishin Campus project in Japan, where Alexander and his colleagues argued that local adaptation is crucial to the liveability of a place, as described in the following words:
An environment or community will not come to life unless each place, each building, each room becomes
unique, as a result of careful and piecemeal process of adaptation… We had to develop these tools so that adaptation could be a constant focus in each place, at many different scales, all over the Eishin Campus - (Alexander,
Neis, & Moore Alexander, 2012, p. 19).
3.7 Adaptation and Sustainable Development
A strong conceptual understanding of sustainable development and its relationship to climate change
has developed considerably over the past two decades, because the short and long-term implications
of climate change and extreme events have become better understood. This is despite empirical evidence of progress with sustainable development being often elusive (IPCC, 2014b). An improved
understanding of the short and long-term implications of climate change and extreme events has
influenced conceptualisations of sustainable development and related objectives including poverty
reduction, health, livelihood and food security, and other aspects of human welfare related to the idea
of ‘climate- resilient development’ (IPCC, 2014b; Walther, 2010; Levine et al., 2007). One way that
sustainable development can contribute to climate resilience is by pursuing consumption patterns that
support social and economic development while reducing the use of natural resources and maintaining the available ecosystem services.
However, the links between climate change adaptation and sustainable development are crosscutting and complex. The impacts of climate change and ill-designed responses to certain impacts
may also derail current sustainable development policy actions and potentially offset already achieved
gains. Impacts arising from ‘maladaptation’
3
, as well as continuing climate change impacts, are
expected to affect numerous sectors of resource production and social structures, including agriculture, forestry and energy; they may threaten coastal zones and other vulnerable areas, and may pose
critical challenges to governance and political systems (IPCC, 2012; Adger et al., 2011; World Bank,
2010). Adaptation to climate change and risks takes place in a dynamic social, economic, technological, biophysical, and political context. This adaptation process varies according to time, location, and
sector, and this complex mix of conditions determines the capacity of systems to adapt. Ability to
adapt (that is, adaptive capacity), in turn, depends on the state of development (Berke, 1995;
Munasinghe, 2000). Under-development fundamentally constrains adaptive capacity, as illustrated by
Ribot (1996), especially due to the lack of resources to cope with survival against extreme and
expected events. Sustainable development of communities that have adaptive capacity for climate
effects can result in resilient communities (Ribot, 1996). Resilience, however, requires more than just
having adaptive capacity. Notably, most societies consider resilience as part of sustainable development in a social and economic context, whereas, in fact, resilience of society needs also to consider
the adaptability and capacity of the ecological systems that it depends upon. When the ecological
systems adaptability and capacity are integral to sustainable development planning – in other words,
when nature is included in this paradigm – sustainable development becomes part of the Integral
Sustainable Worldview [2].
3 Maladaptation is defined in the IPCC Climate Change 2001: Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Enhancing Adaptive Capacity report as ‘an adaptation that does not succeed in reducing vulnerability but increases it
instead’ (IPCC, 2001, p. 990). Barnett & O’Neill define maladaptation as: ‘action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce
vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or
social groups’ (Barnett & O’Neil, 2010).
3 The Challenge of a Changing Environment
of the Eishin Campus project in Japan, where Alexander and his colleagues argued that local adaptation is crucial to the liveability of a place, as described in the following words:
An environment or community will not come to life unless each place, each building, each room becomes
unique, as a result of careful and piecemeal process of adaptation… We had to develop these tools so that adaptation could be a constant focus in each place, at many different scales, all over the Eishin Campus - (Alexander,
Neis, & Moore Alexander, 2012, p. 19).
3.7 Adaptation and Sustainable Development
A strong conceptual understanding of sustainable development and its relationship to climate change
has developed considerably over the past two decades, because the short and long-term implications
of climate change and extreme events have become better understood. This is despite empirical evidence of progress with sustainable development being often elusive (IPCC, 2014b). An improved
understanding of the short and long-term implications of climate change and extreme events has
influenced conceptualisations of sustainable development and related objectives including poverty
reduction, health, livelihood and food security, and other aspects of human welfare related to the idea
of ‘climate- resilient development’ (IPCC, 2014b; Walther, 2010; Levine et al., 2007). One way that
sustainable development can contribute to climate resilience is by pursuing consumption patterns that
support social and economic development while reducing the use of natural resources and maintaining the available ecosystem services.
However, the links between climate change adaptation and sustainable development are crosscutting and complex. The impacts of climate change and ill-designed responses to certain impacts
may also derail current sustainable development policy actions and potentially offset already achieved
gains. Impacts arising from ‘maladaptation’
3
, as well as continuing climate change impacts, are
expected to affect numerous sectors of resource production and social structures, including agriculture, forestry and energy; they may threaten coastal zones and other vulnerable areas, and may pose
critical challenges to governance and political systems (IPCC, 2012; Adger et al., 2011; World Bank,
2010). Adaptation to climate change and risks takes place in a dynamic social, economic, technological, biophysical, and political context. This adaptation process varies according to time, location, and
sector, and this complex mix of conditions determines the capacity of systems to adapt. Ability to
adapt (that is, adaptive capacity), in turn, depends on the state of development (Berke, 1995;
Munasinghe, 2000). Under-development fundamentally constrains adaptive capacity, as illustrated by
Ribot (1996), especially due to the lack of resources to cope with survival against extreme and
expected events. Sustainable development of communities that have adaptive capacity for climate
effects can result in resilient communities (Ribot, 1996). Resilience, however, requires more than just
having adaptive capacity. Notably, most societies consider resilience as part of sustainable development in a social and economic context, whereas, in fact, resilience of society needs also to consider
the adaptability and capacity of the ecological systems that it depends upon. When the ecological
systems adaptability and capacity are integral to sustainable development planning – in other words,
when nature is included in this paradigm – sustainable development becomes part of the Integral
Sustainable Worldview [2].
3 Maladaptation is defined in the IPCC Climate Change 2001: Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Enhancing Adaptive Capacity report as ‘an adaptation that does not succeed in reducing vulnerability but increases it
instead’ (IPCC, 2001, p. 990). Barnett & O’Neill define maladaptation as: ‘action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce
vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increases the vulnerability of other systems, sectors or
social groups’ (Barnett & O’Neil, 2010).
3 The Challenge of a Changing Environment