Adaptation in the buildings and construction sector is still in its early stages and efforts need to be rapidly scaled up to cope with increasingly intense climate change impacts. This practical guide presents a range of adaptation interventions to respond to droughts, flooding, sea level rise, heatwaves and warming, cyclones and strong winds for different building types and different settings, which governments and policy makers can promote and scale up by integrating them into policies and regulations for the built environment. It also reflects on the possible landscape level green infrastructure measures that can deliver adaptation benefits at an urban scale.
In this guide, special attention has been given to most vulnerable countries and groups, where the built environment is largely self-constructed. Here, working with the inhabitants of informal settlements and their community organizations in improving housing quality and providing needed infrastructure and services is a powerful adaptation strategy for governments to support.
By integrating locally adapted climate adaptation measures in post-disaster reconstruction, owner-driven construction or slum upgrading, as well as building retrofits and new constructions, authorities, project developers, funders and community members can motivate and educate people, provide incentives and develop a conducive environment for the promotion and innovation of sustainable building design and construction standards that progress community resilience to climate change.