In the coming decades, climate change is expected to drive more frequent extreme weather events—such as hurricanes, flooding, and droughts—in many parts of the world. Such disasters hit slum dwellers particularly hard because they lack physical accesses to essential services, such as water and sanitation, and to emergency response such as fire protection and health assistance. Scientists from the Santa Fe Institute and Arizona State University, together with Slum Dwellers International, have concluded that for many urban slums, the key to resilience may lie in an integrated development approach called “reblocking,” a process by which slum communities physically rearrange themselves to create new streets and public spaces that provide accesses to every residence and workplace, facilitating the universal introduction of modern services, and providing each household with a recognized address. It’s a big challenge, the scientists say, but one that can be met.
How to make slums more resilient to climate change
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