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Towards Climate Change Resilient Cities in Africa – Initiating Adaptation in Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa

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Urban Vulnerability and Climate Change in Africa

Part of the book series: Future City ((FUCI,volume 4))

Abstract

The chapter explores the possibilities and barriers for integrating climate change adaptation into urban development and planning in the case study cities of Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa. It identifies adaptation measures in collaboration with stakeholders that are meaningful and need urgent attention across various parts of the urban governance system and discusses possible pathways towards increased city resilience.

The study shows that only limited momentum exists among city stakeholders for a broad citywide adaptation strategy addressing the complexity of climate change impacts in both case study cities. This is – for the time being – due to inability to address all measures relevant for making the cities resilient as several more urgent issues, such as rapid urbanisation and poverty, take precedence among stakeholders. Therefore, a more incremental approach of addressing the most pressing matters that can mobilise a range of stakeholders and create synergistic effects with other critical urban problems needs to be prioritised. Such projects can furthermore create knowledge and relations between important actors and institutions.

In Addis Ababa, the project that stakeholders could support and that could address the immediate flooding and drought problems of the poor was ‘integrated water management’, a citywide approach based on the common interests and possible synergies across city sectors and levels for better water management. In Dar es Salaam, the governance system appears to be too fragmented to drive a similar institutionally-led adaptation effort. Here ‘integrated local projects’ in the most vulnerable areas addressing land management, upgrading and livelihood projects generate most resonance among stakeholders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    By resilience we refer to the literature on evolutionary resilience, i.e. ‘the ability of complex socio-ecological systems to change, adapt, and, crucially, transform in response to stresses and strains’ (Davoudi 2012: 302) in order to maintain important functions (Chap. 9).

  2. 2.

    By informal areas we mean areas that are outside the formal urban structure, i.e. there are no formal plans governing development, and no formal provisioning of infrastructure (housing, roads, sewerage etc.).

  3. 3.

    The total population of Temeke municipality in 2012 was 1,368,881 according to the Population and Housing Census 2012 (National Bureau of Statistics 2013).

  4. 4.

    The population of the Ward was approximately 37,000 according to the 2012 Population and Housing Census General Report (National Bureau of Statistics 2013).

  5. 5.

    Projects such as ‘Citywide Strategy for Upgrading Unplanned and Unserviced Settlements in Dar es Salaam’ and ‘Community Infrastructural Upgrading Programme (CIUP)’.

  6. 6.

    Akaki, Bulbula, Bantyketu, Kebena, Tinishu Akaki, Ras Mekonen rivers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958, Frederiksberg C, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Lise Herslund, Dorthe Hedensted Lund, Gertrud Jørgensen & Patience Mguni

  2. Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, 35176, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Wilbard J. Kombe

  3. Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Kumelachew Yeshitela

Authors
  1. Lise Herslund
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  2. Dorthe Hedensted Lund
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  3. Gertrud Jørgensen
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  4. Patience Mguni
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  5. Wilbard J. Kombe
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  6. Kumelachew Yeshitela
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Correspondence to Lise Herslund .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technical University Munich (TUM), Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Freising, Germany

    Stephan Pauleit

  2. Department of Geography, University of Gaston Berger, Saint Louis, Senegal

    Adrien Coly

  3. Technical University Munich (TUM), Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management, Freising, Germany

    Sandra Fohlmeister

  4. University of Naples Federico II AMRA S.c.a r.l, Naples, Italy

    Paolo Gasparini

  5. Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Gertrud Jørgensen

  6. Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Sigrun Kabisch

  7. Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Wilbard J. Kombe

  8. School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Sarah Lindley

  9. School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Kwazulu Natal, Durban, South Africa

    Ingo Simonis

  10. Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Kumelachew Yeshitela

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Herslund, L., Lund, D.H., Jørgensen, G., Mguni, P., Kombe, W.J., Yeshitela, K. (2015). Towards Climate Change Resilient Cities in Africa – Initiating Adaptation in Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa. In: Pauleit, S., et al. Urban Vulnerability and Climate Change in Africa. Future City, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03982-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03982-4_10

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