Overview of the project

Accelerated urbanisation over the last fifty years in which Brazilian cities have been subjected to climatic influences has had severe impacts on human and natural systems, and is currently being addressed under the heading of climate change. Mitigation and adaptation measures depend on a variety of policies at different scales, of which the local scale is the most appropriate because the impacts are felt at local level. However, the existing climate impact assessment and climate action plan development guides are allocated to large cities, leaving small cities (population between 20 and 100,000 inhabitants) without methods specific to their reality. In general, the departments of small towns have limited budgets and a small number of technical staff. At the same time, there is a problem linked to the lack of inclusion of the theme, which may be associated with the difficulty of communication between researchers and urban planners, as the information produced by the former cannot be included in the activities of urban planners. The lack of knowledge of the issue among city departments and the general public prevents awareness-raising, local debate and the development of specific public policies.
In this sense, the project proposes the creation of a method adapted to the Brazilian reality, in which small municipalities do not have available data and have technical and budgetary staff restrictions. The process can be replicated in municipalities in other countries, particularly in the global south, which have the same characteristics.