Implementing Urban Participatory Climate Change Adaptation Appraisals: A Methodological Guideline

This paper provides conceptual and methodological guidelines for researchers seeking toundertake an urban participatory climate change adaptation appraisal (PCCAA) that highlightsthe importance of hearing local people’s voices relating to slow, invidious, incremental and oftenunnoticed severe weather associated with climate change. The conceptual frameworkdistinguishes between the analysis of asset vulnerability, and the identification of asset-basedoperational strategies, and sets out a number of methodological principles and practices forundertaking a PCCAA – including selection of researchers, the fieldwork process and theselection of cities and communities. The paper then outlines the main research themes andassociated techniques for implementing a PCCAA, identifying the perceptions of communitygroups, small-businesses and households concerning the impacts of severe weather on theircapital assets – physical, social, human and financial- as well as their perceptions of the role thatlocal institutions play to assist them build long-term resilience, protect their assets during severeweather and rebuild them after such events. The paper draws on the results of a recent PCCAA,undertaken in Mombasa, Kenya, and Estelí, Nicaragua, to address five main themes: communitycharacteristics, severe weather related to climate change, vulnerability to severe weather, assetadaptation to severe weather and institutions supporting local adaptation. For each of these itidentifies potential tools for eliciting information, illustrated by examples from Mombasa, Kenyaand Estelí, Nicaragua. The paper concludes with guidance on the challenging issue of thequantification of PCCAA focus group results.