Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation Strategies in Ecologically Fragile Urban Mining Communities: A Review of Existing Research and Practice

Abstract

The growing concern about the changing climate and the need to document its observed impacts have resulted into advances in climate change adaptation practices globally. Despite being among the world’s most vulnerable regions, urban mining communities have diverse resources and contribute significantly to the quality of urban climate. The location of urban communities near mining activities has not only attracted urban development in most cities but has also provided these communities with a good opportunity for sustainable ways of living. However, most research on mines seem to have focused on impacts of mining on the environment with little focus on communities’ climate change adaptation responses. This review paper attempts to address this inadequacy in research by exploring factors that increase urban communities’ resilience and the adaptation strategies they use. The study used an evidence-review strategy involving the collection of information from peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports. A total of 213 documents, which included 122 articles, 60 reports, 31 books and gray literature, were identified with the help of Google Scholar and Web of Science search engines. First, the review paper observes that although the concepts of resilience and adaptive capacity are extensively explored, their meanings still remain unclear due to their multiple interpretations. Second, there seems to be very little consensus on factors that lead to increased resilience and the parameters that should be used to measure progress in becoming more resilient due to multiple interpretations of the resilience concept. Third, very few studies seem to have been conducted to assess progress in becoming more resilient in most urban mining communities. Fourth, there also seems to be a challenge in designing vulnerability and resilience assessment frameworks that are procedurally robust, context-specific and appropriate for decision-making related to adaptation action. This study recommends a need to conduct more comprehensive studies which clearly explore factors that increase resilience and adaptive capacity and those that suggest clear policy options for urban mining communities to supplement the rather limited body of literature in this area.