Case study

Durban adapts to climate change

Durban established an Environmental Management Department in 1994. Initially, the department examined how the municipality's strong developmental approach could incorporate environmental concerns.

Durban was one of the few cities in Africa to have a local Agenda 21 plan, in line with what governments agreed at the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992.

Various departments within the municipal government also became aware of the need to consider climate change in their plans – for instance for water supply and for health care. But municipal officials are unlikely to act if they have little idea of what climate change means for their city.

To address this, the Environmental Management Department initiated the development of a Climate Protection Programme in 2004. The roll-out of this programme has occurred in three phases:

Phase 1: Review and develop an understanding of the global and regional climate change science and translate this into an understanding of the implications of climate change for Durban. Key impacts include increases in temperatures, changes in the distribution of rainfall (long periods of no rainfall punctuated by short periods of intense rainfall), decreased water availability, increased range of water- and vector-borne diseases, sea level rise, and the loss of biodiversity.

Phase 2: Develop a 'Headline Climate Change Adaptation Strategy' for the city to highlight how key sectors within the municipality should begin responding to unavoidable climate change. Some interventions look to enhance and expand existing initiatives, such as the modelling of vector-borne diseases and their relationship to climate change. Others stimulate new activity, such as the 'climate-proofing' of the city's open space system through matrix management – the management of the urban landscapes surrounding natural areas in a way that assists the survival and dispersal of indigenous species – and the creation of north-south dispersal corridors.

Phase 3: Incorporate climate change into long-term city planning, which includes developing a model to simulate, evaluate and compare strategic urban development plans within the context of climate change. This seeks to understand the effects of climate change in Durban and allow a model-based assessment of the effectiveness of alternative approaches to mitigation and adaptation.

It will involve the use of greenhouse gas emissions accounting (producing an inventory of all the greenhouse gases produced by activities within the municipal area) together with an assessment of the city's vulnerability in key sectors, such as health, water and sanitation, coastal infrastructure, disaster management and biodiversity.

All cities need to consider how climate change will affect them. This example from Durban shows how the departments that most need to act on adaptation (such as water, energy, health, infrastructure, tourism and urban planning) must understand what climate change means for their work and future investments.

In addition, a review of changes in weather and extreme weather events over the past few decades can help identify who is most vulnerable to some aspects of climate change. The damage to infrastructure from high tides and waves in March 2007, for example, helped alert many government officials in Durban to the kinds of impacts that climate change will bring.

Debra Roberts
Deputy Head of Environmental Management, City of Durban, P O Box 680, Durban 4000, South Africa
robertsd@durban.gov.za

See also

www.durban.gov.za/durban/services/departments/environment/climate-change

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