Assessment of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Cities

Abstract

At present, various cities are facing with a number of sustainability challenges in the perspective of climate change. There is a very serious need to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from cities if determined mitigation targets are to be met. In the meantime, cities are susceptible to the effects of climate change unless adaptation plans can be put in place. The need to connect climate change adaptation and mitigation with broader assessment of sustainability is becoming increasingly documented. The current paper explains an urban integrated assessment facility which pretends socio-economic change, climate impacts and greenhouse gas emissions over the course of the twenty first century at the city scale. The urban integrated assessment facility receives a broad-scale systems approach to develop urban areas and for sustainability assessment. It contains a multisectoral model of the regional economy, hierarchical city-scale spatial interaction model and modules for assessment of climate impacts, adaptation options and greenhouse gas emissions. The given paper shows how the urban integrated assessment facility amounts synergies and conflicts between adaptation to climate change and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in order to improve decision making and facilitate the development of portfolios of planning policies that together have a realistic prospect of achieving sustainable outcomes for cities.