Design workshops in the age of climate change

Abstract

Purpose As policy makers address the issue of climate adaptation, they are confronted with climate-specific barriers: a long-term horizon and a high degree of uncertainty. These barriers also hamper the development of spatial planning for climate adaptation. So how can spatial planners encompass these barriers and steer the general debate on climate adaptation? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This research analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of an international design workshop on climate adaptation, and drought issues in particular. Design workshops are originally an educational setting but they are increasingly employed as a tool to explore alternative futures on a complex, real-life design problem. The case study illustrates how climate-specific barriers emerged throughout the design workshop and clarifies how they were encompassed by the participating design students. Findings The research clarifies the added value of a design workshop on climate adaptation. The paper highlights specific promising characteristics of the design workshop: the visualization of future adaptation challenges and the current water system, the focus on a regional project instead of sectoral adjustments and the integration of the adaptation challenge with other socio-economic goals. In the case study Flanders, however, the necessary participation of climate experts and policy makers of other domains proved challenging. Originality/value The paper argues that a design workshop has the potential to enrich the debate and policy work on climate adaptation. In many countries with low-planning tradition, however, additional tools are needed to help set the “adaptation agenda.”

Transformation towards Risk-Sensitive Urban Development: A Systematic Review of the Issues and Challenges

“…A design process that involves potential users from an early stage will contribute to a thorough understanding of users, tasks, and environments, with a greater emphasis on a human-centered design approach [134]. Although the importance of considering urban disaster risks is known to avoid the catastrophic impacts of hazards, there is a lack of scientific analysis early in the design process with respect to risk assessment [124]. Moreover, the conventional design approach to resilience has been critiqued for not adequately considering the multiple stressors that shape urban societies [87].…”

A Design Workshop’s Contribution to Climate Adaptation in Coastal Settlements in Nigeria

“…The roles they play straddle tangible (technical/skill development, capacity building) and intangible (how information is generated and processed) aspects [10]. The potential contribution to policy formulation at the local level has also been recognized [11].…”

“…Within the report given by Jeroen de Waegemaeker's team in Antwerp (Belgium) are useful lessons from the international design workshop on drought in Flanders (Belgium), Shifting Climate, Reshaping Urban Landscapes (SCRUL), held in the summer of 2015 [11]. The 24 international workshop participants were drawn from the spatial/design disciplines.…”

Emissions in different stages of economic development in nations

“…This paper highlights the association between energy generation, energy consumption, emissions and socioeconomic development of high, medium and low-income countries as defined by the World Bank (2020). De Waegemaeker et al (2017) highlight the importance of the spatial impacts of climate change over short and long term. Authors further state that climate change impacts must be integrated with different geographical locations' social and economic development trajectory.…”