Piet Dircke of Rotterdam University presented on Flood risks in a changing climate, starting on a high note with an idyllic vision of adaptation in New York city that combines building resilience to projected impacts of climate change with increases in liveability. After screening the video based on sentiments and dreams in post-Hurricane Sandy New York, he presented current real and potential dream solutions and innovations to existing and projected vulnerabilities in urban spaces around the world.
“The 20th century was the century of nations. The 21st century will be the century of cities”.
At question time, Saleem Huq of ICCCAD likened countries’ adaptation efforts to “climbing a ladder, moving from one step to the next, “none of us knowing if we are anywhere near the top”.
Susanne Moser of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University then delivered her keynote presentation on Successful adaptation to climate change by Skype, essentially asking the question, “what does it means to succeed in adapting to climate change?”. She covered key reasons to talk about success in adaptation, key dimensions of this elusive goal, the slippery task of determining what success looks like, six key dimensions of adaptation success, the pros and cons inherent in using metrics to measure success in adaptation, and more.
Their presentations will be available online here shortly.
