Thesis
Decision-making for climate adaptation in cities : exploring challenges in practice and assessing the value of decision support methods
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2022
- Thesis identifier
- T16344
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201594164
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Climate change causes wide-reaching economic, environmental, and societal impacts. Making decisions on how to adapt to climate change is vital for cities to remain viable and prosperous places to live. It is therefore imperative that local city governments must effectively identify and appraise adaptation options. The aim of this research was to understand influences on current city-level climate adaptation decision-making practices and how decision-making may be improved through decision support methods. This thesis adopted an action research approach to study the development of Glasgow City Council’s Glasgow Resilience Strategy and Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan between 2015 and 2020. Data was collected through a mixed methods approach including 80 hours of participant observation, 30 hours of facilitating workshops, 28 semi-structured interviews, three expert elicitation interviews and four questionnaires. This thesis found that adaptation decision-making was influenced by: (i) the internal and external contextual factors (limited commitment and resource); (ii) content (incomplete local data including lack of economic information); and (iii) the process of decision-making (lack of structured approach to identify and appraise adaptation options). Research suggested that these influences encouraged hypervigilance amongst decision-makers which was ill-addressed by commonly used rational decision-making frameworks for climate adaptation. In response to the findings highlighting the lack of decision-making process, two separate decision-making methods were developed and tested as part of action research. A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) and an adjusted Qualitative Probabilistic Network (QPN) were created to support adaptation decision-making, in relation to pluvial flooding and heatwaves respectively. Stakeholder feedback demonstrated that these methods aided understanding of the problem system, supported identification of potential adaptation actions and assisted stakeholders in considering the impact and co-benefits of possible options. Each method has strengths and weaknesses. A screening protocol was thus proposed to aid decision makers in considering when BBN or adjusted QPN methods may be most appropriate to use in practice.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Revie, Matthew
- Resource Type
- Note
- This thesis was previously held under moratorium from 12/10/2022 until 12/10/2024.
- DOI
- Embargo Note
Relations
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