For urban and infrastructure system transitions, sustainable urban planning can support both adaptation and decarbonisation by mainstreaming climate concerns, including effective land use into urban policies, by promoting resilient and low-carbon infrastructure, and by protecting and integrating carbon-reducing biodiversity and ecosystem services into city planning . Urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services have high feasibility to support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in cities, for example to reduce flood exposure and attenuate the urban heat island . While green infrastructure options are cost-effective and provide co-benefits in terms of ecosystem services such as improved air quality or other health benefits , there remains a need for systematically assessing co-benefits, particularly for flood risk management and sustainable material flow analysis. Governments across scales can support urban sustainable water management by undertaking projects to recycle wastewater and runoff through green infrastructure; enabling greater coherence between urban water and riverine basin management; decentralising water systems; supporting networks for sharing best practices in water supply and storm runoff treatment to scale sustainable management; and foregrounding equity and justice concerns, especially through participation involving informal settlement residents .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report