Climate change leads to an unequivocal rise in the intensity and frequency of natural disasters. This necessitates mainstreaming of climate adaptation strategies in the global movement on climate action. Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EBA) has become popular as an effective means of climate adaptation, which can be resilient and flexible compared to hard engineering-based measures. However, ecosystem-based approaches in disaster risk reduction still remain under-researched despite their growing popularity. This study delves into the utility of EBA in the context of the living lab, using a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) based Systematic Literature Review. A living lab (LL) is a participatory tool invented to foster innovation through real-life testing environments, such as individual cities. This study focuses on European coastal regions, as these are both highly populated and vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise, storms, flooding and erosion. This study identified multiple synergies between the EBA concepts, living lab and disaster-risk reduction and concludes that EBA schemes can be highly effective in the living lab set-up. It also demonstrates that increased stakeholder engagement and the consideration of socio-economic co-benefits as part of the EBA-LL model can lead to successful disaster risk reduction.
Tiwari, A; Rodrigues, LC; Lucy, FE; Gharbia, S
Building Climate Resilience in Coastal City Living Labs Using Ecosystem-Based Adaptation: A Systematic Review
Sustainability