A Handbook on Climate Change: De-constructing Climate Change & Heat Stress for the Urban poor

Years of socio-economic vulnerability has led the urban poor to employ a variety of coping and adaptation mechanisms at the time of climatic disasters. However, with increasing intensity and frequency of these events, the formerly successful coping and adaptation strategies of the urban poor are being challenged. How can we help them in adapting to climate change impacts better? As a first step in supporting them, the urban poor need to be empowered with information about climate change and the expected local effects of the same. This is first and key objective of this Handbook - helping the urban poor understand climate change in simple and relatable ways.

Climate change is leading to changes in landscapes as well as physiology. While the first is visible and relatable, the latter is rarely framed within and pinned to climate change. The second objective of this Handbook is to highlight the intrinsic relationship between landscapes and people while seeking to assist the most vulnerable to articulate the everyday changes in their lives and living within the context of changing climate.

There are critical gaps in information about the nuances of climate change impacts on the urban poor and their settlements. The more we document and understand this information, the better we are positioned to design plan and policy responses that support the vulnerable groups and their habitats. The third objective of the Handbook is to contribute to this critical need by providing a framework for collecting this valuable information from marginalised communities.