Adaptation strategies for people: mitigating climate-change-related risks in low-income and informal urban communities through co-production

Abstract

Traditional top-down strategies to reduce climate-change-related risks have often failed to produce tangible results in vulnerable urban areas of the Global South. Approaches based on the co-production of adaptation solutions between diverse stakeholders offer promising alternative strategies. This contribution draws on our experiences in growing informal and low-income urban areas in two Latin American cities, Medell�n (Colombia) and Puebla (Mexico). These communities lack adequate access to clean water and are exposed to risks related to increasingly frequent high-intensity rainfall events, making water management a key consideration for risk reduction. However, the factors driving insufficient water access and the perceptions of risks vary in each location, demonstrating the need for context-specific solutions. We explore how increasing community agency and co-creating knowledge for risk management between diverse stakeholders at a range of geographical scales can contribute to redressing existing social and environmental injustices, by identifying, implementing, and scaling up technically appropriate and culturally sustainable solutions aimed at reducing climate-change-related risks.