Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in the Urban Environment (ASSCUE)

Description:

The ASCCUE project (Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in the Urban Environment) aimed to further our understanding of the impacts of climate change on towns and cities through three ‘exposure units’ of human comfort, urban greenspace and the built environment. Importantly the project also looked beyond an assessment of impacts, using concepts of risk (risk being a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability) to provide enhanced information to underpin the development of conurbation and neighbourhood scale adaptation strategies. A risk assessment methodology was developed using a set of urban morphology units as its spatial framework. Other findings from the work have been written up in special edition of the Journal of Built Environment (Lindley et al 2007) and Municipal Engineer (Gwilliam et al 2006 and McEvoy et al 2006). The work was carried out in two contrasting case study locations, a representative conurbation (Greater Manchester) and an extreme case (Lewes, Sussex). It aimed:

• To make a city-wide assessment of climate related risks to, and constraints on, development in two contrasting urban areas;
• To investigate climate change impacts on building integrity, human comfort and urban greenspace at the neighbourhood level;
• To explore the scope for climate change adaptation through strategic planning and urban design;
• To produce a tool-kit for climate-conscious planning and design at various scales from neighbourhood to the whole city level
• To initiate demonstration projects (to be managed by the stakeholders involved) to make cities and urban neighbourhoods fit for climate change through planning, design and management

Project information

Lead

University of Manchester - Centre for Urban Regional Ecology (UK)

Partners

Town and Country Planning Association, BRE, ARUP, Environment Agency, RTPI, ODPM, ABI, SE and NW climate groups, Ciria, Institute of Public Health , Cabe Space, and English Partnerships

Source of funding

UK Climate Impacts Programme