Climate change is bringing significant changes to peoples’ lives and threatening existence of certain cultures. Summers become hotter, countries face more floods and with larger impacts, island countries risk disappearing due to sea level rise, etc. We hear more often about the need to spend more money on adaptation measures to get prepared to changing conditions and reduce death toll of extreme climate events. Where do countries stand in terms of preparedness? What are the true barriers to efficient adaptation measures? Do we have all necessary technologies and solutions to address climate risks? How much money do we need and do we spend enough on adaptation measures?
In this episode, I discuss these and other questions with Sourav Kumar Biswas, Landscape planner and spatial analyst with 13+ years’ experience in urban planning, climate adaptation, territorial economic strategy, blue economy, resilient infrastructure, and leveraging nature-based solutions at site and metropolitan scales. Sourav has worked in multiple countries: from Republic of Marshall Islands (Oceania), India, Nepal, Afghanistan, China, to North and South America. Sourav explains how nature-based solutions can help countries get prepared for climate change, compares their cost and efficiency with traditional, so called “grey”, solutions, discusses the importance of the focus on local solutions specific to context not only of a country but even municipality, identifies main institutional barriers to effectively manage adaptation measures, and much more.
Urban design | Spongecollaborative
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00:00 Introduction
03:06 Understanding Adaptation to Climate Change
13:00 Nature-Based Solutions for Resilience
21:42 Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in Chennai
31:30 Proactive Management of Ecosystems in the Face of Sea Level Rise
35:45 Challenges and Future Directions
37:09 Shifting Financing Towards Adaptation
39:01 Nature-Based Solutions vs. Gray Solutions
44:45 Capacity Building and Institutional Reform
50:00 The Role of Multilateral Institutions
56:37 Changes Needed in Academia
01:07:01 The Importance of Long-Term Thinking and Collaboration
01:13:32 Two most inspiring books