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Climate Change Adaptation in Megacities : A Critical Review on the Brazilian Political Context

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Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience

Abstract

Climate change adaptation and resilience building in megacities has been a rapidly growing concern worldwide, especially in the face of current and future environmental threats. Cities are important actors in the adaptation process as they respond to climate change with varied technological and social approaches apart from the fact that most social, political, and technological changes take place in cities, along with a series of urban and environmental issues (resources depletion and distress, high consumption rate, overpopulation and waste generation). In this regard, developing countries are especially vulnerable, as they usually hold high inequality rates - where the poorest bear the highest costs in terms of material and human losses - and lack resources to invest on adaptation measures to make their cities more resilient. This review discusses the main challenges posed by climate change adaptation in the Brazilian context, more specifically in the megacity of São Paulo, shedding light on the role of social and political segregation in delaying actions directed at climate change adaptation and resilience building.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Elsevier’s database Scopus returned 23,593 results on June 24, 2019, for the search criteria “resilience OR resilient AND environmental OR environment OR climate” in the title, abstract, or keywords of articles and reviews, from 1960 to the present.

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Correspondence to L. D. Barreto Torres .

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Barreto Torres, L.D., Asmus, G.F. (2023). Climate Change Adaptation in Megacities : A Critical Review on the Brazilian Political Context. In: Eslamian, S., Eslamian, F. (eds) Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22112-5_14

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