Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

4-2021

Abstract

Many countries promote urban agglomeration to enhance economic competitiveness, but the impacts of this strategy on local climate adaptation remain poorly understood. Here, we use variation in greenspaces to test the efectiveness of climate adaptation policy across climate impacts and vulnerability dimensions. Using satellite imagery and logistic regression, we analyze spatiotemporal correlation between greenspace and climate vulnerability in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, an area comprising~ 70 million people and 11 cities, making it a useful natural experiment for our study. We fnd that while greenspace increases proportionally with climate exposure and sensitivity, many cities exhibit discrepancies between greenspace variation and climate vulnerability. Green adaptation funnels into wealthier, less vulnerable areas while bypassing more vulnerable ones, increasing their climate vulnerability and undermining the benefts of urban agglomeration. The results suggest that centrally-planned climate adaptation policy must accommodate local heterogeneity to improve urban sustainability. By neglecting local heterogeneity, urban agglomeration policy risks exacerbating spatial inequalities in climate adaptation.

Keywords

Climate change adaptation, Urban climate, Resilience

Discipline

Urban Studies and Planning

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

Scientific Reports

Volume

11

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

11

ISSN

2045-2322

Identifier

10.1038/s41598-021-87739-1

Publisher

Nature Research

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87739-1

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