Climate-Induced Displacement, Resettlement, Adaptation, and Resilience for Cities

About

A global initiative uniting scholars and practitioners to shape a research network on climate-induced displacement, resettlement, adaptation, and urban resilience.

Climate and weather-related displacement is a pressing global issue. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people live in areas highly vulnerable to climate change, with millions forced to relocate each year due to disasters like floods and wildfires, gradual land degradation, and resource-driven social unrest (Francis, 2019; Podesta, 2019; Balsari et al., 2020). While research confirms the strong link between climate vulnerability and involuntary migration, there is still much to uncover about the key drivers, adaptive limits, migration patterns, and their effects on host communities.

Cities face significant challenges in responding to both internally displaced residents and international migrants driven by climate disasters, land and livelihood loss, and conflict. Overloaded infrastructure, housing shortages, social tensions, and growing inequality further complicate urban resilience efforts.

This research partnership will unite international academics and practitioners to conduct initial case studies, pilot projects, and a comprehensive literature review. Through a series of workshops across 2024 and 2025, we will identify key research themes, partnerships, protocols, and activities aimed at addressing the global challenge of climate displacement. The network we will:

• Explore the latest knowledge on climate displacement impacts and solutions. Also, identify any research gaps.
• Create an archive of case studies, literature, and best practices focused on justice-driven, responsive, and adaptive urban practices;
• Conduct six in-depth case studies in Toronto, Boston, Chennai, Melbourne, Barcelona, and Karachi, exploring;
  • (a) climate displacement trends and predictions and,
  • (b) solutions and strategies for climate-induced displacement.

Together, this partnership will lay the foundation for the Global Research Network on Climate-Induced Displacement, Resettlement, Adaptation, and Resilience for Cities (CIDRARC) to advance actionable insights for urban resilience.