Urban Adaptation Imaginaries
Everyday Adaptations
IMAGINE climate change adaptation in urban areas
IMAGINE Adaptation addresses the urgent need to evaluate climate change adaptation in urban areas and understand progress across governance levels. It argues that the current focus on policy progress can be a useful first step, but it is not indicative of effective adaptation.
The project aims to revisit the concept of adaptation success and go beyond technical framings to consider equity, justice, and maladaptive issues. In doing so the project will pioneer new ways to evaluate adaptation, and contribute to discussions on how local progress can inform global goals.
Only by understanding what good adaptation looks like, can we think of how to evaluate it.
Introducing the project PARTY
Urban climate adaptation efforts have been largely evaluated through top-down, expert-led processes, overlooking the experiences, priorities, and knowledge of the communities most affected by climate change. As a result, important questions about what successful adaptation looks like, for whom, and how to assess it have remained underexplored.
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Imagining Queer Climate Resilience in Toronto
As Toronto faces record-breaking summer temperatures reaching into the high-30s and repeated heat warnings, climate adaptation and resilience are becoming urgent community priorities. IMAGINE Adaptation has partnered with The 519, a City of Toronto agency deeply embedded in the community with a long history of representation, advocacy, and activism for 2SLGBTQ+ populations in Toronto (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and broader sexual and gender minorities).
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Public Webinar: Can we/should we/how do we IMAGINE adaptation to climate change in urban areas?
This public webinar marks the start of year four of the ERC-funded project IMAGINE Adaptation and offers an update on what we have learned and done so far. We will explore how different local actors imagine climate change adaptation in cities, what “successful adaptation” might actually look like, and how we can better track progress through Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, and Learning (MERL). Drawing on transdisciplinary work with 12 partner cities worldwide, we reflect on how cities are adapting in ways that are fair, effective, and meaningful.
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Imagining Queer Climate Resilience in Toronto
As Toronto faces record-breaking summer temperatures reaching into the high-30s and repeated heat warnings, climate adaptation and resilience are becoming urgent community priorities. IMAGINE Adaptation has partnered with The 519, a City of Toronto agency deeply embedded in the community with a long history of representation, advocacy, and activism for 2SLGBTQ+ populations in Toronto (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and broader sexual and gender minorities).
read more«La adaptación al cambio climático es un bien público, no una cuestión de dinero»
Marta Olazabal conversó con GARA sobre los desafíos de la adaptación al cambio climático, la necesidad de entenderla como un bien público y las políticas necesarias para hacer frente a sus impactos.
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Everyday Adaptations
Have you noticed how small choices in your daily life are starting to change because the weather no longer feels the way it used to? This short motion video presents the results of a study on everyday adaptation to climate change. It looks at the small, often informal actions people take to respond to changing weather patterns. It explores what everyday adaptation means and how effective these actions are in reducing climate risks, especially in cities.
read moreNine Lessons for Climate Adaptation Practice
We are pleased to share that our paper, "A Piece of Advice": Successfully Navigating Climate Change Adaptation Practice, has been accepted for publication in Environmental Research: Climate and is now published.
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Overcoming adaptation myopia
Our new paper is finally out in Climate Risk Management "Overcoming adaptation myopia: Old tensions and new directions in measuring adaptation success".
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Refugios climáticos: España ya es un referente mundial frente al calor extremo
El verano de 2025 fue el más cálido registrado en España y el segundo con mayor mortalidad atribuible al calor: se estimaron 15 711 muertes relacionadas con las altas temperaturas. Ante esa realidad, una biblioteca fresca, un centro cívico con fuentes de agua o una escuela abierta pueden marcar la diferencia. Eso constituyen, en esencia, los refugios climáticos: espacios donde resguardarse del calor extremo sin tener que consumir, pagar una entrada ni justificar la necesidad.
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Introducing the project PARTY
Urban climate adaptation efforts have been largely evaluated through top-down, expert-led processes, overlooking the experiences, priorities, and knowledge of the communities most affected by climate change. As a result, important questions about what successful adaptation looks like, for whom, and how to assess it have remained underexplored.
read moreTeam gives guest module at UIC-Barcelona
Last week, the IMAGINE Adaptation team had the pleasure of contributing to the International Master in Urban Resilience for Sustainability Transitions at the International University of Catalunya (UIC).
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Public Webinar: Can we/should we/how do we IMAGINE adaptation to climate change in urban areas?
This public webinar marks the start of year four of the ERC-funded project IMAGINE Adaptation and offers an update on what we have learned and done so far.
read more
Conventional measurement practices undermine urban adaptation
Has science been helpful in providing measurement tools, especially indicators and metrics, to assess urban climate adaptation? Not yet.
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Everyday Adaptations
Short motion video presents the results of a study on everyday adaptation to climate change.