Balancing conflicting mitigation and adaptation behaviours of urban residents under climate change and the urban heat island effect

Kayoko Kondo,Leslie Mabon,Yifan Bi,Yulin Chen,Yuriko Hayabuchi

doi:10.1016/j.scs.2020.102585

Kayoko Kondo, Leslie Mabon + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102585

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Abstract

Under a warming climate and urban heat island effects, cooling behaviours are increasingly important for city dwellers. Cooling actions, especially air conditioning, receive increasing scrutiny in social science, as does engagement and communication on behaviours spanning adaptation and mitigation. In response, this paper evaluates the relation between residents’ adaptation and mitigation behaviours around cooling in Fukuoka, Japan, and draws lessons for communication on encouraging adaptation and mitigation actions. A survey distributed to residents in six areas of Fukuoka, Japan, assessed perceptions of global warming and urban heat island effects, frequency of mitigation and adaptation behaviours, use of air conditioning, electricity bills and evaluation of green spaces. We observe a difference between respondents using air conditioning with an energy-saving (i.e. mitigation) focus, versus those using air conditioning with an adaptation (i.e. cooling) focus. We also note residents emphasising mitigation behaviours may use shade in parks or cooling centres as alternative cooling strategies, but that awareness of effective air conditioning use may be lacking. Our findings build on existing literature by reinforcing – in a subtropical context – the need to reconsider practices around air conditioner use; and illustrate the value of a breadth of messages to promote joint mitigation and adaptation actions.

Highlights

In cities, risks to urban dwellers from increased heating under climate change are exacerbated by the urban heat island effect, whereby processes of urbanisation compound existing warming trends
Whilst there is a large body of research on urban heat islands and their effects on people for temperate climates, scholarship on urban thermal envi ronments for lower latitudes is still emerging (Giridharan & Emmanuel, 2018) and has been called for in outputs affiliated with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Prieur-Richard et al, 2018)
Our findings revealed a contrasting tendency between people focusing on mitigation in their cooling practices and people focusing on adaptation in their cooling practices

Summary

Introduction

Risks to urban dwellers from increased heating under climate change are exacerbated by the urban heat island effect, whereby processes of urbanisation compound existing warming trends. We aim to contribute to social science theorisations of the links between cooling, practice, and socio-cultural contexts, and to thought on climate change communication at the mitigation-adaptation interface. These issues are evaluated through a survey conducted with residents in Fukuoka, which assessed their adaptation and mitigation practices and their environmental concerns more widely In terms of existing international literature, this work contributes to understandings of individuals’ cooling practices as being located within a wider social and cultural context

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