Abstract
Urban areas are amongst the most adversely affected regions by current and future climate change effects. One issue when it comes to measuring, for example, impacts, vulnerabilities, and resilience in preparation of adaptation action is the abundance of conceptual frameworks and associated definitions. Frequently, those definitions contradict each other and shift over time. Prominently, in the transition from the IPCC AR (International Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report) 4 to the IPCC AR 5, a number of conceptual understandings have changed. By integrating common concepts, the literature review presented intends to thoroughly investigate frameworks applied to assess climate change effects on urban areas, creating an evidence base for research and politically relevant adaptation. Thereby, questions concerning the temporal development of publication activity, the geographical scopes of studies and authors, and the dominant concepts as applied in the studies are addressed. A total of 50 publications is identified following screening titles, abstracts, and full texts successively based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Major findings derived from our literature corpus include a recently rising trend in the number of publications, a focus on Chinese cities, an imbalance in favor of authors from Europe and North America, a dominance of the concept of vulnerability, and a strong influence of the IPCC publications. However, confusion regarding various understandings remains. Future research should focus on mainstreaming and unifying conceptual frameworks and definitions as well as on conducting comparative studies.
Highlights
IntroductionClimate change is one of the most pertinent global issues to threaten urban areas
Accepted: 23 September 2021Climate change is one of the most pertinent global issues to threaten urban areas
For 2050, estimates show a global urbanization rate of 68.4% [2]. This increase in urban population will promote climate change, and cities with their concentration of inhabitants in addition contribute to a higher degree to the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through their concentration of economic activities compared to rural areas
Summary
Climate change is one of the most pertinent global issues to threaten urban areas. In. 2019, about 4.3 billion people, and more than 56% of the global population, were living in urban environments. Population growth rates of already urbanized high-income countries are low and at only 0.7% on average, but low-income countries are still growing considerably by 4% per annum [1]. For 2050, estimates show a global urbanization rate of 68.4% [2]. This increase in urban population will promote climate change, and cities with their concentration of inhabitants in addition contribute to a higher degree to the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through their concentration of economic activities compared to rural areas.
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