Coping with Climate Change Effects on Urban Infrastructure—Problem Structuring Based on Value-Focused Thinking Methodology

Abstract

This paper focuses on effects of global climate change on urban settlements and subsequently need to raise the level of resilience and diminish vulnerability of cities in terms of their natural and constructed environments so as to mitigate risk of urban disasters. Due to population concentration, cities are locations where the occurrence of disasters often causes the most damage, it is important to include climate change mitigation in planning and management of sustainable urban environments, especially since forecasts point to a growing urbanization of undeveloped world’s population. It will be presented a framework for creation of alternatives to climate change mitigation based on Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) methodology, which makes the decision-making process more consistent and effective since it generates alternatives to deal with the need to mitigate climate change in order to cope with environmental disasters, thereby contributing to urban planning policy. By developing a framework to assist in decision-making, and basing it on seeking to ensure that available resources are coherently implemented, this study contributes to improving sustainable urban development. In order to illustrate how to analyze this type of problem, a proposed framework was applied in the city of Recife, the capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.