Addressing infrastructure needs in the era of climate change

Climate Change and Its Unequal Impacts

The world’s changing climate may lead to long periods of drought in some places, exceptional rates of rainfall in others, and challenges almost everywhere to humans and the infrastructure they rely on.

News headlines often spotlight how the world’s changing climate impacts big cities and popular destinations. Often overlooked, however, are some of the most vulnerable and chronically disadvantaged places in the world, which also are impacted. These are places where Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB-USA) focuses its work. Its engineers and in-country partners have been working diligently to consider appropriate, measured, and sustainable climate adaptation strategies.

Using Climate Scenarios to Guide Project Design

EWB-USA has adopted SSP4: Inequality as its climate scenario design basis for international projects. This framework accounts for continued socioeconomic disparities and the necessity of robust infrastructure to withstand climate stresses. This approach ensures that EWB-USA projects remain resilient in a changing climate.

Mitigation vs. Adaptation: Why Adaptation Matters Most

EWB-USA makes use of two primary strategies to address climate change: mitigation and adaptation. While mitigation focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation seeks to enhance community resilience to climate-related disruptions. Since many international partner communities have minimal carbon footprints, adaptation remains the primary focus of our international work, says Gerard Dalziel, Chief Engineer with EWB-USA. That’s because people who live in economically disadvantaged places typically have fewer opportunities to mitigate harmful emissions by changing their behavior.

After all, many people living in remote villages lack access to electric power, so a strategy that relies on reducing consumption is not an effective option. Likewise, few people in these communities own and operate a car, truck, or scooter, eliminating a second mitigation strategy that may be more effectively pursued elsewhere.

As a result, climate “adaptation is a major focus for communities where EWB-USA is active,” Dalziel says. In some places an adaptive strategy might mean digging a deeper well because drought-impacted groundwater levels have fallen. In other places, a sanitary facility used by multiple families might need to be relocated and re-enforced due to more frequent rain-triggered landslides.

Three Key Questions That Guide Adaptation

Adaptation is site-specific, Dalziel says, but adds that three questions underlie EWB-USA’s project assessment process. The first question seeks to answer whether or not the climate is changing in the targeted community? Climate change may be a globally recognized phenomenon, but changes that are large enough to impact an infrastructure project in a specific village may not be readily measurable.

If the local climate is changing, then the second question seeks to find out by how much. For example, a 2-3% change in rainfall may not be enough to warrant adaptation.

The third question seeks to address how soon climate changes are expected to occur. Answering this question often means using predictive resources such as the World Bank Climate Knowledge Portal, which offers reliable data on climate trends. If a climate hazard was unlikely before, say, the second half of the century, then it might not be prudent today to commit scarce resources for an adaptation project..

Lessons from EWB-USA’s Climate Listening Tour

This trio of questions are grounded in a series of findings from a 2022 EWB-USA climate impact “listening tour” that included six countries and more than four dozen projects. Primary takeaways were that the climate is trending toward hotter and drier conditions, toward a less predictable start and end of annual rainy seasons, and toward larger, more impactful storms.

These findings are crucial because more than 9 of every 10 projects undertaken by EWB-USA are in agricultural regions where rainfall and temperature variations can mean the difference between a good growing season and a devastatingly poor harvest.

Dalziel said the listening tour revealed some of the economic and cultural stresses that face communities as their members seek to adapt to climate changes.

The Growing Strain on Agriculture and Livelihoods

Increasing numbers of community partners face unpredictable weather patterns that are impacting their agricultural income. Growing uncertainty around water availability can significantly impact crop yields, livelihoods, and food security for partner communities.

A Practical Catalog of Adaptation Measures

In order to assist teams while working in communities, EWB-USA developed an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, catalog of adaptation measures that can help small farmers in mitigating the effects of hotter and drier weather conditions. The catalog–which is organized around 18 topics that range from pest management to rainfall harvesting and crop rotation–may be used as a tool that helps promote sustainable agriculture practices and fosters resilience in the face of a changing climate.

After first understanding local challenges and context, the EWB-USA team and partners can use the catalog to identify potential adaptation measures that may be applicable. One or more adaptation measures may then be researched to prioritize suitable measures that align with the farmers' requirements.

Community-Led Decisions and Capacity Building

To be most effective, any decision should belong to the community with the EWB-USA team acting as adviser. With a decision in hand, the team can engage in capacity-building activities, exchanging knowledge, and working with farmers on the selected adaptation techniques. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the adopted measures help the team gauge their effectiveness and make necessary adjustments.

Building Sustainable Resilience for the Future

By adopting this multi-level approach that focuses on local conditions and capabilities, Dalziel says that EWB-USA seeks to make effective use of scarce resources and maximize the likelihood that client communities can adapt to climate change.