This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Unclaimed
Gina Ziervogel
African Climate & Development Initiative, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7700, South Africa

Basic Info

Basic Info is private.

Fingerprints

Adaptation
Africa
Climate Change
South Africa
climate adaptation
A
Climate Change Adaptation
Vulnerability
climate variability

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 02 August 2021 in Sustainability
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In light of the increasing call for climate action, there is a growing body of literature studying the ways in which informal settlements in the Global South are adapting to the impacts of climate change. In these particularly vulnerable communities where the existing infrastructural vulnerabilities faced by residents are exacerbated by the hazards of climate change, multi-level approaches involving more inclusive forms of governance are needed for the implementation of climate action. Drawing from the case of a sanitation upgrading project in the informal settlement of Murray, located in Philippi, Cape Town, this paper adds to current understandings of multi-level rapid climate action in informal settlements by endeavouring to address two gaps in this body of literature. Firstly, this paper demonstrates a link between climate change and sanitation which has received little attention by showing that improving sanitation infrastructure makes communities more resilient to extreme weather events associated with climate change. Secondly, the paper addresses how and by whom rapid climate action can be implemented in complex socio-institutional contexts such as informal settlements where the impacts of climate change are felt particularly strongly. This paper identifies what enabled and constrained climate action in the Murray informal settlement in an attempt to provide lessons for local government from the case of the sanitation upgrading project. Bottom-up initiation of multi-level climate action is dependent on fragile partnerships which require the support and involvement of a skilled and dedicated local government. Nevertheless, co-operative and transparent engagements across levels hold the potential to contribute to transformative adaptation through the establishment of new partnerships and forms of governance which recognise community groups as legitimate stakeholders and acknowledge the importance of lived experiences and mentalities.

ACS Style

Alma Peirson; Gina Ziervogel. Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8598 .

AMA Style

Alma Peirson, Gina Ziervogel. Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (15):8598.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alma Peirson; Gina Ziervogel. 2021. "Sanitation Upgrading as Climate Action: Lessons for Local Government from a Community Informal Settlement Project in Cape Town." Sustainability 13, no. 15: 8598.

Research article
Published: 24 May 2021 in Local Environment
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Urban citizens increasingly need to adapt to climate risk. This is especially the case in informal settlements that have limited state engagement and are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Community-based adaptation (CBA) in the informal settlement has the potential to support the transformation that re-shapes power relations as well as reducing climate risk. This paper explores how multiscalar governance in Cape Town can either empower or undermine CBA to flooding in informal settlements. Drawing on urban political ecology, the analysis reveals significant tension around differing ideas of the temporality of informal settlements, as well as token community inclusivity in participatory planning processes. While everyday governance practices have been used by the City of Cape Town at the local scale, a local community-based organisation has used insurgent planning to envision and enact a more just city. A community designed and spear-headed reblocking process (rearranging shacks in a settlement to allow for flood drainage and service delivery) is a powerful example of CBA and represents the potential of community-based organisations to take steps towards transformative action. In order to enable more widespread urban transformative CBA, it is important to address the drivers of vulnerabilities and underlying power dynamics of political decision-making to destabilise the status quo and move towards real adaptation.

ACS Style

Ashley Fox; Gina Ziervogel; Suraya Scheba. Strengthening community-based adaptation for urban transformation: managing flood risk in informal settlements in Cape Town. Local Environment 2021, 1 -15.

AMA Style

Ashley Fox, Gina Ziervogel, Suraya Scheba. Strengthening community-based adaptation for urban transformation: managing flood risk in informal settlements in Cape Town. Local Environment. 2021; ():1-15.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ashley Fox; Gina Ziervogel; Suraya Scheba. 2021. "Strengthening community-based adaptation for urban transformation: managing flood risk in informal settlements in Cape Town." Local Environment , no. : 1-15.

Journal article
Published: 01 April 2021 in Land Use Policy
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Over the last 50 years, studies have shown a decline in the use of mountain lands, a phenomenon termed land abandonment. We investigate the causal mechanisms of land use change in a mountain catchment important for regional water supplies in the southwestern Cape of South Africa. Uniquely, we include nature-based recreational land use types typically excluded from land abandonment studies. We repeated a structured questionnaire originally conducted with landowners 38 years previously and analysed orthoimages from 1948, 1972 and 2014. To identify and contextualise causal mechanisms of change we used thematic analysis and generated narratives from in-depth interviews with landowners. The land use system in 1948 and 1972 was dominated by livestock-based, subsistence agriculture and small-scale farming. This transitioned to agricultural intensification on the lowlands and small portions of the mountains and the utilisation of mountains for non-economic nature-based recreation and ecotourism. The use of frequent small, low intensity-controlled fires was prevalent in the past. More recently, fires have been actively suppressed resulting in the build-up of biomass and the development of infrequent, extensive, high-intensity wildfires. Land use change in the mountains was driven primarily by socio-economic drivers, including socio-economic benefits related to globalisation and economic growth, and not by concerns over land degradation or resource depletion. Our findings support evidence that shows that people’s responses to economic opportunities drive local determinants of land use change and highlights the importance of perceptions in driving land use transitions. We show that existing models of land abandonment are likely overly deterministic in that they do not consider social and cultural factors that may cause a landowner to continue using their land for semi-economic or non-economic reasons. While there is merit in large-scale remote sensing studies, we emphasise the importance of using mixed remote sensing and social science methods for informing models of land use change.

ACS Style

Petra B. Holden; Gina Ziervogel; M. Timm Hoffman; Mark G. New. Transition from subsistence grazing to nature-based recreation: A nuanced view of land abandonment in a mountain social-ecological system, southwestern Cape, South Africa. Land Use Policy 2021, 105, 105429 .

AMA Style

Petra B. Holden, Gina Ziervogel, M. Timm Hoffman, Mark G. New. Transition from subsistence grazing to nature-based recreation: A nuanced view of land abandonment in a mountain social-ecological system, southwestern Cape, South Africa. Land Use Policy. 2021; 105 ():105429.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Petra B. Holden; Gina Ziervogel; M. Timm Hoffman; Mark G. New. 2021. "Transition from subsistence grazing to nature-based recreation: A nuanced view of land abandonment in a mountain social-ecological system, southwestern Cape, South Africa." Land Use Policy 105, no. : 105429.

Journal article
Published: 22 January 2021 in Climate Policy
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Calls for transformative adaptation to climate change require attention to the type of capacity building that can support it. Community-level capacity building can help to ensure ownership and legitimacy of longer-term interventions. Given that marginalized communities are highly vulnerable to climate risk, it is important to build their capacity to adapt locally and to integrate their perspectives into higher-level adaptation measures. Current adaptation policy does not pay sufficient attention to this. Using a Cape Town-based project on water governance in low-income urban settlements, this paper explores how a transdisciplinary research project supported capacity building. Our findings suggest that knowledge co-creation at the community level is central to the capacity building that is needed in order to inform transformative adaptation. The collaborative methodology used is also important; we illustrate how a transdisciplinary approach can contribute to transformative adaptation where knowledge is co-produced to empower community-level actors and organizations to assert their perspectives with greater confidence and legitimacy. We argue that if capacity building processes shift from the top-down transferal of existing knowledge to the co-creation of contextual understandings, they have the potential to deliver more transformative adaptation. By considering diverse sources of knowledge and knowledge systems, capacity building can start to confront inequalities and shift dominant power dynamics. Adaptation policy could provide more guidance and support for community-level transdisciplinary processes that can enable this type of transformative adaptation. Key policy insights

ACS Style

Gina Ziervogel; Johan Enqvist; Luke Metelerkamp; John van Breda. Supporting transformative climate adaptation: community-level capacity building and knowledge co-creation in South Africa. Climate Policy 2021, 1 -16.

AMA Style

Gina Ziervogel, Johan Enqvist, Luke Metelerkamp, John van Breda. Supporting transformative climate adaptation: community-level capacity building and knowledge co-creation in South Africa. Climate Policy. 2021; ():1-16.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gina Ziervogel; Johan Enqvist; Luke Metelerkamp; John van Breda. 2021. "Supporting transformative climate adaptation: community-level capacity building and knowledge co-creation in South Africa." Climate Policy , no. : 1-16.

Research article
Published: 01 December 2020 in International Journal of Water Resources Development
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Cape Town’s water injustices are entrenched by the mismatch between government interventions and the lived realities in many informal settlements and other low-income areas. This transdisciplinary study draws on over 300 stories from such communities, showing overwhelming frustration with the municipality’s inability to address leaking pipes, faulty bills and poor sanitation. Cape Town’s interventions typically rely on technical solutions that tend to ignore or even exacerbate the complex social problems on the ground. Water justice requires attention be paid to the range of everyday realities that exist in the spectrum from formal to informal settlements.

ACS Style

Johan Enqvist; Gina Ziervogel; Luke Metelerkamp; John van Breda; Ntombikayise Dondi; Thabo Lusithi; Apiwe Mdunyelwa; Zinzi Mgwigwi; Mpumelelo Mhlalisi; Siya Myeza; Gciniwe Nomela; Ann October; Welekazi Rangana; Maggie Yalabi. Informality and water justice: community perspectives on water issues in Cape Town’s low-income neighbourhoods. International Journal of Water Resources Development 2020, 1 -22.

AMA Style

Johan Enqvist, Gina Ziervogel, Luke Metelerkamp, John van Breda, Ntombikayise Dondi, Thabo Lusithi, Apiwe Mdunyelwa, Zinzi Mgwigwi, Mpumelelo Mhlalisi, Siya Myeza, Gciniwe Nomela, Ann October, Welekazi Rangana, Maggie Yalabi. Informality and water justice: community perspectives on water issues in Cape Town’s low-income neighbourhoods. International Journal of Water Resources Development. 2020; ():1-22.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Johan Enqvist; Gina Ziervogel; Luke Metelerkamp; John van Breda; Ntombikayise Dondi; Thabo Lusithi; Apiwe Mdunyelwa; Zinzi Mgwigwi; Mpumelelo Mhlalisi; Siya Myeza; Gciniwe Nomela; Ann October; Welekazi Rangana; Maggie Yalabi. 2020. "Informality and water justice: community perspectives on water issues in Cape Town’s low-income neighbourhoods." International Journal of Water Resources Development , no. : 1-22.

Research article
Published: 19 November 2020 in Urban Geography
Reads 0
Downloads 0

For climate urbanism to be relevant in informal settlements, it’s proponents needs to embrace the messy reality that there are no easily implemented, off-the-shelf adaptation solutions. Existing neoliberal climate adaptation responses, which often entrench inequality, are unlikely to succeed in informal settlements. The current groundswell of demands for social justice provide the needed impetus for exploring and experimenting with what adaptation might look like in informal settlements. This contribution suggests two areas for careful consideration when applying climate urbanism concepts to informal settlement contexts, namely (1) the temporal tension between adapting to climate change risk and simultaneously having to deal with other, perhaps more immediate, risks, and (2) the use of the concept of “transformative adaptation” to guide practice-based collaborative interventions.

ACS Style

Gina Ziervogel. Climate urbanism through the lens of informal settlements. Urban Geography 2020, 1 -5.

AMA Style

Gina Ziervogel. Climate urbanism through the lens of informal settlements. Urban Geography. 2020; ():1-5.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gina Ziervogel. 2020. "Climate urbanism through the lens of informal settlements." Urban Geography , no. : 1-5.

Original article
Published: 20 August 2020 in Regional Environmental Change
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Although several semi-arid African countries are decentralizing water services and attempting to increase the participation of local actors in water resource management, how effectively this is working, and whether it is improving water access, is not yet well researched. Little attention has been paid to the capacities (in terms of knowledge and resources) that local actors need to successfully influence the operation and management of water services they are made responsible for. In a qualitative study, we asked regional and local actors in the Omusati Region of north-central Namibia for their perspectives on how water reforms, initiated in the late 1990s, have impacted on their participation in water governance. Our analysis reveals that decentralized governance of water resources can be ineffective if governments do not allocate sufficient resources to support and enable local actors to participate efficiently and effectively in the governance system. In the context of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals, achieving greater equity and efficiency in the water sector while reducing climate risk will require that local actors receive more support in return for fuller and more effective participation. We suggest that policy and practice around decentralized water governance pay more attention to building the capacities of local actors to absorb the responsibilities transferred to them.

ACS Style

Salma Hegga; Irene Kunamwene; Gina Ziervogel. Local participation in decentralized water governance: insights from north-central Namibia. Regional Environmental Change 2020, 20, 1 -12.

AMA Style

Salma Hegga, Irene Kunamwene, Gina Ziervogel. Local participation in decentralized water governance: insights from north-central Namibia. Regional Environmental Change. 2020; 20 (3):1-12.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Salma Hegga; Irene Kunamwene; Gina Ziervogel. 2020. "Local participation in decentralized water governance: insights from north-central Namibia." Regional Environmental Change 20, no. 3: 1-12.

Research article
Published: 10 June 2020 in AMBIO
Reads 0
Downloads 0

There is a long history of fire management in African savannas, but knowledge of historical and current use of fire is scarce in savanna-woodland biomes. This study explores past and present fire management practices and perceptions of the Khwe (former hunter-gatherers) and Mbukushu (agropastoralists) communities as well as government and non-government stakeholders in Bwabwata National Park in north-east Namibia. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used in combination with satellite data (from 2000 to 2015), to investigate historical and current fire management dynamics. Results show that political dynamics in the region disrupted traditional fire practices, specifically a policy of fire suppression was initiated by colonial governments in 1888 and maintained during independence until 2005. Both the Khwe and Mbukushu communities use early season (i.e. between April and July) fires for diverse interrelated historical and current livelihood activities, and park management for managing late season fires. The Mbukushu community also use late season burns to prepare land for crops. In this study, we use a pyrogeographic framework to understand the human dimension of fires. This study reveals how today's fire management practices and policies, specifically the resurgence of early season burning are entrenched in the past. Understanding and acknowledging the social and cultural dynamics of fire, alongside participatory stakeholder engagement is critical for managing fires in the future.

ACS Style

Glynis Joy Humphrey; Lindsey Gillson; Gina Ziervogel. How changing fire management policies affect fire seasonality and livelihoods. AMBIO 2020, 50, 475 -491.

AMA Style

Glynis Joy Humphrey, Lindsey Gillson, Gina Ziervogel. How changing fire management policies affect fire seasonality and livelihoods. AMBIO. 2020; 50 (2):475-491.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Glynis Joy Humphrey; Lindsey Gillson; Gina Ziervogel. 2020. "How changing fire management policies affect fire seasonality and livelihoods." AMBIO 50, no. 2: 475-491.

Original article
Published: 03 December 2019 in Regional Environmental Change
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Vertical integration, which creates strategic linkages between national and sub-national levels, is being promoted as important for climate change adaptation. Decentralisation, which transfers authority and responsibility to lower levels of organisation, serves a similar purpose and has been in place for a number of decades. Based on four case studies in semi-arid regions in Africa and India, this paper argues that vertical integration for climate change adaptation should reflect on lessons from decentralisation related to governing natural resources, particularly in the water sector. The paper focuses on participation and flexibility, two central components of climate change adaptation, and considers how decentralisation has enhanced or undermined these. The findings suggest that vertical integration for adaptation will be strengthened if a number of lessons are considered, namely (i) actively seek equitable representation from marginal and diverse local groups drawing on both formal and informal participation structures, (ii) assess and address capacity deficits that undermine flexibility and adaptive responses, especially within lower levels of government, and (iii) use hybrid modes of governance that include government, intermediaries and diverse local actors through both formal and informal institutions to improve bottom-up engagement.

ACS Style

Gina Ziervogel; Poshendra Satyal; Ritwika Basu; Adelina Mensah; Chandni Singh; Salma Hegga; Thelma Zulfawu Abu. Vertical integration for climate change adaptation in the water sector: lessons from decentralisation in Africa and India. Regional Environmental Change 2019, 19, 2729 -2743.

AMA Style

Gina Ziervogel, Poshendra Satyal, Ritwika Basu, Adelina Mensah, Chandni Singh, Salma Hegga, Thelma Zulfawu Abu. Vertical integration for climate change adaptation in the water sector: lessons from decentralisation in Africa and India. Regional Environmental Change. 2019; 19 (8):2729-2743.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gina Ziervogel; Poshendra Satyal; Ritwika Basu; Adelina Mensah; Chandni Singh; Salma Hegga; Thelma Zulfawu Abu. 2019. "Vertical integration for climate change adaptation in the water sector: lessons from decentralisation in Africa and India." Regional Environmental Change 19, no. 8: 2729-2743.

Original paper
Published: 18 November 2019 in Journal of Business Ethics
Reads 0
Downloads 0

We explore why and how corporations seek to build community resilience as a strategic response to grand challenges. Based on a comparative case study analysis of four corporations strategically building community resilience in five place-based communities in South Africa, as well as three counterfactual cases, we develop a process model of corporate practices and contingent factors that explain why and how some corporations commit to community resilience building and whether they try to do so directly or indirectly. We thus help explain corporations’ strategic contributions to community resilience, and we emphasise the role of place-specific resources, social-ecological system viability, and limited statehood in motivating such organisational responses to grand challenges.

ACS Style

Ralph Hamann; Lulamile Makaula; Gina Ziervogel; Clifford Shearing; Alan Zhang. Strategic Responses to Grand Challenges: Why and How Corporations Build Community Resilience. Journal of Business Ethics 2019, 161, 835 -853.

AMA Style

Ralph Hamann, Lulamile Makaula, Gina Ziervogel, Clifford Shearing, Alan Zhang. Strategic Responses to Grand Challenges: Why and How Corporations Build Community Resilience. Journal of Business Ethics. 2019; 161 (4):835-853.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ralph Hamann; Lulamile Makaula; Gina Ziervogel; Clifford Shearing; Alan Zhang. 2019. "Strategic Responses to Grand Challenges: Why and How Corporations Build Community Resilience." Journal of Business Ethics 161, no. 4: 835-853.

Research article
Published: 26 May 2019 in Climate and Development
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The existing literature on barriers to adaptation focuses predominantly on the broad, generic factors, such as financial, technological or institutional factors, as examples that might constrain adaptation. Not enough is known, however, about how barriers converge in localities, what drives them and how they interact to affect adaptation processes and outcomes. This paper considers the barriers to adaptation in Namibia through the lens of the ‘adaptation activity space’ – a framework that positions the adapting system in relation to its environment. In doing so, it questions not only what types of barriers are encountered, but what their underlying drivers are and how the relationships among them influence adaptation on the ground. Two intersecting ‘avenues’ within Namibia’s adaptation activity space are explored, namely: (1) the policy-practice partition and (2) the adaptive capacity challenge. Each of these avenues tells a story about the complex nature of barriers and points to the need for greater integration between government spheres, across temporal scales and among actor groups. Such integration is necessary for addressing the barriers to adaptation and for paving the way to a more effective and sustainable adaptation activity space in Namibia.

ACS Style

Julia Elaine Davies; Dian Spear; Gina Ziervogel; Salma Hegga; Margaret Ndapewa Angula; Irene Kunamwene; Cecil Togarepi. Avenues of understanding: mapping the intersecting barriers to adaptation in Namibia. Climate and Development 2019, 12, 268 -280.

AMA Style

Julia Elaine Davies, Dian Spear, Gina Ziervogel, Salma Hegga, Margaret Ndapewa Angula, Irene Kunamwene, Cecil Togarepi. Avenues of understanding: mapping the intersecting barriers to adaptation in Namibia. Climate and Development. 2019; 12 (3):268-280.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Julia Elaine Davies; Dian Spear; Gina Ziervogel; Salma Hegga; Margaret Ndapewa Angula; Irene Kunamwene; Cecil Togarepi. 2019. "Avenues of understanding: mapping the intersecting barriers to adaptation in Namibia." Climate and Development 12, no. 3: 268-280.

Overview
Published: 26 May 2019 in WIREs Water
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The drought that drew the world's attention to Cape Town in early 2018 was the worst on record, threatening to cut off household taps for 4 million people. Even before the drought, the city's relation to water was complex; South Africa still struggles with the legacy of racial inequality including its implications for water justice. Spatial and economic segregation of people initiated when Europeans first settled in the Cape culminated during the apartheid era 1948–1994. It forcibly moved hundreds of thousands of “colored” and “black” Capetonians to inferior housing in low‐lying areas prone to flooding and with limited access to water, sanitation, and other services. Post‐1994 policies have aimed to promote water justice for all citizens, but municipalities have struggled with implementation especially in rapidly growing informal settlements. During the recent drought, the City of Cape Town ramped up its program for water demand management, including pressure reduction, leak repairs, and public awareness‐raising campaigns. However, poor communication and a lack of trust contributed to a near‐panic situation at the threat of “Day Zero” as dams almost ran dry in the first half of 2018. Saved by winter rains, Cape Town is now exploring additional water sources and developing a new Water Strategy. Taken together, the City's experiences demonstrate that sustainable water governance needs to acknowledge the interrelated threats of drought and flooding, and the range of impacts these threats as well as the City's responses have on a population still defined by extreme inequality. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance Science of Water > Water Extremes

ACS Style

Johan P. Enqvist; Gina Ziervogel. Water governance and justice in Cape Town: An overview. WIREs Water 2019, 6, 1 .

AMA Style

Johan P. Enqvist, Gina Ziervogel. Water governance and justice in Cape Town: An overview. WIREs Water. 2019; 6 (4):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Johan P. Enqvist; Gina Ziervogel. 2019. "Water governance and justice in Cape Town: An overview." WIREs Water 6, no. 4: 1.

Journal article
Published: 23 May 2019 in Environmental Science & Policy
Reads 0
Downloads 0

There are growing calls, across a continuum from international agreements to social movements, for strengthening urban resilience alongside reductions in inequality and poverty. Although there is broad agreement on what the term resilience means in general, different perspectives exist on how the concept should be implemented locally and controversies around its transformative potential continue. While differing social and institutional factors are important, the ways in which knowledge practices produce these diverse perspectives have been overlooked. To address this gap, this paper focuses on the role of spatial knowledge and mapping practices for resilience and disaster risk reduction. Traditionally, much of the spatial data used for planning has been quantitative and at broad, city-level scales. However, although experiential understandings of resilience have been widely identified, there have been few attempts to integrate these perspectives, often relying on qualitative andexperiential knowledge, into city-level resilience planning. Bringing together insights from Science and Technology Studies and Human Geography, this paper explores the opportunities that different mapping techniques provide for resilience thinking and planning. Our starting point is that science and technology are not neutral for governance and can both open up or close down governance options. Using case studies from Nairobi and Cape Town, our findings show that mapping practices are heterogeneous and produce diverse understandings of resilience. Although traditional methods dominate city mapping in these case studies, we find innovation at both the city and finer spatial scales. Maps and mapping offer opportunities for resilience via connecting diverse actors, scales and forms of knowledge. We suggest that more work is needed on how to include non-traditional methods, from those that value local experience and the voice of the marginalized to more quantitative mapping methods. While fully integrating diverse approaches may not be possible, nor desirable, bringing them into conversation helps open-up deliberative spaces for resilience.

ACS Style

Maud Borie; Gina Ziervogel; Faith E. Taylor; James D.A. Millington; Rike Sitas; Mark Pelling. Mapping (for) resilience across city scales: An opportunity to open-up conversations for more inclusive resilience policy? Environmental Science & Policy 2019, 99, 1 -9.

AMA Style

Maud Borie, Gina Ziervogel, Faith E. Taylor, James D.A. Millington, Rike Sitas, Mark Pelling. Mapping (for) resilience across city scales: An opportunity to open-up conversations for more inclusive resilience policy? Environmental Science & Policy. 2019; 99 ():1-9.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Maud Borie; Gina Ziervogel; Faith E. Taylor; James D.A. Millington; Rike Sitas; Mark Pelling. 2019. "Mapping (for) resilience across city scales: An opportunity to open-up conversations for more inclusive resilience policy?" Environmental Science & Policy 99, no. : 1-9.

Article
Published: 01 May 2019 in Climatic Change
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This research explores the agent dynamics, learning processes, and enabling conditions for the implementation of microscale win-win solutions that contribute to energy poverty eradication and climate resilience in a selection of low-income rural and peri-urban communities in India, Indonesia, and South Africa. We define these micro-solutions as energy-related interventions and resilience services or products—used at community, household, small production unit, or business level—that yield both economic and climatic gains. Our analysis identifies five elements critical for the robust design of these interventions: (i) The ability to collaborate and share different kinds of expertise with a range of networks operating at multiple levels of activity; (ii) The application of place-based systems-learning perspectives that enable project participants to integrate different types of solutions to meet different needs at the same time; (iii) The ability to yield tangible short-term benefits as part of long-term strategic visions and commitment; (iv) The use of novel technologies and financial instruments in ways that foreground the needs of poor populations; and (v) The inclusion and empowerment of economically marginalised groups through institutional and technological innovations and responsible business models. We conclude that the most critical aspect of successful micro win-win solutions is support for communities’ own endogenous transformative capacities as this helps ensure that solutions are shared and continuously adapted to changing conditions over time.

ACS Style

J David Tàbara; Takeshi Takama; Manisha Mishra; Lauren Hermanus; Sean Khaya Andrew; Pacia Diaz; Gina Ziervogel; Louis Lemkow. Micro-solutions to global problems: understanding social processes to eradicate energy poverty and build climate-resilient livelihoods. Climatic Change 2019, 160, 711 -725.

AMA Style

J David Tàbara, Takeshi Takama, Manisha Mishra, Lauren Hermanus, Sean Khaya Andrew, Pacia Diaz, Gina Ziervogel, Louis Lemkow. Micro-solutions to global problems: understanding social processes to eradicate energy poverty and build climate-resilient livelihoods. Climatic Change. 2019; 160 (4):711-725.

Chicago/Turabian Style

J David Tàbara; Takeshi Takama; Manisha Mishra; Lauren Hermanus; Sean Khaya Andrew; Pacia Diaz; Gina Ziervogel; Louis Lemkow. 2019. "Micro-solutions to global problems: understanding social processes to eradicate energy poverty and build climate-resilient livelihoods." Climatic Change 160, no. 4: 711-725.

Research article
Published: 15 March 2019 in Action Research
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Although participatory approaches are becoming more widespread, to date vulnerability assessments have largely been conducted by technocrats and have paid little attention to underlying causes of vulnerability, such as inequality and biased governance systems. Participatory assessments that recognise the social roots of vulnerability, however, are critical in helping individuals and institutions rethink their understanding of and responses to climate change impacts. This paper interrogates the contribution of Oxfam’s Vulnerability and Risk Assessment methodology to enabling transformation at both personal and institutional levels. Three Vulnerability and Risk Assessment exercises were conducted in Malawi, Botswana and Namibia by one or more of the authors in 2015 and 2016. Reflecting on these workshops, we explore the contribution that a process like the Vulnerability and Risk Assessment may bring to transformation. We conclude that these types of inclusive and representative participatory approaches can shift narratives and power dynamics, allow marginal voices to be heard, build cross–scalar relationships and enable the co-creation of solutions. Such approaches can play a key role in moving towards transformational thinking and action, especially in relation to climate change adaptation.

ACS Style

Daniel Morchain; Dian Spear; Gina Ziervogel; Hillary Masundire; Margaret N Angula; Julia Davies; Chandapiwa Molefe; Salma Hegga. Building transformative capacity in southern Africa: Surfacing knowledge and challenging structures through participatory Vulnerability and Risk Assessments. Action Research 2019, 17, 19 -41.

AMA Style

Daniel Morchain, Dian Spear, Gina Ziervogel, Hillary Masundire, Margaret N Angula, Julia Davies, Chandapiwa Molefe, Salma Hegga. Building transformative capacity in southern Africa: Surfacing knowledge and challenging structures through participatory Vulnerability and Risk Assessments. Action Research. 2019; 17 (1):19-41.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Daniel Morchain; Dian Spear; Gina Ziervogel; Hillary Masundire; Margaret N Angula; Julia Davies; Chandapiwa Molefe; Salma Hegga. 2019. "Building transformative capacity in southern Africa: Surfacing knowledge and challenging structures through participatory Vulnerability and Risk Assessments." Action Research 17, no. 1: 19-41.

Urban transformative capacity
Published: 08 February 2019 in Ambio
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The intersecting challenges of urbanization, growing inequality, climate and environmental risk and economic sustainability require new modes of urban governance. Although the urban poor are increasingly recognized as needing to be part of climate adaptation planning and implementation, many governance arrangements fail to explicitly include them. In order to make climate governance more inclusive, transformative capacity is needed. Drawing on two case studies from different urban contexts in South Africa, this paper explores the nature of inclusive governance between local government and the urban poor and the extent to which this has contributed to transformative development trajectories. The findings suggest that inclusive governance will be strengthened when local government (1) recognizes the everyday reality of the urban poor and works with them to identify priorities for transformative change, (2) supports sustained intermediaries who are urban poor themselves and (3) draws on diverse modes of governance to find new ways to engage diverse actors and experiment with inclusive adaptation planning and practice. These practices will help to build transformative capacity that can envisage and enable new ways of governing urban risk and implementing adaptation that puts the poor, frequently most impacted by climate and disaster risk, at the centre.

ACS Style

Gina Ziervogel. Building transformative capacity for adaptation planning and implementation that works for the urban poor: Insights from South Africa. Ambio 2019, 48, 494 -506.

AMA Style

Gina Ziervogel. Building transformative capacity for adaptation planning and implementation that works for the urban poor: Insights from South Africa. Ambio. 2019; 48 (5):494-506.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gina Ziervogel. 2019. "Building transformative capacity for adaptation planning and implementation that works for the urban poor: Insights from South Africa." Ambio 48, no. 5: 494-506.

Journal article
Published: 16 January 2019 in Global Environmental Change
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In the context of global environmental change much hope is placed in the ability of resilience thinking to help address environment-related risks. Numerous initiatives aim at incorporating resilience into urban planning practices. The purpose of this paper is to open up a conversation on urban resilience by unpacking how diverse science methods contribute to the production of different narratives of urban resilience mobilizing different experts and forms of evidence. A number of scholars have cautioned against uncritical approaches to resilience and asked what resilience means and for whom, also pointing out the normative dimension of the concept. Building on this emerging scholarship we use insights from science and technology studies (STS) and critical social sciences to look at the knowledge infrastructures and networks of actors involved in the development of resilience strategies. Drawing on fieldwork in Manila, Nairobi, and Cape Town, we map different narratives of urban resilience identifying the ways in which science serves to legitimate or alienate particular perspectives on what should be done. We discuss the multiple roles that science methods have for resilience planning. Whereas urban resilience is often portrayed as consensual, we show that a range of narratives, with diverse socio-material implications, exist at the city level. In this way we unearth the conflict that lies beneath an apparent consensus for resilience policy and outline future research directions for urban sustainability.

ACS Style

Maud Borie; Mark Pelling; Gina Ziervogel; Keith Hyams. Mapping narratives of urban resilience in the global south. Global Environmental Change 2019, 54, 203 -213.

AMA Style

Maud Borie, Mark Pelling, Gina Ziervogel, Keith Hyams. Mapping narratives of urban resilience in the global south. Global Environmental Change. 2019; 54 ():203-213.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Maud Borie; Mark Pelling; Gina Ziervogel; Keith Hyams. 2019. "Mapping narratives of urban resilience in the global south." Global Environmental Change 54, no. : 203-213.

Journal article
Published: 31 October 2018 in Climate and Development
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Kavya Michael; Tanvi Deshpande; Gina Ziervogel. Examining vulnerability in a dynamic urban setting: the case of Bangalore’s interstate migrant waste pickers. Climate and Development 2018, 11, 667 -678.

AMA Style

Kavya Michael, Tanvi Deshpande, Gina Ziervogel. Examining vulnerability in a dynamic urban setting: the case of Bangalore’s interstate migrant waste pickers. Climate and Development. 2018; 11 (8):667-678.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kavya Michael; Tanvi Deshpande; Gina Ziervogel. 2018. "Examining vulnerability in a dynamic urban setting: the case of Bangalore’s interstate migrant waste pickers." Climate and Development 11, no. 8: 667-678.

Journal article
Published: 09 October 2018 in Geoforum
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This paper responds to the call by Wise et al. (2014) to improve our understanding of decisions related to urban climate adaptation by situating policy interventions in a broader governance context. To develop this argument we use a qualitative case study from Cape Town, South Africa of a local government intervention in an informal settlement suffering from annual flooding. The intervention took the form of gravel platforms raising the ground on which residential dwellings were located. We argue that the meaning and purpose of this intervention have been shaped by multiple social agendas promoted by various actors, producing a contested result and arguably impacting on the potential of the intervention to serve as a pathway to increased adaptive capacity. In addition to the notion of adaptive pathways, we draw on the notions of governance configuration and local policy subversion to explain the case in question.

ACS Style

David Jordhus-Lier; Andreas Saaghus; Dianne Scott; Gina Ziervogel. Adaptation to flooding, pathway to housing or ‘wasteful expenditure’? Governance configurations and local policy subversion in a flood-prone informal settlement in Cape Town. Geoforum 2018, 98, 55 -65.

AMA Style

David Jordhus-Lier, Andreas Saaghus, Dianne Scott, Gina Ziervogel. Adaptation to flooding, pathway to housing or ‘wasteful expenditure’? Governance configurations and local policy subversion in a flood-prone informal settlement in Cape Town. Geoforum. 2018; 98 ():55-65.

Chicago/Turabian Style

David Jordhus-Lier; Andreas Saaghus; Dianne Scott; Gina Ziervogel. 2018. "Adaptation to flooding, pathway to housing or ‘wasteful expenditure’? Governance configurations and local policy subversion in a flood-prone informal settlement in Cape Town." Geoforum 98, no. : 55-65.

Journal article
Published: 30 September 2018 in Water
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The aim of the paper is to present a story about the 2015 to early 2017 Windhoek drought in the context of climate change while using the narrative approach. The story that is presented here is derived from the engagement of participants in a transdisciplinary, co-productive workshop, the Windhoek Learning Lab 1 (March 2017), as part of the FRACTAL Research Programme. The results show that the story starts with the ‘complication’ where the drought had reached crisis levels where the water demand increasingly exceeded the supply in the face of the drought. The City of Windhoek (CoW) was unable to address the problem, particularly the recharging of the Windhoek aquifer due to lack of funding. Phase 2 then shows four reactions to the drought: water conservation by water demand management; a Water Saving campaign; the Windhoek Managed Aquifer Recharge Scheme; and, the setting up of the Cabinet Technical Committee of Supply Security. The resolution of the story, Phase 4, is when the national government instructs NamWater to provide the funds for CoW to complete the recharging of the aquifer, which supplied water to the city at the last minute at the end of 2016. The final situation of the story is that ongoing collaborative work by CoW with FRACTAL on the city’s burning issues is planned to integrate climate change into future decision making for the longer term. The main actors in the story are the Ministry of Agriculture and NamWater as hero and villain, and CoW a hero, with the victims of the story, the residents of informal settlements. The main learnings from this story are that the lack of decentralization of power and resources serve to exacerbate water crises at the local level and hamper climate adaptation, despite a proactive and innovative local municipality. The paper also shows that the narrative approach provides the thread of the story to simplify a very complex set of arrangements and contradictions.

ACS Style

Dianne Scott; Kornelia N. Iipinge; John K. E. Mfune; Davison Muchadenyika; Olavi V. Makuti; Gina Ziervogel. The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process. Water 2018, 10, 1366 .

AMA Style

Dianne Scott, Kornelia N. Iipinge, John K. E. Mfune, Davison Muchadenyika, Olavi V. Makuti, Gina Ziervogel. The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process. Water. 2018; 10 (10):1366.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dianne Scott; Kornelia N. Iipinge; John K. E. Mfune; Davison Muchadenyika; Olavi V. Makuti; Gina Ziervogel. 2018. "The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process." Water 10, no. 10: 1366.