Hot and Wet: Just Adaptations to Extreme Heat and Flooding in Two Global Cities

By 2050, urban areas will have to account for an additional 2.6 billion people. The UN reporting projects that Asian and African continents will see an estimated 90% of future urban population growth (Lin and Fuller, 2013; Pandey, et al., 2020). Extreme weather events like heat waves and floods are becoming more frequent and more severe. As the climate crisis worsens, urbanites will have to find ways to adapt safely and effectively (Pasquini et al., 2020; Bolles, 2024).

This study examines two mid-sized, water-adjacent and highly segmented cities: the City of Chicago, Illinois (United States) and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (East Africa). These cities are case studies in localized climate change adaption. I selected these cities for their common dealings with extreme heat and flood events and the growing intensity of the urban heat island effect (Angel, n.d.; ICLEI, 2021). Just as important are their dense histories of place-based systemic oppression and racial segregation (Smiley, 2013; John et al., 2020; Serrato et al., 2022; Khan, 2024). These factors and others make them optimal research sites for investigating the potential interplay between community and climate resilience. This project employs the Just Adaptation framework to investigate relevant, reasonable mechanisms for climate adaptation. This framework is a climate adaptation tool whereby resilience, equity and systemic are at the center, and individuals most acutely impacted by the climate crises are at the helm (Malloy and Ashcraft, 2020).

This project employs urban ethnographic methodologies to respond to questions regarding identity, vulnerability, history and place, all within the context of identifying strategic, accessible interventions for household- and community-level climate resilience.