Climate change and urbanization have caused diverse disasters with more severe impacts on numerous cities than rural areas. Construction of climate-resilient cities is a global consensus, while this goal is not an easy mission. In particular, the difficulties in supercities and megacities are more prominent due to the complicated disasters, significant impacts, and complex urban construction. For better and more effective implementation, there is a need to explore and iterate successful formulas of different cities.
Given large population and extensive urbanization, China has built 22 supercities and megacities, while these cities are under the mega challenges of climate change (e.g., extreme heat, flooding). The national paradigm of China is transitioning these cities from economy-oriented development to sustainability-oriented development. Accordingly, these cities have piloted climate-resilient planning, design, and management in past two decades. However, existing practical explorations of climate adaptation are still fragmented, mostly limited to a few domain directions, and lacking a multi-dimensional implementation framework.
This study aims to delineate the pathways through examining the climate resilience building plans, policy documents, and practical actions of 22 supercities and megacities (e.g., Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing) in China. The study indicates that climate resilience building actions in these cities are related to six dimensions including “innovation-driven”, “livability and security”, “beauty and harmony”, “resilience and security”, “social civilization”, and “smart management”. Furthermore, a systematic framework with a total of 113 actionable terms is developed, based on which the future actions for different cities are identified.
Overall, this study is important to determine the future climate actions of China’s supercities and megacities. Moreover, it provides a comprehensive and universal action framework for policy makers, researchers and practitioners of the same type of cities around the world.