Tijs van Maasakkers working with water inspectors in South Africa.

Students from DUSP participated in a practicum taught by Professor Carmin on urban climate adaptation. After preparing at MIT, they spent three weeks engaged in fieldwork in Durban, South Africa. The goal of the fieldwork was to develop an online tool that would help officials plan for climate change. Rather than focus on known best practices, the approach the students elected to pursue was to study ongoing activities and innovations taking place in the municipality and then identify how these could readily be extended to respond to anticipated impacts of climate change.

To build the tool, students interviewed fifty public officials and agency representatives. This included the Deputy Mayor and individuals at all levels of agencies, including water and sanitation, coastal management, health, agriculture, solid waste, housing, emergency management, economic development, and, of course, planning. They also visited a variety of field sites from community gardens, to reservoirs and water pumping stations to former townships so that they could experience professional challenges and learn about innovations taking place throughout the municipality firsthand.

The practicum client was Dr. Debra Roberts, Head of the Environmental Management Department in eThekwini Municipality. The students created a preliminary framework for the online tool and drafted an accompanying manual. They also wrote a report summarizing their findings about how climate adaptation could be mainstreamed in the municipality. The tool, manual, and report were presented to Dr. Roberts and members of her staff. The expectation is that the course will be offered again so that students can further develop the web tool while learning about planning for climate change. In addition to returning to South Africa, the vision is that the practicum will be held in different countries so that the tool ultimately can be a resource for municipalities around the world that are seeking to proactively engage in climate adaptation activities.