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Information and communication technologies for climate change
adaptation in cities

Executive Summary
"Adaptation is the only means to reduce the now‐unavoidable costs of climate change over the next
few decades" – Sir Nicholas Stern, 'The Stern Review' on economics of climate change,
October 2006.

This Technical Report has been prepared within the Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities
(FG‐SSC) and responds to the need to explore how Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) and their infrastructure can support cities' adaptation to climate change. It is a contribution
to the ongoing work on climate change adaptation within Question 15/5 of ITU‐T Study Group 5,
which leads ITU‐T standardization activities on ICT and environmental aspects of climate change.
The first part of the Report describes in general terms the impacts of climate change in cities,
providing an overview of the main risks and vulnerabilities they are facing. Climate change
negatively impacts the cities' infrastructure, including ICT infrastructure, affects key sectors of the
economy such as the agriculture and construction sector, and, above all, it compromises the citizens'
quality of life as it may affect the provision of key public services (e.g., health, water supply and
sanitation, energy provision, waste management, mobility), urban planning and food security, which
are all crucial dimensions for sustainable development. Within this framework of challenges, the
report highlights the importance for municipalities to improve their capacity to respond to the
challenges posed by climate change, and introduces the need to include ICTs in climate change
adaptation policies in cities, as a key element for the establishment of smart sustainable cities (SSC).
The second part of the report expands on the contribution of ICTs by identifying their role in helping
cities to adapt to climate change. The analysis acknowledges that ICTs have the potential to play a
leading role in climate change adaptation in cities, while also adapting its own physical
infrastructure. In this sense, this report establishes three main areas where ICTs can support cities'
adaptation policies which are as follows: (1) the development of effective climate‐related disaster
risk management programs in cities; (2) the early stage of urbanization planning, by providing high
quality data and information to help cities' planners to cope with climate change and build resilient
cities; and (3) facilitation of communication and exchange of information between the relevant
stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation for informed decision making. This section
includes practical examples of the use of ICTs for climate change adaptation in several cities of the
world, to better understand their role in addressing these challenges.
In the last section, the report suggests a series of ICT‐based policies and strategies that could be
used by city mayors to adapt to climate change and build resilient cities with the support of ICT tools
and services. The report invites urban stakeholders interested in novel approaches to sustainability
to integrate the use of ICTs in their climate change adaptation strategies and policies. It presents a
framework that could be used by cities not only to adapt to climate change, but also to build resilient
cities. The framework builds upon a multi‐sectoral vision of urban planning, highlighting the key role
of ICTs and cross‐sectoral adaptation policies. It proposes an ICT‐based policy process for city
mayors and planners, which covers all phases of a common adaptation process (observation,
assessment, planning, implementation and monitoring).

ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications 547