Resilience and climate change in rural areas: a review of infrastructure policies across global regions
Innocent Chirisa, Verna Nel
Abstract
The role of policy frameworks for infrastructure in respect of resilience and climate change remains under-explored. This article contributes to this field of research by examining how infrastructure policy in rural areas regarding climate change is planned and implemented across different regions in the world. The study combines documentary and literature reviews from initiatives undertaken at regional, national and local levels. The literature draws on the related policy experiences in North America, South America, Asia, Australia and Africa. The findings show that, both hard and soft approaches can enhance infrastructure related climate change resilience. However, most of these strategies are still in experimental stages or taken at national level. As a result, the attempts initiated do not tally with the capacity and climate change challenges of rural regions. Rural regions, based on their unique characteristics, call for different infrastructure-climate change resilience strategies in order to be effective.