The whole world is confronted with the effects of a changing climate. The challenge is how we deal with this situation. So how big is the problem in the city under study? What is at risk, and why? What is being done? What will happen if nothing is done? What would be the effect of adaptation measures?

In this course we follow the conceptual framework on risk defined by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, www.ipcc.ch), where risk is at the centre. Figure 1 presents this framework, where three core concepts of weather and climate, exposure and vulnerability interact (IPCC, 2014). The risk of climate-related impacts results from the interaction of climate-related hazards (including weather and climatic events and their trends) with the vulnerability and exposure of human and natural systems. Changes in both the climate system (left) and socioeconomic processes including adaptation and mitigation (right) are drivers for changes in hazard, exposure, and vulnerability (IPCC, 2014).

There are options for risk reduction through adaptation, because adaptation measures can reduce risk by addressing one or more of the three risk factors: vulnerability, exposure, and/or hazard.This can be achieved through various policy and action choices. A visualisation of this process is in Figure 2. Risk reduction measures through adaptation (Source: IPCC 2019).

The three core concepts of hazard, exposure and vulnerability can be linked to the three core domains of Spatial Engineering: Hazard - Technical Engineering, Vulnerability - Spatial Information Science, and Exposure - Spatial Planning and Governance.