if cities could speak
If Cities Could Speak addresses the urgent need to contextualize the impacts of climate change on health in urban informal settlements across the Global South.
Through a transdisciplinary approach, the project explores vernacular narratives and localized perceptions, experience and responses to climate risks—whether everyday, episodic, or systemic. It investigates how climate change interacts with and exacerbates existing risks while examining its effects on health and community resilience across India, Kenya, South Africa, and Sierra Leone (KISS).
context
Urban informal settlements across the Global South face heightened vulnerabilities due to climate change and inadequate living conditions. In India, Kenya, South Africa, and Sierra Leone, these areas often lack essential infrastructure, secure housing, and access to clean water, sanitation, and health services.
Climate change exacerbates these challenges through rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, flooding, and prolonged droughts, posing significant threats to the health and livelihoods of marginalized communities. Climate risks manifest at three levels: everyday stresses such as poor air quality and water scarcity; episodic events like floods and heatwaves; and systemic risks, including long-term ecosystem degradation and weakened public health systems. These layered threats compound existing inequalities and intensify health challenges.Understanding how residents perceive, experience, and respond to these risks is critical for developing effective climate adaptation strategies. Vernacular narratives provide valuable insights into local knowledge, adaptive practices, and coping mechanisms often overlooked in formal climate planning.
process
This multi-country initiative adopts a transdisciplinary approach, integrating expertise from urban planning, climate science, anthropology, public health, and storytelling.
The project involves synthesizing climate-health literature and data, conducting spatial analyses of climate hazards and health at both city and settlement scales, and co-producing localized narratives with communities. Through health histories with residents, it captures vernacular perspectives on the connections between climate and health. Leveraging participatory action research, the initiative grounds interventions in local realities and co-develops innovative methodologies to address health-related climate challenges across multiple scales.
solution
The project generates evidence-based insights and visual narratives to spatially connect climate hazards with health outcomes in informal settlements.
Through co-creation with residents, it highlights lived experiences of climate change and health vulnerabilities, emphasizing pathways for adaptive action. Key outputs include actionable insights for urban planners and policymakers to integrate health and climate resilience into urban development.
impact
The initiative bridges critical gaps between climate science, public health, and urban planning, fostering equitable and inclusive solutions for climate resilience.
It seeks to capture vernacular perspectives on how communities, such as Kibera, attribute connections between climate and health. By transforming these lived experiences into tangible interventions, the project aims to co-develop healthier, more sustainable urban environments responsive to local needs and realities.