Linking ICTs and Climate Change Adaptation: A Conceptual Framework for eResilience and eAdaptation

Centre for Development Informatics

This concept paper builds four new conceptual models: i) climate change vulnerability in developing countries; ii) climate change adaptation and adaptive capacity of communities and wider 'livelihood systems'; iii) climate change resilience; and iv) the contribution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to 'e-resilience' and 'e-adaptation'. This document is the product of the University of Manchester, United Kingdom (UK)'s "Climate Change, Innovation and ICTs" research project, funded by Canada's International Development Research Centre and managed by the University's Centre for Development Informatics.

From the Executive Summary: "Recognising the close links that exist between climate change vulnerability and the achievement of development outcomes, alongside the increasing use of ICTs within developing contexts, the aim of this paper is to set out a conceptual foundation that links climate change, livelihoods vulnerability, and the potential of ICTs in supporting systemic resilience.... The development of this ‘eResilience Framework’ [Figure 5, page 23] is based on the recognition that... a systemic perspective is needed. This allows the identification of key components, processes and properties, as well as the feedback and interactions that play a role in the realisation of adaptation processes in vulnerable settings....

The first section presents the conceptual underpinnings of livelihood systems’ vulnerability to the potential effects of climate change....Section 2 introduces the concept of resilience as a system property, arguing that, through a set of dynamic subproperties, it plays an important role in enhancing the adaptive capacity of livelihood systems. Section 3 of the document develops the last component... by exploring the potential of ICTs with respect to the subproperties of resilience, introducing the concept of eresilience and analysing the potential of ICT tools as enablers of adaptive processes within contexts vulnerable to climate change...."

The paper suggests that the role of ICTs in supporting human capital, financial capital, formal institutions, and informal institutions is understood and documented, but what is missing is an understanding of the way in which ICTs can support the development of resilience. Examples of ICTs supporting resilience include:

• Robustness: "ICTs can help strengthen the physical preparedness of livelihood systems for climate change-related events through applications such as geographic information systems (GIS), and positioning and modelling applications. These can contribute to design of defences and determination of their optimal location; both making the livelihood system more robust."
• Scale: ICTs can increase access to assets. "Illustrating this potential, ICTs available in Village Resource Centres in rural India have enabled end users to interact with scientists, doctors, professors and government officials located in urban locations [Footnotes removed by editor]. This has increased the information assets available (e.g. oceanic weather forecasts), and human capital (e.g. via telehealth and elearning), all of which help when climate-related events occur....Mobile applications have improved the breadth of structural access by enabling integration of local producers - small entrepreneurs and farmers - into regional and global supply chains, which also broadens the scale of asset availability, typically in terms of financial and physical capital."
• Redundancy: Redundancy is described here as the availability of resources to such an extent that there is some to spare, or some excess, or the possibility of "substitutability of assets". Just as ICTs can bring farmers information on production and marketing that may enhance their assets (extra food, extra finances to improve a building structure), and m-banking can make available assets from extended networks during crises, these ICTs can aid redundancy of institutions and organisations. For example, "[r]eleasing commerce from the constraints of geography (i.e. enabling purchases from retailers outside the local area) provides ‘commercial redundancy’ through substitutable trading links."
• Rapidity: Examples include swift access to finances, financial capital, disaster warning information, and recovery information in an acute climate-related event.
• Flexibility: "Identification of diverse action possibilities arises from the sharing of knowledge ...by enhancing the social contacts that provide access to tacit knowledge; and by enhancing access to the explicit knowledge that is now held, for example, on web sites and elearning systems worldwide."
• Self-Organisation: "ICTs can enable access to the set of resources that livelihood systems require to effectively self-organise in the event of climate change-related shocks or disturbances..." including coordination and co-operation of stakeholders, extension of social networks, and facilitated and informed decisionmaking. Also localisation and decentralisation are made possible through ICTs, e.g. local weather stations improving accuracy of reporting on agricultural conditions.
• Learning: ICT-enabled skills and access to knowledge play a role in enhancing the capacities of local actors and empowering marginalised groups.

Following the examples of how ICTs support resilience, the document details the concept of ‘e-resilience’ - resilience subproperties that can be strengthened by ICTs - and a framework to support it. In order to develop increased e-resilience, national ICT infrastructures and policies to foster them, along with data gathering for analysis and decisionmaking, can encourage ICT infrastructure and climate change-related applications. Telecommunications can provide technical and financial support; institutions can promote broader access and connectivity in rural areas; and multisectoral alliances can foster infrastructure and incentives for entrepreneurs. Specific to agriculture, national ICT-based programmes for strengthening local knowledge on crop diversification and production under variable conditions can support food production.

According to the report, ICTs can strengthen the internal capacity of nation-wide organisations to facilitate local adaptive actions, helping local communities shape their local actions on the basis of knowledge developed with peers or from institutions of national expertise. ICTs can facilitate giving voice to the climate change-related experiences of individual communities - ensuring that these are heard and melded into the formation of appropriate national policies that will foster adaptation in the long term. They can also facilitate data gathering for decisions and action, including health, weather, geography, vulnerability of human settlements, resources for farmers, and systems that support policy action, such as tax and financial management structures. Categories for systematic analysis of the impact of ICT on climate change adaptation include: socio-political; livelihoods and finance; health; habitat (settlement and displacement); food (agriculture); and water.

The document concludes: "The value of this approach resides in its contribution to better understand the complex set of relations between livelihood system components, properties and processes, which in turn are characterised by the presence of multiple development stressors. It is expected that the model can serve as a tool to explore the potential and challenges of ICTs’ role within processes of adaptation, while facilitating the identification of strategies that could contribute to the enhancement of adaptive capacities, and ultimately to the achievement of development outcomes in the face of long term climatic uncertainty"