Good and planned adaptation activities; more efficient use of scarce water resources, adapting building codes to future climatic and extreme weather events, constructing flood protections and raising levees, developing famine-tolerant crops, selecting tree species and forestry practices that are less susceptible to storms and fires, contributing to species migration opening of terrestrial corridors to help, etc. can be listed as. In some cases (eg hydro-energy, wetland management) mitigation and adaptation strategies may be closely linked and complementary.
Climate science indicates that we will continue to face the inevitable effects of climate change for a long time, even if there is a sharp decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Here, adaptation describes the processes and measures taken to keep up with the current and expected changes in the climate system. Studies aimed at reducing the negative effects of global climate change are generally called "adaptation" studies. Adaptation also includes turning opportunities and concerns into benefits.
By taking into account interdependent systems with adaptation policies, thus increasing risks, especially to fragile systems (e.g. ecosystems) can be prevented. Countries need to systematically assess their climate risks and exposure levels and incorporate possible adaptation measures into their development policies, plans, and projects. Because in many cases, development activities that do not adapt to the effects of climate change will have negative effects on society, the economy, and natural resources.
Mitigation (emission reduction and increased sink capacity) and adaptation should be considered two interdependent components in the fight against climate change. In cost analyzes on combating climate change, it is stated that the costs to be incurred for adaptation to climate change should also be taken into account. One of the most important innovations brought by the Paris Agreement to the climate regime is the need to strengthen the place of adaptation to the effects of climate change in climate policy priorities.
It is a change in natural or social systems that unintentionally increases the level of exposure or exposure to climate change by ignoring the effects of climate change. Mismatch practices, which can be explained by the phrase “raising an eye while raising an eyebrow”, can be defined as processes that increase vulnerability rather than reduce it. For example, a newly built urban infrastructure may not be designed to cope with changing extreme weather conditions and therefore may not provide adequate protection against extreme weather events or maybe more than anticipated. may have a shorter lifespan. Such consequences can hinder development by causing more loss of life and damage than the loss of life and property that would occur if the infrastructure was built to withstand the risks of climate change from extreme climate events. In some cases, governments can impede compliance and even encourage or trigger destructive or risky behavior by implementing wrong incentive policies. For example; flood insurance programs; Insuring homes against the risk of flooding can encourage construction in flood-prone areas, rather than making consumers fully assume the risks and therefore adopt a more risk-averse attitude. From an agricultural sector perspective, agricultural investments, in some cases, can be expected if the climate becomes unfavorable for certain crops. may not generate revenue. Crops may decrease and it may be necessary to import foodstuffs. In this case, economic growth takes place at a limited level.
The most important feature that distinguishes hydro-meteorological natural disasters from other natural disasters is that they can be detected and prevented in advance with monitoring or measurements, or loss of life can be minimized with early warnings. In other words, "Early Warnings of Hydro-meteorological disasters by Predicting" is the single most important feature that distinguishes them from natural disasters such as earthquakes. By taking advantage of this feature, significant reductions in casualties have been achieved in recent years with meteorological forecasting and early warning, which are a part of disaster management programs.
Rain harvesting is the whole of the methods developed to collect and use the water that passes into the surface stream with precipitation as an alternative to the use of unsustainable groundwater in irrigation and domestic use. rain harvest; Ecological and recreational activities such as improving the soil, feeding groundwater, increasing the agricultural production and efficiency restricted due to thirst, producing fish and suitable plants in ponds, as well as creating habitat for waterfowl, with side applications such as complimentary food forest, increasing the ground cover and organic content in the soil. provides benefits.
It is called regenerative agriculture to restore the organic matter to the soil against the destruction that causes the soil to impoverish, and lose its water-holding feature and biological diversity. Vertical farming, unlike traditional farming, is done indoors. Vegetables and fruits planted on the shelves on top of each other are grown without soil, and this method, which uses LED lights that reduces 80% of energy consumption, provides energy savings as well as 90% water efficiency compared to traditional agriculture. Cities of the future are planning to produce their food by methods such as vertical farming due to the shrinkage of arable land.
Incentives can be given to farmers to adopt farming techniques that increase carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Agro-ecological farming, food forestry, tillage, the use of crops and perennials, improved crop rotation cycles, and the use of permanent agricultural design techniques have the potential to significantly increase the amount of carbon stored by the soil and contribute to mitigating climate change. Policies should emphasize encouraging experimentation and innovation. Incentives should be designed to encourage new farmers or farmers engaged in agroecology to take over land and land damaged by industrial farming. This will help increase soil carbon levels and reduce carbon loss in the atmosphere.
IPCC's 1.5°C Report (November 2018) states that heat stress, land and coastal floods, new disease vectors, air pollution, and water scarcity, which are the effects of climate change, will be experienced together, and in this respect, it is very important to adapt to the effects in cities. For climate adaptation in cities, it is necessary to take a series of measures such as i) the establishment of early warning systems for flood and drought, ii) improvement of water storage and use, and iii) reduction and management of health risks due to extreme and slow-onset temperature and climate events.
The vegetation on the green roofs, defined as a vegetative layer grown on the roofs, increases the shade ratio on the roof surfaces and evaporation-perspiration, causing latent heat transfer, and reducing the temperature of the air on and around the roofs. While the ambient temperature on traditional roof surfaces exceeds 500C, this temperature is much lower on green roofs. The construction of roof gardens for the suitable roofs of the building and covering the unsuitable ones with light-colored or reflective materials reduces the heat island amplitude. Thus, buildings are prevented from absorbing radiation during the day and releasing it into the atmosphere after the sun goes down. Green roofs can be applied to almost any building scale.
