Municipal capital investment planning for resilience to climate change
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Capital investment plans, generated by cities during each budget cycle, determine how funds are appropriated for capital assets. Municipal managers use capital investment plans (CIPs, a.k.a. capital improvement programs) to extend the service life of assets, implement urban and economic development plans, and maintain creditworthiness. The purpose of the paper is to convey the utility and ease with which cities can adopt a method for climate-resilient decision-making that speaks to budgetary and financial officers as well as directors of planning and engineering departments. Regardless of their financial capacity, cities can use their capital investment plans to avert crises, prevent disruptions from escalating into disasters, and continue to provide public infrastructure services despite disruptions.
Though possible, most cities do not employ CIPs to ensure the resilience of their investments, or reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Whittington and Lynch, 2015). There is more than one way to build a building, generate electricity, and pave a roadway. Each fiscal year, cities miss opportunities to reduce the cost and extend the life of facilities by making those facilities climate-smart. Infrastructure investments are climate-smart when they serve the social, economic, and environmental purposes for which they were intended, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resiliency to any number of disturbances a city may face. Many cities of the world already possess the necessary data, and a methodology CIP has been developed through the World Bank. This methodology was recently applied by the municipal authorities in Kampala, Uganda, generating the capital city’s first capital investment plan, complete with the selection of low carbon, resilient alternatives for investment.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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