Climate change ‘requires urban planning rethink’

The potentially catastrophic effects of global warming will mean urban planners need to rethink how and where to build cities, AFP reported water experts as warning at a conference in Stockholm this week.
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The risks to cities from rising sea levels is compounded by the fact that almost 80% of the world’s population lives less than 50 kilometres from a coastline, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.
"Thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers and ice-sheets might endanger low-lying coastal cities if adaptation and mitigation measures are not taken now," SIWI said.
"We should really try to insist that national planning include the climate dimension. We should have vulnerability maps and develop action programmes," Johan Kuylenstierna, the director of the World Water Week conference, told AFP.

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