Impact of barriers to climate change adaptation in urban management of Tehran: A mixed approach

The evidence shows that Tehran as the capital and the most populous city of Iran is exposed to consequences of climate changes but proper measures are not taken to deal with such consequences. Considering the increasing threats and consequences of the climate changes, adaptation is among the most important issues in urban management. This study firstly identified the barriers to climate change adaptation in Tehran metropolis urban management and then assessed the impact of the barriers. A mixed method was applied in this study for data gathering and analysis. Focus group discussion (FGD) was used to identify the barriers. Then the identified barriers were assessed quantitatively by rapid impact assessment matrix and qualitatively by assessing the impacts of the themes to specify their impact and the way each barrier affects the climate change adaptation. The FGDs were held by participation of 59 experts and resulted in nine main themes and 31 sub-themes. The main themes were: structure and culture of research, awareness, education and knowledge, social factors, resources and its management, laws and regulations, communications and interactions, economic factors, institutional and administrative factors, and planning. The rapid impact assessment matrix showed that the impact of planning, laws and regulations, structure and culture of research barriers are bigger than other barriers. The qualitative assessment showed that the impacts of most of the barriers are regional, long-term, irreversible, permanent and certain. Among the sub-themes, the biggest impact belonged to lack of a higher institute or center for research and policy development on climate change adaptation which had the score -72. The average score of the impacts of the barriers was calculated to be -32.32. This score is placed in the -C region and means that the average impact of the barriers is negative. Findings of this study may help the decision makers and policy makers of urban management to have better understanding of the barriers to climate change adaptation, to better cope with, and to overcome them.