Author
Luna Khirfan
Associate Professor
School of Planning
University of Waterloo
Ontario, Canada
Title
Design charrettes: an approach to community climate change adaptation in Tobago
Abstract
Dozens of millions of people are forced to flee their homes every year due to climate related natural
disasters. Notwithstanding the significant impacts of climate change especially, on small island developing
states, there remains a dearth of in-depth empirical research that examines the adaptation to climate
change through urban planning and specifically, through urban design. Similarly, there is a dearth of
empirical research on the involvement of vulnerable local communities in the formulation of adaptation
strategies and measures.
Building on the distinctions between climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban planning, this
paper discusses the use of community design charrettes in involving the public in envisioning adaptation
strategies. Specifically, this paper presents a case in the Caribbean island of Tobago where a research
project titled ‘The Partnership for Canada-Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation (ParCA)’ is being
implemented. A series of four community design charrettes were held in Tobago that supervened
community based vulnerability assessments with various sub-communities in order to gauge both their
current intuitive acclimations and their insights for future adaptation. One of these design charrettes
exclusively targeted planners and policy makers from the various governmental agencies that are involved
in setting the planning strategies for Tobago. The remaining three design charrettes each targeted one
rural community in the study area, namely: Crown Point/Bon Accord, Bucco, and Plymouth.
This paper presents the data management and analysis processes. It describes the methods by which the
visual and qualitative data that were compiled during the design charrettes and were then transcribed,
categorized, and classified. The paper reveals how a review of the relevant literature on climate change
adaptation has guided the analysis of these data and then the process of proposing an integrated
approach to urban design interventions. Accordingly, this paper describes an approach that experimented
with combining deductive and inductive approaches in the design and formulation of climate change
adaptation strategies for Tobago. The participatory methods described in this paper provide a framework
that can be emulated elsewhere in the Caribbean and in other small island developing states.