Caroline Miehe (NOVAFRICA, Nova University Lisbon) – Urbanization Meets the Environment

Room : P61

Climate change is intensifying natural disasters such as floods, which are especially destructive in coastal cities. At the same time, conflict and environmental stress are driving rapid, often unregulated urban growth across Africa, heightening flood risk in densely populated, low-income neighborhoods. Yet the interplay between urbanization and climate adaptation remains poorly understood.

An ongoing project tests an intervention that provides technical assistance, small grants, and organizational support during community meetings to relax information, liquidity, and coordination constraints to climate adaptation. A cluster RCT across Quelimane – Mozambique’s sixth-largest city and a rapidly urbanizing, flood-prone coastal area – assesses the intervention’s effects on flooding, its impact on livelihoods, and the mechanisms driving these outcomes.

We collect survey data from 2,000 households and 500 community leaders, complemented by innovative Structured Community Activities, high-frequency flooding and walkability data, and geo-tagged drainage photos to produce objective measures.