The effects of climate change are hard to ignore. The recent flooding affecting London this summer – and with even more devastating effects in parts of Europe such as Germany ­– are a wakeup call to put climate resilience higher up on the agenda.

According to climate predictions, London is expected to experience hotter drier summers and warmer wetter winters over the next three decades, with more frequent extreme events such as heavier rainfalls, alongside other global threats such as sea levels rising. Summer temperatures are predicted to resemble those of Barcelona by 2050 with temperatures in the city as much as 10° higher than in the surrounding countryside due to the urban heat island effect.

Is London’s built asset able to cope with changes in weather patterns and temperature? Due we have the right infrastructure in place to deal with extreme rainfalls and flooding? Are our buildings designed to cope well with wormer temperatures? And are we taking into consideration climate resilience when designing and building new places or improving existing ones?

The NLA research paper Resilient London: confronting climate change reviews the status of climate resilience strategies and actions plans across the capital, the ability and skills of the built environment industry on building and designing for a changing climate, and the barriers that we are facing to implement effective resilience approaches in the capital.

Visit the NLA website: https://nla.london

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