Flooding poses a significant threat to cities in the global South, due to a combination of factors including unplanned city extensions, prevalent poverty and low adaptive capacity. Depending on the location, physical characteristics, and climate change risk of different urban areas, they can be affected by different types of flooding. Rapid urbanisation challenges the ability of cities to learn from past mistakes and build adaptive capacity. Nevertheless, there is a broad range of interventions and measures to reduce flood risk at different scales. PlanAdapt, supported by CDKN, undertook a comparative study of four African cities and their approaches to flood risk: Cape Town, Durban, Mombasa and Nairobi. The study is now being used for valuable exchange and peer learning among district and municipal officials in those South African and Kenyan cities. Ecosystem-based Flood Management: A comparative study report of Cape Town and Durban (South Africa), Nairobi and Mombasa (Kenya) highlights the use of Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM) approaches such as ecosystem-based adaptation. IFRM involves a combination of infrastructural elements as well as non-structural elements (changes to institutions, processes and plans) to reduce flood risk and improve resilience to floods.
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