Scenarios of Climate Gentrification in Vancouver British Columbia

NERC: James Carruthers: NE/S007512/1

Cities need to adapt to climate change in order to prevent extreme impacts. However, the way in which adaptation measures are put in place may have unintended consequences since they increase the value of land around them and may be targeted in currently inexpensive areas. Therefore, these measures could displace vulnerable people into areas which have fewer adaptation measures and are therefore more exposed to climate change, a process known as climate gentrification.

This is an under-researched topic and the drivers and impacts of climate gentrification in terms of aggregate risk are unclear. This project will investigate these processes and develop scenarios of how climate gentrification could evolve in the future, using socio-economic and climate data. These scenarios will provide a better understanding of how vulnerabilities may change in the future and will inform climate impact studies.