Toolbox

If there is limited information available, additional participatory or on-the-ground activities can be carried out to complement it. Field research is also a useful practice to validate data that has been previously collected or to gather more detailed information of a specific component or location. Data collection, especially on the field, should be aligned with the plan’s objective and focused on the specific area, scale and topics of interest. Furthermore, it should also consider thematic areas relevant to the specific context, such as coastal areas, presence of informal settlements, predisposition for tourism, vulnerability to climate change, etc.

There are different ways of conducting field research. In a reconnaissance survey, the technical team identifies on-the-ground features or elements that are relevant for the analysis and notes them down on a base map, using appropriate software, such as GPS tracking. Moreover, participatory activities with a group or a specific stakeholder, such as community mapping workshops, interviews, and household surveys, provide high quality information based on the empirical experience (e.g. the identification of climate risk hotspots by the community) and the technical knowledge of the residents and experts. This kind of exercise allows to build capacity and knowledge to the local stakeholders and officers at city level. Lastly, high-resolution satellite imagery can be bought, or drone imagery can be taken to increase the level of detail of the existing information.