Contextualizing urban climate justice: Impacts of climate change on vulnerable communities in Gaziantep

Date

2025-3-5

Author

Sakar Roshani, Begüm

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The climate crisis is one of the most significant challenges that threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of people, not only due to its adverse impacts but also because it exacerbates existing inequalities among different nations and societies. As per various sources, cities are responsible for around 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and are among the most vulnerable to the ever-increasing impacts of climate change. In cities worldwide, disadvantaged communities, such as women, older adults, migrants, people with disabilities, people with chronic diseases, urban poor, and marginalized ones, with limited adaptive capacity, face structural inequalities that make them more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. The disproportionate distribution of climate burdens among vulnerable groups reveals that climate change is a matter of justice. Through the lens of human rights, the concept of climate justice concerns advocating, supporting, and promoting the rights of certain groups identified as the most vulnerable to climate change. In the newly developing climate justice literature, context-based studies portray the extent of climate inequalities and the impacts of climate change on particular urban communities. This thesis aims to contribute to the literature by the spatialization of the notion of urban climate justice in Gaziantep, Türkiye. This thesis also contributes to the emerging field of urban climate justice by examining how climate change exacerbates vulnerabilities among disadvantaged communities through an intersectionality perspective. An intersectional approach is adopted to analyze how multiple identity factors, such as age, gender, ethnicity, and disability, interact to shape both vulnerabilities and coping strategies. In the methodological framework, the study proposes a 'Multi-Climate Hazard Vulnerability Assessment' for Gaziantep, Türkiye. At the macro-scale, vulnerability mapping as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity identifies hotspots and spatial patterns of vulnerability to heat and flood hazards, the primary climatic hazards in Gaziantep. At the micro-scale, and semi-structured household interviews are conducted in neighborhoods with the highest levels of multi-climate hazard vulnerability to explore the intersecting vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies of disadvantaged communities using an intersectional approach. By integrating spatial analyzes with qualitative insights, this thesis study aims to comprehensively understand how intersecting social identities shape climate vulnerability in Gaziantep. The study offers critical insights into climate adaptation and inclusive urban policy-making, highlighting the need for climate-just cities and strengthened resilience among vulnerable populations.

Subject Keywords

Climate justice, Vulnerable communities, Intersectionality

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114211

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis