Abstract:
Climate change has been singled out as a major challenge currently facing
the world and a major threat to sustainable urban development. Achieving
sustainable cities and contributing to climate protection requires planned
change to
the way in which cities are spatially configured and serviced. Both
adaptation and mitigation measures to respond to the effects of climate change
require that cities are planned differently. Major towns in Kenya are highly
vulnerable to the impacts of cl
imate change as evidenced by many disasters
that have afflicted them over the recent past. It is expected that urban planning
and land
-
use management should successfully address and ensure risk
reduction. Unfortunately this is lacking. Drawing upon the ava
ilable literature,
this paper synthesizes the factors responsible for the vulnerability of Kenya’s
major urban centres to climate change, the impacts of climate change vis
-
a vis
failure of current urban planning practices in the country and implications fo
r
urban planning in the 21
st
Century in Kenya.
