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Most individuals living in low-income households in cities like Dhaka, Bangladesh, reside in informal, high-density settlements that experience exacerbated vulnerabilities from climate change. When determining development approaches that take into account future needs for adaptation, community residents and the professionals and policymakers who support these communities must consider the existing challenges associated with living in poverty, the rapidly increasing rate of urbanization, and future climate risks. The key objectives of this paper are to expand the understanding of the co-evolution of these “wicked problems” and the need for developing alternative strategies for adaptation. The paper explores the organic creativity of residents living in informal settlements as they draw upon locally available resources to create situation specific, pragmatic solutions to locally defined challenges. We term this practice “fluid engagement,” a design approach that aspires to be flexible, situated, pragmatic and participative, and demonstrates a willingness to be open to heterogeneous combinations of purpose and programs. Critically, “fluidity” suggests a participative approach to design that takes into account the “voices” beyond the policy and professional nexus to the participation of the community. This paper aims to connect emerging literature concerning the urban practices of low-income households in cities of the South with a detailed case-study analysis of the spatial practices at the micro-level in an informal settlement in Dhaka. The paper contributes to a new agenda of architectural and urban-development research that engages with issues of poverty and climate change as a process of co-evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of climate risks for urban low-income households are grounded in the concept of vulnerability. To address the dynamic nature of vulnerability, asset-based approaches to poverty reduction and social development advocate for identifying both risks and resilience. Applying the asset-based approach to a climate-change context brings into the discussion vulnerabilities associated with physical hazards and their impact on different types of capital assets. This paper analyses evidence from an informal settlement in Dhaka to identify the capital assets impacted by physical hazards and to develop a matrix identifying assets that can build the capacity of urban low-income households to adapt to climate extremes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]