Dimensions of Socio- Environmental Approaches as a Platform for Local Development Under Climate Change: Theoretical and practical considerations of transdisciplinarity

The governance of urban processes, in the face of the effects of variability and extremes of climate change, requires a complex approach, especially because of the inherent uncertainty and high infrastructure cost those solutions entails. The urgency of the responses and actions imposed by extreme weather events transfers additional complexity to less developed societies, given the drift towards sectoral responses and the structural lack of financing at the municipal level. This chapter proposes a two-pronged approach: 1) linking climate adaptation processes and 2) outlining strategies for local development. This double effect facilitates the process of climate change adaptation through the active integration of a wider range of actors in local development, integrates agendas and actions of greater complexity, and ensures a long-term perspective of evolutionary change. The chapter has a theoretical framework defined by its transdisciplinary perspective (Lang et al., 2012), i.e. a reflective, integrative, scientific principle articulated by co-participatory methods that aim to solve or transition social problems and at the same time relate to scientific problems by differentiating and integrating knowledge from various scientific and social disciplines to validate the link between climate change strategies and local development. This is presented through a case study establishing a framework for possible interventions with integrated objectives in order to determine policy recommendations and local development strategies within the characteristics and conditions recognised in the case study, paying special attention to the high number of informal settlements in abandoned areas, and the limited economic capacity of the municipality to cope with their needs.