CADENCE: Consequences of Adaptation for DEmocratic AdvaNCE

CADENCE explores how local climate adaptation can renew democracy by co-developing a framework to assess its social impacts, fostering trust, inclusion, and collaboration in UK urban governance.

Project Summary

CADENCE explores how climate adaptation can foster democratic renewal, moving beyond technical delivery to examine its social and political consequences. Responding to the IPCC’s call to assess adaptation’s impact on wellbeing and sustainability, the project investigates how local adaptation decisions can build trust, accountability, and collaboration. Focusing on UK local government, CADENCE will co-develop a policy-informed framework through interdisciplinary research across UCL and Leeds Beckett University. Three work packages guide the project: (1) developing a typology of democratic benefits from adaptation, (2) testing this framework through workshops with Leeds City Council and a policy referent group, and (3) co-designing a case study in Harehills, Leeds, to measure democratic impacts of a heat-resilient public space intervention. Using arts-based methods and climate modelling, the project will engage diverse community members and local authorities to co-create inclusive, climate-resilient urban spaces. CADENCE aims to inform global adaptation policy through grounded, democratic innovation.