The uncertainty of climate change causes cities to place a greater emphasis on preparing for the unknown strength of disasters. These disasters include droughts, increased precipitation, tropical storms, and heat waves. Cities are often required to constantly fund these risk reduction plans, so most of a sectors budget is dedicated towards this effort, because there is no “one time only” for adaptation strategies. The preparation for climate change in cities is also to contain all other non-climate issues. Issues like homelessness, lack of clean water, and poor air quality. Climate change is a direct factor that contributes to worsening these problems. Should a drought occur, the already-scarce water in a sector would become even more hard to obtain.
To combat these hazards, cities will incorporate site-specific risk assessments that generally summarize the trend of the hazard at hand, considering the vulnerabilities of the city based on its non-climate problems (poverty, resources) and its location, as well as stating the budgets and resources that the city could potentially use in order to adapt to the specific climate change. To conclude, risk assessment requires taking a number of factors into consideration before having the entire city act upon a potential hazard: Planning for the unknown, and understanding that preparation for it is not a one time plan. After that comes the risk assessment which summarizes the city’s financial situation, and optimize it using what it can afford.
