Climate Change: Implications for South African Building Systems and Components

Abstract

Despite increasing awareness of climate change, there is little evidence of this being addressed in built environments in South Africa. Events such as flooding in Houston, USA, landslides in Free Town, Sierra Leone, and water shortages in La Paz, Bolivia and Cape Town in South Africa in 2017 demonstrate that it is increasingly urgent that built environments that are resilient to climate change impacts must be developed. This chapter introduces climate change projections for South Africa and begins to determine the implications of these changes for buildings. Proposals are made on how buildings may be adapted to climate change and recommendations on further research and development are outlined.