maladaptationmeasures

Maladaptation measures are adaptation actions that fail to reduce vulnerability and may even increase it. They arise when policies or projects overlook system interactions, misprice risk, or incentivize behavior that raises future exposure. Maladaptation can occur at local, national, or sectoral scales and may result from short planning horizons, fragmented governance, or data gaps.

Common mechanisms include hardening infrastructure to defend assets in hazard-prone areas, which can encourage development and increase exposure if hazards intensify. Water-management projects that promote irrigation in water-scarce regions can deplete groundwater and harm ecosystems. Climate interventions that subsidize high-carbon energy, or agricultural subsidies that favor water-intensive crops in arid zones, can lock in maladaptive patterns. Reconstruction after disasters may reproduce risk if it rebuilds in the same hazard-prone sites.

Assessment and detection rely on evaluating net harms, distributional effects, cross-border spillovers, and long-term costs. Ex-ante risk assessment, scenario analysis, and monitoring help identify maladaptive trajectories. No-regret and low-regret options, flexible and reversible designs, and participatory planning can reduce risk of maladaptation.

Policy relevance: Maladaptation can undermine sustainable development goals, waste resources, and entrench vulnerability. Avoiding maladaptive measures requires integrated planning across sectors, transparent decision-making, and adaptive management that can adjust to new information and changing risks.

See also: maladaptation, resilience, climate adaptation, risk management.