City to city learning and knowledge exchange for climate resilience in southern Africa

A mixed methods approach was used to collect data from the study cities and to determine both climate and non- climate risks and vulnerabilities, as well as city infrastructure and gover- nance systems. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed. For the quantitative analysis, 30 to 50 years of historical climate and hydrological data from the cities’ water sources- the river catchments were collected (Table 1). This data was used to determine historical climate and hydrological trends using time series analysis. For the qualitative data collection, household surveys, key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FDGs) were used. A total of 1483 of both open and closed household questionnaires were administered across the cities mostly in informal settlements with the exception of Durban where no questionnaires were distributed and Harare where a cross sectional representative sample across high, medium and low density suburbs were interviewed (Table 1 and S1–S10 Files). Questionnaires and KIIs gathered socio-economic and demographic data as well as perceptions on climate and resilience which were recorded by enumerators. Additionally, facilitators and embedded researchers recorded responses on climate perceptions using FDGs, during workshops and city learning labs. Key informants and FGD interviews and workshops as well as city labs discussions were framed around key issues following the FRACTAL engage- ment approach which incorporated interactive methods such as games to foster engagement

Fig 1. An illustration of city exchanges across southern Africa; Blue- Lusaka in Zambia, Purple- Harare in Zimbabwe, Orange- Windhoek in Namibia and Green- Durban in South Africa. The arrows indicate direction of exchange. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227915.g001 City learning in southern Africa PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227915 January 24, 2020 7 / 25