Smart Adaptation and the Rise of Surveillance Ecology

As climate change intensifies, digital technologies are being rapidly integrated into climate adaptation frameworks. While these technologies promise real-time environmental monitoring and predictive capacity, they also raise critical ethical, ecological, and social concerns. In the Indian context, the convergence of digital climate technologies with governance frameworks has created both possibilities for smart adaptation and risks inherent in what this study terms “surveillance ecology”. This study addresses three questions: (1) How do digital climate innovations both strengthen adaptive capacity and endanger sociopolitical safety? (2) How does surveillance ecology exacerbate existing inequalities in India? (3) How can traditional ecological knowledge be integrated with digital tools to promote inclusive and just climate adaptation? Guided by post-structuralist and decolonial epistemologies, the research employs a qualitative systematic literature review. Findings show that while digital adaptation efforts enhance resilience, they also centralize power, limit community autonomy, and generate unintended rebound effects, such as excessive e-waste and high-energy data infrastructures. The study argues for a paradigm shift from technocratic adaptation to justice-centred innovation. Future research should investigate the ground-level impacts of surveillance ecology and assess how low-carbon digital infrastructures can minimize ecological harm.