Enhancing urban climate adaptation efficacy through living labs: a case study of Seodaemun-gu residents, Seoul

Despite the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, ensuring citizen engagement with climate adaptation measures remains a significant challenge to enhancing urban climate adaptation. A significant barrier to citizen engagement is a lack of perceived efficacy in climate adaptation measures. Following previous research highlighting the effectiveness of the living lab approach, we theorize that participation in the climate adaptation living lab will increase citizens’ perceived efficacy in climate adaptation measures. To test our theoretical expectations, we implemented a climate adaptation living lab with residents of Seodaemun-gu, a district in Seoul, Korea, where participants co-created and implemented adaptation strategies for rising temperatures and heat waves. A comparison between living lab participants and non-participants in the control group suggests that the living lab approach can enhance citizens’ perceived efficacy of climate adaptation strategies and can increase their willingness to implement future climate adaptations. We also measured the sunshades’ electricity-saving effect through resident-led monitoring; although no overall saving was evident, a reduction among apartments suggests that any benefit may depend on the installation environment. Our study offers both significant contributions to climate adaptation literature and important policy implications by demonstrating the need to incorporate participatory approaches in climate policy-making.