MINI REVIEW article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
Volume 11 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1675897
This article is part of the Research TopicSocial-Ecological Urban Transformation for Climate Resilience: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and InnovationsView all articles
Climate Shelters in the Global South: Bridging a Critical Research Gap in Urban Climate Adaptation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Universidade de Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho, São Paulo, Brazil
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This study investigates how climate shelters are addressed in academic literature, particularly in Global South countries. The research questions whether studies exist on this topic in the Global South and how the concept is discussed globally. It hypothesizes that, while climate shelters are gaining attention due to increasing climate extremes, academic research from the Global South is still limited. The objective is to present a state of the art on climate shelter studies and examine their presence in Southern contexts. A systematic review following the PRISMA protocol was conducted across five databases, emphasizing sources in Portuguese and Spanish. From 59 texts screened, 26 were analyzed. Results show most studies are concentrated in Europe, with few relevant publications from the Global South. This reveals a research gap but also emerging practices in countries like Argentina and Chile. Scientifically, the study updates the literature; socially, it highlights the urgency of context-based adaptation strategies.
Keywords: climate shelters, Global South, Climate Change, climate adaptation, urban planning
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cavaco and Torres. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Isabela Carmo Cavaco, isabcvc@usp.br
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