“This practical guide has been prepared because the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recognizes the key role buildings can play in enhancing climate change adaptation, improving resilience and addressing and mitigating risk. Furthermore, there is a recognized need for additional resources addressing good practice for buildings in communities and towns that face risk from disasters but may suffer from a deficit of professionally trained architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturers and other practitioners. Therefore, this note is written for a broad audience, including those with little experience in the building and construction industries.

The practical guide sets out to provide an overview of the fundamental types of interventions at the building scale. It specifically offers concepts and approaches for the building envelope, roof, structure, orientation and materials. The approaches and technologies presented in this document are tailored toward a developing country context and a built environment that is largely self-constructed. However, the majority of the techniques identified in this practical guide can be upscaled and applied to buildings of any type, including apartment complexes, hospitals and schools.” (p.15-16 )