Climate change impact on Urbanisation in Azerbaijan

Climate change is no longer a future scenario for Azerbaijan's cities -it is reshaping the conditions of urban life right now, through rising average temperatures, increasingly erratic precipitation patterns, growing water stress, and accelerating environmental degradation. This lecture traces the direct feedback loops between these climate pressures and urbanization dynamics: how they influence where people move, what infrastructure is under stress, which communities face the greatest exposure, and what planning systems must do to respond. Drawing on current research from Azerbaijan, it presents climate change not as an external shock to urban systems but as a structural condition that must be embedded in every dimension of urban planning and housing policy. Understanding this relationship clearly is the prerequisite for any honest and durable approach to urban development in the decades ahead.