Abstract
The phenomenon of ‘climigration’ is an emerging and increasing challenge to human settlements. Climigration refers to community relocation undertaken in response to climate change impacts. This paper adds to early but critical scholarly discussions by providing a land-use planning framework for organising and responding to the governance, policy, institutional and cultural implications of climigration. This paper argues that land-use planning will be increasingly required to manage climigration events over the coming decades and will rely on input and guidance from other disciplines to do so effectively. Climigration is conceptualised as an end-point of climate change adaptation in this paper. Empirical content derives from a multidisciplinary systematic quantitative literature review of international case studies of community relocations. Planning factors with critical, moderate or negligible influences on relocation success are synthesised. These are linked to the roles and functions of land-use planning systems to provide a framework for approaching climigration. The paper provides three interlinked conclusions. The first is that spatial planning systems have potential and capacity to respond to climigration as an extreme form of climate change adaptation. The second is that anticipatory policy frameworks offer the greatest advantages for successful climigration planning. The third conclusion is that maladaptation is a potential but avoidable threat connected to climigration planning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel N, Gorddard R, Harman B, Leitch A, Langridge J, Ryan A, Heyenga S (2011) Sea level rise, coastal development and planned retreat: analytical framework, governance principles and an Australian case study. Environ Sci Policy 14(1):279–288
Adger WN, Arnell NW, Tompkins EL (2005) Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Glob Environ Chang 15:77–86
Adger WN, Barnett J, Brown K, Marshall N, O’Brien K (2013) Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nat Clim Chang 3:112–117
Badri S, Asgary A, Eftekhari A, Levy J (2006) Post-disaster resettlement, development and change: a case study of the 1990 Manjil earthquake in Iran. Disasters 30(4):451–468
Bronen R (2011) Climate-induced community relocations: creating an adaptive governance framework based in human rights doctrine. NYU Review of Law and Social Chang 35:356–406
Bronen R, Chapin FS (2013) Adaptive governance and institutional strategies for climate-induced community relocations in Alaska. Proc Natl Acad Sci 110(23):9320–9325
Cheong S (2011) Policy solutions in the U.S. Clim Chang 106:57–70
Coppola DP (2011) Introduction to international disaster management (2nd edition). Elsevier, Burlington
Daveport C, Robertson C (2016) Resettling the first American climate refugees. The New York Times. May 3, 2016
David E, Mayer J (1984) Comparing costs of alternative flood hazard mitigation plans: the case of Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin. J Am Plan Assoc 50(1):22–35
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and APA (American Planning Association) (Eds.) (2005) Policies for guiding planning for post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/pdf/rebuild/ltrc/fema_apa_ch3.pdf (accessed 20 Apr 2017)
Friedmann J (2008) The uses of planning theory: a bibliographic essay. J Plan Educ Res 28(2):247–257
Gleeson B (2008) Waking from the dream: an Australian perspective on urban resilience. Urban Stud 45(13):2653–2668
Guitart D, Pickering C, Byrne J (2012) Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research. Urban For Urban Green 11(4):364–373
Guston DH, Clark W, Keating T, Cash D, Moser S, Miller C, Powers C (2000) Report of the Workshop on Boundary Organizations in Environmental Policy and Science. 9–10 December 1999. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Hamin EM, Gurran N (2009) Urban form and climate change: balancing adaptation and mitigation in the U.S. and Australia. Habitat Int 33(3):238–245
Healey P (1997) Collaborative planning: shaping places in fragmented societies. MacMillan Press, London
IFC (International Finance Corporation) (2002) Handbook for preparing a resettlement action plan. World Bank, Washington, DC
Imura M, Shaw R (2009) Challenges and potentials of post-disaster relocation. Asian J Environ Disaster Manag 1(2):199–221
IOM (International Organization for Migration) (2011) International migration law: glossary on migration. IOM, Geneva
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2014) Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Geneva: IPCC
Klein J, Mantysalo R, Juhola S (2015) Legitimacy of urban climate change adaptation: a case in Helsinki. Reg Environ Chang 16(6):815–826
Leckie S (ed) (2014a) Land solutions for climate displacement. Routledge, New York
Leckie S (2014b) Conclusions: possible land solution tools to resolve climate displacement. In: Leckie S (ed) Land solutions for climate displacement. Routledge, New York, pp 341–358
Levy JM (2017) Contemporary urban planning, 11th edn. Routledge, New York
Mahony M (2013) Boundary spaces: science, politics and the epistemic geographies of climate change in Copenhagen, 2009. Geoforum 49:29–39
Maldonado JK, Shearer C, Bronen R, Peterson K, Lazrus H (2013) The impact of climate change on tribal communities in the US: displacement, relocation, and human rights. Clim Chang 120:601–614
Marino E (2012) The long history of environmental migration: assessing vulnerability construction and obstacles to successful relocation in Shishmaref, Alaska. Glob Environ Chang 22(2):374–381
Matthews T (2011) Operationalising climate adaptation through institutional change: conceptual and empirical insights. Proceedings of World Planning Schools Congress, Perth
Matthews T (2013) Institutional perspectives on operationalising climate adaptation through planning. Plan Theory Pract 14(2):198–210
Measham TG, Preston BL, Smith TF, Brooke C, Goddard R, Withycombe G, Morrison C (2011) Adapting to climate change through municipal planning: barriers and challenges. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Chang 14(3):251–283
Nilsson B (2010) Ideology, environment and forced relocation: Kiruna—a town on the move. Eur Urban Reg Stud 17(4):433–442
Niven R, Bardsley D (2013) Planned retreat as a management response to coastal risk: a case study from the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. Reg Environ Chang 13:193–209
Oliver-Smith A (1991) Successes and failures in post-disaster resettlement. Disasters 15(1):12–23
Perry R, Lindell M (1997) Principles for managing community relocation as a hazard mitigation measure. J Continuing Crisis Manag 5(1):49–59
Petticrew M (2001) Systematic reviews from astronomy to zoology: myths and misconceptions. Br Med J 322:98–101
Pickering C, Byrne J (2014) The benefits of publishing systematic quantitative literature reviews for PhD candidates and other early career researchers. Higher Education Research Development Journal 33(3):534–548
Roy S, Byrne J, Pickering C (2012) A systematic quantitative review of urban tree benefits, costs, and assessment methods across cities in different climatic zones. Urban For Urban Green 11:351–363
Rupprecht CD, Byrne JA (2014) Informal urban greenspace: a typology and trilingual systematic review of its role for urban residents and trends in the literature. Urban For Urban Green 13(4):597–611
Shipley R, Utz S (2012) Making it count: a review of the value and techniques for public consultation. J Plan Lit 27(1):22–42
Shriver T, Kennedy D (2005) Contested environmental hazards and community conflict over relocation. Rural Sociol 70(4):491–513
Sipe N, Vella K (2014) Relocating a flood-affected community: good planning or good politics? J Am Plan Assoc 80(4):400–412
Sovacool BK (2012) Expert views of climate change adaptation in the Maldives. Clim Chang 114:295–300
Stal M (2011) Flooding and relocation: the Zambezi River Valley in Mozambique. Int Migr 49(1):125–145
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matthews, T., Potts, R. Planning for climigration: a framework for effective action. Climatic Change 148, 607–621 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2205-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2205-3