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Adapting to Climate Change: Getting More from Spatial Planning

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Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation

Part of the book series: Climate Change Management ((CCM))

Abstract

Given the severity of future climate change projections and associated risks to human and natural systems, societies are now faced with a strong imperative to develop adaptation policies and actions in response. Spatial planning, which is the process through which the development and use of land is visualised, negotiated and regulated, has an important role to play in adapting to the changing climate. Despite positive steps forward in some locations, there remains a gap between spatial planning’s potential capacity to support the achievement of adaptation goals and the realisation of this role in practice. This paper reports on the findings of an online Delphi survey undertaken to build understanding of the relationship between spatial planning and climate change adaptation. The survey secured the input of over 70 academics, planners and policy makers working across these fields in ten different countries. Its results offer insights on barriers inhibiting spatial planning’s contribution to adaptation, which range from overarching systemic issues through to those concerning the detailed workings of the planning system. The Delphi survey also identified solutions that could help build the capacity of spatial planning to progress the adaptation agenda. Approaches include enhancing the adaptation knowledge, skills and technical capacity of planners and applying different concepts and methods to align spatial planning more closely with adaptation goals. In presenting and analysing the results of the Delphi survey, the aim of this paper is to help build the capacity of policy makers, practitioners and researchers to adapt spaces and places for the changing climate.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The weighted mean is calculated by summing the product of each Likert number and the number of times it was selected (1*a + 2*b + 3*c…) and dividing by the total number of answers.

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Acknowledgements

The funding to undertake this research was gratefully received from Bruntwood and the Oglesby Charitable Trust (via the EcoCities project) and the European Union (via the INTERREG IVC Green and Blue Space Adaptation for Urban Areas and Eco Towns project – GraBS). Finally, our thanks go to Graham Haughton for his valuable comments on an earlier version of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Urban Resilience and Energy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M139PL, UK

    Jeremy Carter

  2. Sustainable Housing and Urban Studies Unit, The University of Salford, The Crescent, Salford, M54WT, UK

    Graeme Sherriff

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  1. Jeremy Carter
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  2. Graeme Sherriff
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeremy Carter .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

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Carter, J., Sherriff, G. (2016). Adapting to Climate Change: Getting More from Spatial Planning. In: Leal Filho, W. (eds) Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25814-0_10

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