Windows of opportunity: addressing climate uncertainty through adaptation plan implementation |
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Authors: | Yaser Abunnasr Elisabeth M. Hamin Elizabeth Brabec |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts, 109 Hills North, Amherst, 01003 USA;2. Department of Landscape Design &3. Ecosystem Management, American University of Beirut, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Wing A/206, Beirut, 1107 2020 Lebanon;4. Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, 165 00 Czech Republic |
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Abstract: | There is a pressing need for municipalities and regions to create urban form suited to current as well as future climates, but adaptation planning uptake has been slow. This is particularly unfortunate because patterns of urban form interact with climate change in ways that can reduce, or intensify, the impact of overall global change. Uncertainty regarding the timing and magnitude of climate change is a significant barrier to implementing adaptation planning. Focusing on implementation of adaptation and phasing of policy reduces this barrier. It removes time as a decision marker, instead arguing for an initial comprehensive plan to prevent maladaptive policy choices, implemented incrementally after testing the micro-climate outcomes of previous interventions. Policies begin with no-regrets decisions that reduce the long-term need for more intensive adaptive actions and generate immediate policy benefits, while gradually enabling transformative infrastructure and design responses to increased climate impacts. Global and local indicators assume a larger role in the process, to evaluate when tipping points are in sight. We use case studies from two exemplary municipal plans to demonstrate this method's usefulness. While framed for urban planning, the approach is applicable to natural resource managers and others who must plan with uncertainty. |
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Keywords: | urban planning adaptation land use resiliency theory uncertainty |
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