URP 537, Section 1

Planning for climate adaptation entails anticipating and responding to the inevitable impacts that will be caused by climate change despite whatever progress is made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the future. The impacts of greatest concern are those to public health, public safety, and public and private properties from increasing storminess and other climate-related hazards. Climate adaptation planning follows much the same methods and frameworks as does conventional planning, but it addresses those compelling new challenges with growing urgency. The topics we will focus on for this course include flooding and coastal hazards; heat and drought; wildfire; and threatened food systems. We will address both ecosystem and human dimensions for each topic, including public health, social vulnerability, and environmental justice concerns. The course will be conducted as an applied studio workshop. Working in teams and using hypothetical clients, students will conduct climate adaptation planning ‘audits’ of their client communities. Each report will explain the problem, present results from the audit, and make recommendations to the client community on steps it might take to better plan for and adapt to impending impacts from climate change.