Climate Change is Now Part of Global Urban Planning

It's not just the natural environment that's being affected by climate change; it's also city buildings and manmade structures that are feeling the impacts. Now, scientists have found that an increasing number of cities around the world now include preparations for climate change in their basic urban planning, though only a small portion of them have been able to make these plans part of the economic development priorities.

"Climate change isn't an isolated issue," said Alexander Aylett, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It has large implications for all other aspects of urban life. What we are seeing is cities starting to build it into the DNA of how they approach urban planning."

In order to see how cities might be tackling climate change, researchers conducted the Urban Climate Change Governance Survey (UCGS). This survey was based on responses from 350 cities worldwide, and revealed that about 75 percent of cities now tackle climate-change issues as a mainstream part of their planning. Not only that, but 73 percent are attempting both climate mitigation and climate adaptation. Unfortunately, though, only 21 percent of cities report tangible connections between the responses to climate change and achieve other local development goals.

And while cities worldwide are doing their part, U.S. cities are lagging behind. Compared with the global average of 75 percent, only 58 percent of U.S. cities address both mitigation and adaptation.

Yet scientists are quick to note that while some believe that environmental progress cannot coexist, that belief is false. A number of cities have jobs and growth that have derived from climate-change efforts, such as Portland, Ore. In addition, urban planners in Alberta have studied the cost savings associated with limiting metropolitan sprawl; the denser development could actually save $11 billion in capital costs over the next 60 years.

"It isn't so much that it's hard to reconcile economic and environmental priorities," said Aylett in a news release. "It's that we're not trying."

The findings reveal the importance of taking steps in order to incorporate climate change preparation in urban planning.