The planning response to climate change

With its introduction of large uncertainties, climate change may appear to be the ultimate nightmare to a planning system that aims for certainty through lines on maps. Recent changes to the planning system in England include the adoption of a spatial approach that is wider than conventional land-use planning and the placing of sustainable development as a core principle of planning. As a result regional and local development plans can more readily take account of climate change. Policy guidance is available and we know what is likely to happen as a result of climate change, though not the scale on which things will happen. This personal evaluation of the planning response to climate change concludes that measures to mitigate climate change and to adapt to the urban heat island have multiple benefits in terms of amenity and the environment and basically represent what is already good planning. Flooding, coastal erosion and landsliding are now firmly within the planner's horizon. Implementation of current policy, to consider these weather-related issues as they are now and to test the sensitivity of development design against likely changes should lead to an appropriate planning response to the need to adapt to climate change.