Municipal leaders and adaptation programme managers
Officials connecting climate risk to institutional responsibilities, public decisions, and implementation.

Planning, Governance, and Investment for Resilient Cities
ISBN 978-1-991367-10-5 · Global Climate Solutions · First EditionHeat, flooding, and service failures become citywide crises when risks cross institutional boundaries. How can cities turn adaptation commitments into decisions that protect people over time?
Urban Climate Adaptation helps municipal leaders, planners, infrastructure managers, and policy researchers connect evidence with implementation. Robert C. Brears examines how risk assessment, public responsibilities, and investment choices can make adaptation a continuing city function.
Learn to assess dependencies across essential services, weigh land use and housing choices, and evaluate nature-based measures alongside infrastructure priorities. Examine participation and equity criteria that reveal who receives protection, who faces barriers, and where interventions can create new burdens.
The book also connects appraisal with municipal budgets, procurement, maintenance, and monitoring. Readers gain a clearer basis for selecting priorities, assigning accountability, and revising pathways as conditions change. Use its analytical framework to build adaptation capability across institutions, neighborhoods, and long-lived urban systems.
Assess interacting climate hazards, unequal exposure, vulnerability, and dependencies across urban systems.
Align adaptation responsibilities, participation, and accountability across municipal departments and levels of government.
Evaluate land use, housing, infrastructure, and nature-based options against service needs and future climate conditions.
Use equity criteria to identify access barriers, displacement risks, and unintended adaptation burdens.
Connect adaptation investment appraisal to municipal budgets, procurement, maintenance, and delivery capacity.
Design monitoring thresholds, evaluation records, and adaptation pathways that support revision as conditions change.
Why Urban Adaptation Must Become a Core City Function
Understanding Urban Climate Risk and Adaptation
Governing Adaptation Across Urban Institutions
Planning Land Use and the Built Environment for Climate Resilience
Adapting Urban Infrastructure and Essential Services
Nature-Based and Ecosystem Approaches in Cities
Advancing Equitable and Inclusive Adaptation
Financing and Delivering Urban Adaptation
Data, Metrics, and Adaptive Management
Building Adaptation Pathways for Urban Futures
Making Adaptation a Durable Urban Capability
Officials connecting climate risk to institutional responsibilities, public decisions, and implementation.
Practitioners assessing land use, building conditions, affordability, and equitable spatial development.
Teams prioritizing resilient assets, essential-service continuity, and long-term maintenance.
Decision-makers aligning adaptation appraisal, capital planning, funding, and procurement.
Readers examining participation, justice, evidence, and accountability in urban adaptation.

The book also connects appraisal with municipal budgets, procurement, maintenance, and monitoring. Readers gain a clearer basis for selecting priorities, assigning accountability, and revising pathways as conditions change. Use its analytical framework to build adaptation capability across institutions, neighborhoods, and long-lived urban systems.

Vienna’s 2026 municipal housing handover shows how compact redevelopment can combine short journeys, affordable homes, and shared energy infrastructure.

Paris opened a new Petite Ceinture segment in 2026, extending a documented urban ecological corridor while managing public access and habitat protection.

Paris’s red-alert response shows how heat warnings can activate citywide outreach, cooling access, and practical support for children.