ENV 820a () / 2026-2027

Urban Adaptation to Climate Change

This course explores how urban environments—from global hubs to peripheral communities—navigate the challenges of a warming world. We move beyond purely technical solutions to examine the social, political, and everyday dimensions of climate management. The semester begins by investigating the landscape of climate change adaptation policy and establishing a rigorous understanding of climate vulnerability. We analyze how local geographies and societies interact to produce uneven patterns of risk and how these factors determine the feasibility of policy interventions. A significant portion of the course is dedicated to bottom-up strategies, including individual adaptation in everyday life and the scaling of regenerative systems. By analyzing the movement of practice across scales—from shoreline housing to regional food systems—students will learn to design integrated adaptation strategies that move toward transformational urban systems.