Introduction to the Special Issue

Problem: The planet appears to be warming in a complex, highly unpredictable, unplanned-for pattern. Purpose: We briefly describe the seven articles and survey the topic of this special issue, framing it using both climate science and policy analysis. Methods: We review definitions and discuss known explanations and planning strategies. Results and conclusions: Planning for climate change differs from traditional urban planning in that we lack knowledge and experience about the efficacy of particular responses and that, without collective efforts, responses by individual municipalities, states, and even countries are likely to be ineffective. This combination of uncertainty and interdependency makes climate change a wicked problem. Takeaway for practice: Planners are relatively uninformed about whether and how particular climate change mitigation and adaptation responses are likely to work. Given this, we argue that planners’ experiences in dealing with uncertainty and contingent and collective actions positions them well to formulate and implement effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. Research support: None.