Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Land Use Planning

Cities and municipalities represent central key elements for the successful implementation of climate adaptation efforts, but it is unclear to what extent municipal planning systems exploit their existing potentials. Therefore, the present study focuses on the current status of the integration of climate adaptation measures into urban land use planning. Land Use Plans and Local Development Plans of 10 medium-sized German cities are analysed for 24 different adaptation measures from six different fields of action. In addition, both levels of urban land use planning were analysed for coherence in terms of content. The results show an untapped potential on both planning levels. Land Use Plans predominantly integrate measures on a large scale, while Local Development Plans tend to integrate more small-scale and object-specific measures. Currently, the greatest success can be seen in low-regret strategies related to urban green. The coherence analysis underlines the relevant role of Land Use Plans as pioneers for climate adaptation, but also shows limited planning sovereignty at the subordinate Local Development Plan level.