Climate Adaptation

Cities, towns, and other densely populated areas are being urged to address the challenges posed by climate change. To design local adaptation plans and policies for cities, the urban and climate agendas are strongly betting on social and technological innovation, but less attention is being devoted to learn from past experience. In this seminar, I argue that historical approaches can help situate adaptation strategies within long-term regimes of environmental governance, illuminating the relation between adaptation to locally-manifested climatic extremes and the historically-changing ways to access and manage the environment.