Town and city planners are increasingly called to help communities navigate the uncertainty of a future afflicted by climate change. University programs have responded by offering climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience courses to planners. But just how effective are these programs at preparing planners to tackle climate change in their profession?
In a new bi-national study, UMass Professor Elisabeth Infield teamed up with with University of Waterloo Professor Mark Seasons and University of Kansas Associate Professor Ward Lyles to assess the current state of climate change planning pedagogy in Canada and the United States.
The researchers surveyed more than 100 universities, finding that programs across both countries are increasingly addressing climate change as a primary topic in education. There exists, however, a wide variation in how broadly and deeply the current programs cover the different aspects of climate change in community planning (i.e. mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and more).
Beyond addressing major gaps in the current pedagogy, the team offers recommendations for program directors, instructors, and practitioners moving forward. These include better tracking of how accredited planning programs comply with requirements for climate change as part of core curriculum; increasing the number of required course offerings in climate change planning; and integrating a more justice and equity-focused lens in climate change training and education.
The study was recently published in the journal of Planning Practice and Research.