Planning for climate change and sea level rise presents unique challenges to urban planners.  Traditionally, planners focus on planning policies to accommodate future growth by land use categories, population trends, preservation of resources, transportation needs, and open space; just to name a few.  Climate adaptation planning creates a whole new approach to evaluating impacts from climate change, and utilizes proactive and reactive strategies to minimize impact, reduce risk, and identify areas sustainable for future growth. 

How will increased sea levels impact the land use patterns? How will the transportation systems function during increased flooding? Will the city infrastructure become inoperable?  Assessing vulnerability allows planners to focus on areas with greater adaptive capacity and identify those areas with higher exposure to impacts.  Data collection, maps, and policy evaluation are necessary to conduct an assessment of the vulnerability for a region.

To assist the Legazpi team, a planning policy framework matrix was created that reflected the planning structure of the existing comprehensive plan with correlating climate change discussion points.  The structure of the matrix included:

• Land uses by planning area;
• Climate change/sea level rise impacts;
• Potential adaptation policies;
• Overall adaptation strategy;
• Potential programs and design strategies;
• Recommended strategies;
• Implementation option; and
• Challenges.

Once completed, the matrix can be used to prioritize policies, identify specific strategies, identify implementation approach, and outline specific challenges. The Legazpi team can then prepare an amendment to their comprehensive plan with specific climate adaptive land use policies resulting from this analysis.  Continued evaluation is necessary since the effects of climate change is not time certain.  However, Legazpi will one step ahead with this proactive approach and can lead in the region as a resilient city.  It was a pleasure to work with the Legazpi team and look forward to seeing their progress.