Ability of Urban Planning Policy in Addressing Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Abstract

Climate change is a multidimensional observable fact and is regarded as one of the greatest challenges human society is facing in the 21st century. Urban researchers advocate that well formulated urban spatial planning policy has the ability to mitigate climate change and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change. However, there has been limited research on analysing the extent to which spatial planning policies address climate change mitigation and adaptation. This chapter presents a qualitative evaluation of urban spatial planning polices in India by assessing planning policies against an evaluation framework. The analysis highlights that there are limited climate change mitigation and adaptation indicators in planning documents, and these indicators have been very limitedly integrated in the planning documents. This research supports the use of spatial planning policy as an effective tool in addressing climate change mitigation and has an implication for mainstreaming climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban planning.