The governance of climate adaptation in metropolitan regions: A systematic review of emerging themes and issues

Abstract

Adaptation to climate change is increasingly part of urban policy agendas around the world. Most research has focused on municipal-level adaptation, while less is known about processes carried out at the metropolitan scale. This systematic review aims to identify the main themes emerging from the literature on climate adaptation governance in metropolitan areas, discussing their relevance in the context of the wider scholarly debate. Based on a thematic analysis performed on academic publications addressing metropolitan-scale adaptation governance, the review identifies a number of emerging narratives in the literature. These concern issues such as the presence of divergences and inequalities within metropolitan regions, seen in the sampled literature as factors that can hinder effective adaptation planning at the metropolitan scale, and the need for greater metropolitan coordination to work across administrative boundaries. The review concludes by suggesting that future research address some identified gaps and outstanding issues, including a certain degree of conceptual ambiguity and the need for greater engagement with the wider literature on metropolitan governance.