A recent investigation into universities in the U.S. and Canada has revealed that many are now incorporating climate change into their urban planning courses. However, the way they teach future professionals about addressing the challenges of climate change differs significantly between institutions.
Urban and community planners are essential to preparing cities for the impacts of climate change. But are the educational programs adequately equipping them to deal with the challenges of mitigation, adaptation, and resilience in their work? Research from the University of Kansas indicates that while American and Canadian universities have made strides, they vary considerably in how they integrate climate change into their educational offerings.
Although the importance of incorporating climate change into urban planning has been recognized for quite some time, specific guidelines on how to do this have not been established. To assess how planning programs are tackling this issue, three researchers conducted a survey of North American universities regarding their curriculum.
Elisabeth Infield from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mark Seasons from the University of Waterloo, and Ward Lyles, an associate professor at KU’s public affairs & administration department, examined more than 100 universities for their study, which appears in the journal Planning Practice & Research.
The findings from the Canadian segment showed that planning programs often address fundamental climate science topics in specialized courses, with most content being included in related fields like geography. Many courses were designed to encourage active participation, consider local and regional contexts, and emphasize themes of justice, equity, and vulnerability to crises. The focus was often more on solutions rather than physical scientific aspects of climate change.
“This concentrated focus over the last two decades makes sense because the scientific understanding has become relatively established, and we’re not trying to catch everyone up,” Lyles noted. “In earlier discussions, the emphasis was on preventing climate change, but after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it became clear what needed to be done.”
According to the study of U.S.-based programs, the number of universities offering a comprehensive course on climate change nearly doubled from 2010 to 2023, with such courses available nationwide in both traditionally conservative and liberal states.
A conjoint study involving both countries aimed to pinpoint the types of climate-related content provided in accredited planning programs and to explore factors that facilitate or hinder this integration. Responses from program directors and faculty revealed that over 60% of programs offer elective courses lasting a full semester on climate change, followed by mandatory courses that cover climate change modules. The survey results also indicated a tendency to emphasize adaptation over mitigation, with students and faculty more often championing the inclusion of the topic than administrators, alumni, or future employers.
Combining insights from all three studies suggests that urban planning programs in both the U.S. and Canada are increasingly prioritizing climate change in their educational frameworks. Most programs incorporate it into existing and often elective courses. However, they face challenges in determining the depth of coverage and how to integrate it across planning disciplines. There appears to be a greater emphasis on adaptation strategies rather than on mitigation efforts or resilience planning within communities.
“Our stance is that graduates from planning programs must address climate change,” Lyles asserted. “We expect a dedicated course on the topic, but we also need to ensure that it is embedded across all aspects of urban planning education.”
The researchers proposed several recommendations:
- Mandating core courses on climate change in planning education and practice.
- Monitoring compliance of accredited planning programs with requirements for climate change in the core curriculum.
- Enhancing opportunities for exchanges across programs and nations on teaching climate change.
- Broadening perspectives beyond the standard methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate challenges to more significantly include equity and justice in transformative planning.
- Setting a good example to demonstrate the urgency of both mitigation and adaptation while incorporating these issues into existing classes.
Lyles emphasized that addressing climate change with the younger generation, who will become future planners, may present both practical and emotional challenges. However, it is crucial for the profession to engage with these issues. Upcoming planners will have to make decisions regarding the deployment of community resources and the design of cities that can withstand the increasingly severe consequences of climate change.
“We discovered there is little focus on addressing how to engage young individuals, whose contribution to the problem is minimal while they are continually informed of the global struggles,” Lyles reflected. “How do we educate them on this matter? A sense of hopelessness is rarely an effective motivator. Our goal is to prepare planners to make informed decisions and guide community dialogues. This requires substantial emotional intelligence. There are numerous tough conversations to have, and we aren’t navigating this adequately enough.”
