Adapting to Climate Change in the Compact City: The Suburban Challenge

This paper sets out the challenges of adapting suburbs for climate change in the context of the compact city agenda. We argue that while the compact city debate does address mitigating climate change at a strategic level, it does not specifically consider adapting existing suburban areas to cope with anticipated changes. We discuss the possibilities for, and challenges of, suburban adaptation. In terms of the built environment, such challenges include: difficulties retrofitting existing housing stock, the fragmented ownership and management of land and housing, and the slow pace of change in suburban areas. In terms of mobilizing social change to affect adaptation, problems of coordinating multi-actor partnerships, developing political will, generating public acceptance, and encouraging behaviour change are identified. We conclude that suburbs pose unique challenges for realizing transformations, and that the sustainable development and climate change discourses have yet to be fully integrated in the light of potential conflicts between mitigation and adaptation measures.