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Workstream 8: Adaptation and resilience
In liaison with existing forward planning groups, proposals are being developed to guide professionals in increasing building and environmental resilience and biodiversity in the face of higher temperatures, more extreme weather conditions, flooding, pollution, infestation and future pandemics.
Recommendations will be developed in relation to nature-based solutions, development of tighter regulations and other measures.

The workstream is led by Landscape Institute (LI) and includes measurable deliverables divided into three priority groupings: short-term, medium term and long term.
What have we achieved in one year of the plan?
Work on Workstream 8 began in 2022. The first task of the workstream was to review the deliverables.
- Representatives from key professional institutions were identified
- The definition of adaptation and resilience was refined and communicated:
Adaptation: Adjustment in natural or human systems to a new or changing environment that exploits beneficial opportunities or moderates negative effects.
Resilience: Capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance.
Further framing of the workstream objectives is being considered. These include a focus on Nature-Based Solutions in relation to adaptation and resilience.
A scoping review of guidance and publications that exist within each professional body in relation to Adaptation and Resilience is also being undertaken.
Next steps
The next step is to determine the institutions best placed to begin developing plans for adaptation and resilience against the following climate change risks:
- Higher temperatures
- More extreme weather conditions
- Rising flood levels/Coastal Erosion
- Desertification
- Water scarcity
- Pollution
- Infestations
- Future pandemics/Biosecurity
- Ecosystem degradation/Biodiversity Loss
The workstream will also consider the formation of a standing cross-industry group to recommend measures for increasing resilience in building and infrastructure projects.
Resource Library
- The Climate Crisis: A Guide for Local Authorities on Planning for Climate Change
This RTPI guide is intended as an introduction for planners
and the wide community to some of the key issues. It is a starting point
on the vital journey to put in place practical solutions which will halt the rise in temperatures and begin to reverse the climate crisis.
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/...
- Urbanisation, Displacement and Urban Planning
This RTPI report reviews the literature on the relationship between urbanisation and forced displacement, highlights gaps in how urbanisation is understood in displacement settings and how planning knowledge is formulated across humanitarian and development practice.
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/resear...
- RTPI’s Strategic Planning for Climate Resilience
This report is intended to inform Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s creation of their Spatial Development Strategy. This ‘action research’ was conducted as part of the RTPI’s Strategic Planning for Climate Resilience Project, which aims to assist planners in helping local authorities to adapt to and mitigate against climate change.
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/resear...
- UN Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.