officials engage in a process of trial and error, where decisions are made and implemented and then the outcomes are evaluated and adjusted as conditions change, as new information becomes available, and situations require different forms of action.

Innovation, risk taking, and decentralized decision making are critical to achieving climate adaptation. However, new activities will not pursued unless they are linked to municipal priorities and reward systems and supported by national government policies, programs, and resources. In particular, municipalities can foster the integration of adaptation into routine activities if performance measures have a climate filter and adaptation-oriented activities are rewarded. At the same time, national governments can promote the mainstreaming of adaptation measures in cities by establishing funds that support adaptation measures and by updating laws and regulations related to areas central to adaptation such as building codes, energy efficiency standards, and emergency management.

# **Urban Planning and Climate Adaptation**

From a practical standpoint, the involvement of urban planners is critical to preparing cities for physical, environmental and social impacts of climate change. After the fall of the regimes, planning had a generally poor reputation since it was linked to state-socialism as well as viewed as incompatible with the free market system (S’ykora, 1999). The result was that planning agencies in many countries and municipalities struggled to maintain their operations during the transition (Maier, 1998; Nedović-Budić, 2001). For many countries, the presence of private investment has shifted the focus of urban planning from guiding city growth to trying to monitor and control development. Urban planners have the potential to envision the future of their cities and to play important roles in climate adaptation. However, realizing this potential requires a fundamental revision in their approach. They will need to find a balance between regulating growth and supporting privatization and free market approaches. They also need to find a balance between the old style of command and control and democratic principles. In other words, they need to retain their efforts to envision and shape city growth, albeit in an environmentally sustainable fashion and in ways that are aligned with free market principles and democratic systems.

Climate adaptation planning requires familiarity with the particular weather and temperature shifts expected to take place in the city. From there, planners can draw on their standard toolkit to help decision makers and the public understand the types of vulnerability that are present. In particular, planners are well-equipped to prepare maps (using GIS) that highlight vulnerabilities in infrastructure, buildings, businesses, and communities due proximity to waterways, wetlands, floodplains and other potential stressors. Mapping provides a foundation for developing planning scenarios in light of different weather conditions. Since cities do not exist in a vacuum, mapping needs to account for impacts across the entire ecosystem and as well as attend to how features outside of the city boundaries, ranging from greenspace to industrial facilities, will affect risk and exposure of different communities.

Mapping facilitates the identification of high vulnerability areas and, therefore, populations and aspects of the built environment most at risk. At the same time, the information obtained from these processes can be used to create scenarios based on different climatic conditions and their local impacts. This process, in turn, establishes a foundation for setting priorities and 19