13. Community Engagement and Equity in Climate Adaptation Planning: Experience of Small- and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States and in France

While a growing number of cities have developed climate adaptation plans, little attention has been paid to connections between stakeholders’ involvement, interpretation of what “vulnerability” really means for them, and considerations of equity aspects in planning adaptation targets. Even less information is available on how considerations of equity are linked to planning approaches and guidelines in different countries and how adaptation planning could be improved through international collaboration and data sharing. This knowledge gap is especially challenging for smaller cities that have received significantly less attention in the scholarly literature. This study examines climate adaptation plans in 24 urban communities with population of less than 300,000 people in France and the United States to reveal how small cities perceive their vulnerability to climate change and what they plan to do to reduce it in a fair and equitable way. Lessons learned from these studies offer valuable insights on how cities interpret their vulnerability to climate change and how they use (or not) such assessments to benefit their most vulnerable groups.