Particularists and Systemists: Perspectives on Effective Urban Climate Change Adaptation

Urban climate change adaptation is a multidimensional issue in which adaptation planners must consider many socioeconomic and physical systems together to achieve effective adaptation. Based on a review of existing literature, we propose that planners consider five main dimensions of effectiveness in their work: performance, resources, feasibility, justice and equity, and time. To examine how planners prioritize these five dimensions, we conducted a Q-Methodology study with 12 planners working for the Urban Environment Division in Helsinki, Finland. A factor analysis of these Q-sorts revealed that these planners fall into two viewpoints: the Systemists, those who view adaptation planning on a large-scale, considering how their decisions will affect the entirety of the city in complex ways, and the Particularists, those who view adaptation planning as a highly local, technical, and straightforward challenge. Across both groups, however, there is clear agreement that elements of all five effectiveness dimensions are relevant to adaptation planning, with neither group emphasizing one dimension as more important than the other four. Both groups agreed on the importance of proactive planning and their uncertainty about the state of risk identification in their city, while they disagreed about the scale of their work and the biggest barrier to adaptation in their city. These findings demonstrate that while planners’ interpretations of their adaptation planning responsibility differ, elements of performance, resources, feasibility, justice and equity, and time are all considered in their pursuit of effective adaptation