CLIMATE MIGRATION PLANNING

CRP 383 / LAR 385 Seminar
Thurs 2:00 – 5:00pm, SUT 2.112
Open to all CRP and LAR graduate students
Katherine Lieberknecht: klieberknecht@utexas.edu

Climate-related migration and relocation increasingly affects people, communities, ecosystems, and planning systems, signaling the need for increased attention from planning practitioners and scholars. This class begins by considering the relationships between people, place, and home. We investigate different types of climate risk that result in migration and then examine past and current climate migration/relocation efforts, primarily in the United States. We then focus on three phases of existing and past relocation programs: buyouts, relocation, and use of vacated land, each with potential to benefit or harm residents and communities. In tandem, we consider how migration and relocation efforts frequently are deeply unpopular with residents. We then synthesize these past and current efforts to identify the gaps that planners need to address as we work with communities to envision and co-create equitable pathways for safe human uses of places threatened by significant and reoccurring climate risk. 

dilapidated structures in a rural setting with a yellow sign

PROGRAM(S)

Community and Regional Planning
Landscape Architecture

SEMESTER(S)

Fall 2025