Integrating Justice in Urban Climate Adaptation: Transformative Pathways for Inclusive and Resilient Cities

Rapid urbanization and intensifying climate impacts are amplifying deep social and spatial inequalities across cities worldwide. Although urban adaptation strategies have progressed in recent years, they still overlook critical dimensions of justice, inclusion, and equity, leaving the most vulnerable communities disproportionately exposed to floods, heatwaves, and other climate-induced risks. Integrating justice into urban climate adaptation planning is therefore essential to ensure that resilience-building efforts do not reinforce existing disparities but instead foster social transformation.

This Research Topic invites contributions that explore how principles of climate justice can be embedded within the planning, governance, and design of urban adaptation strategies. We particularly encourage interdisciplinary perspectives that bridge the environmental, social, and technological dimensions of resilience—linking research, practice, and policy. Submissions may include empirical, conceptual, or modeling studies that advance understanding of equitable adaptation pathways and foster inclusive and climate-resilient urban futures.



Potential directions include, but are not limited to:



1. Conceptual frameworks and definitions: advancing theories of climate justice and their implications for urban adaptation and resilience.



2. Spatial inequality and vulnerability mapping: using GIS, AI, and remote sensing to identify and visualize uneven exposure and adaptive capacity.



3. Participatory and community-driven adaptation: exploring methods to enhance inclusion, representation, and co-production of adaptation knowledge.



4. Nature-based and hybrid solutions: examining how green and blue infrastructure can deliver both environmental and social justice outcomes.



5. Just transition in urban systems: linking adaptation planning with equitable energy transitions, housing justice, and mobility access.



6. Policy and governance innovation: analyzing local and national governance mechanisms that embed procedural and distributive fairness.



7. Economic and financial justice: assessing investment frameworks, financing models, and benefit-sharing mechanisms for equitable adaptation.



8. Cultural and knowledge integration: bridging indigenous, local, and scientific knowledge systems in adaptation practices.



9. Post-disaster recovery and reconstruction: evaluating justice-oriented approaches in recovery planning and urban resilience.



10. Cross-regional and comparative studies: examining how justice-based adaptation frameworks vary and scale across different contexts, especially in the Global South.



11. Digital and AI dimensions of climate justice: Investigating how emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, and big data analytics can shape equitable urban adaptation, from predictive vulnerability mapping to transparent and inclusive decision-making.



By consolidating insights across these dimensions, this Research Topic seeks to build a comprehensive understanding of how urban adaptation can become a vehicle for social and environmental justice. The outcomes aim to guide policymakers, planners, and researchers toward transformative pathways that make cities more inclusive, equitable, and climate-resilient.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: climate justice, climate adaptation, urban resilience

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.