Conclusions and Moving Forward

Abstract

Urban Climate Science for Planning Healthy Cities argues for the recognition of climate as a key element of healthy cities. In doing so, it adds to a legacy of encouragement by urban climatologists and enlightened planners for the inclusion of climate information in decision-making processes related to the planning of cities. Although the call for ‘urban climate science into urban planning action’ has historical precedents, the case advanced in this book is more than timely, especially in the face of a changing climate (the climate crisis), the impacts of which will be felt acutely in the mega-cities of now and the future and, more generally, in a rapidly urbanising world (Wang et al., Urban climate science for planning healthy cities, Springer, London, 2021). In essence, the key idea advanced in this book is, if the attainment of healthy cities from a climate perspective is to be more than a policy aspiration, action towards climate-related health risk management in cities, as can be achieved via climate-sensitive urban planning and design, is imperative. This final chapter draws out some of the common threads running through the material comprising the book’s 16 substantive chapters. Further, it takes the opportunity to look to the future and contemplate some of the issues that might form the basis of an evolving urban climate–urban planning research and action agenda.