As the climate heats up, a central challenge for urbanists will be to create compact “cool” communities whose natural amenities offer alternatives to urban sprawl and its consequences. However, climate-resilient urban design—drawing from urban climatology and sustainable design– is not well understood although considerable technical knowledge exists within these fields. There are a number of barriers to implementing climate-resilient design on a large scale, including lack of institutional capacity. Despite its enormous potential for city adaptation to climate change, climate resilient urban design has not yet emerged as a major consideration in standard urban design
practice.