ABSTRACT
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) have largely developed as parallel but separate discourses. This chapter critiques the institutional frameworks and practices of planning that seek to reduce risk to exposed and vulnerable populations. It provides an overview of planning in the context of DRR and CCA, especially where connections and overlaps occur. Planning systems are typified by a decision model based on adjustments that are rationally bounded, where decision makers initiate the decision process based on limited knowledge, and within constraints set by their institutional and social systems. Planning practice and decision making require new approaches to act as catalysts for better integration of CCA and DRR, with a focus on the dependency of long-term outcomes on near-term actions. International agreements can provide legitimacy, through regulatory frameworks and principles, for governments to take DRR and CCA action. However, such agreements tend to be single purpose or so broad to be weak drivers for planning.
