Anticipatory planning: Finding balance in climate change adaptation governance

As climate change progresses, local governments are being forced to find ways to adapt to worsening environmental, economic, and infrastructure impacts. The city of Fredericton, New Brunswick has a long history of river and overland flooding; however, more recent changes in local weather patterns have led to an increase in flood risk in the area. For more than a decade, decision-makers in Fredericton have worked to mainstream adaptation action within municipal policy in order to address the growing flood risk. Through anticipatory spatial planning and incremental infrastructure upgrades, the city aim's to proactively mitigate the impacts of climate change on day-to-day life. Framed through evolutionary governance, this article investigates the relationships between actors and institutions, as well as power and knowledge in order to uncover long-standing path dependencies that hinder comprehensive climate change adaptation action. While Fredericton can be considered a success story in many ways, this research reveals flawed multi-level governance structures and economic development goals as major barriers to effective adaptation in practice. As climate impacts worsen, balancing economic and political interests with adaptation action will require new approaches to adaptation governance.