This research challenges the traditional dichotomy between autonomous and planned climate adaptation by proposing a third category, “mixed adaptation,” which combines elements of both. This study reveals that mixed adaptation is prevalent across sectors and regions, underscoring the need to view adaptation as a continuum. A new typology identifies nine interaction patterns, offering insights into how blended approaches can create effective, scalable, and locally relevant adaptation strategies.
Adaptation to climate change is often conceptualized as a dichotomy, with responses being either planned (formal and structured) or autonomous (organic and self-organized, often known as “everyday adaptation”). Recent literature on adaptation responses has highlighted the existence and importance of the interplay between autonomous and planned adaptation, but examination of this interaction has been limited to date. A global database of 1,682 peer-reviewed articles on adaptation responses was used to systematically examine both types of adaptation, with an emphasis on their interactions. Through this examination, a third category, mixed adaptation, is proposed to capture responses that display characteristics of both autonomous and planned adaptation. This mixed category reflects nuances in how organization, external support, formality, and autonomy manifest within the space between the two categories.
Analysis reveals that more than one-third of articles discussing adaptation responses fit into this mixed category, with examples spanning various sectors and regions worldwide. From these findings, a qualitative typology of mixed adaptation emerges, identifying nine ways in which autonomous and planned adaptation can interact, both positively and negatively. These insights suggest a need for a more nuanced approach to the interplay between autonomous and planned adaptation, advocating for a continuum rather than a strict dichotomy in adaptation planning. Exploring the patterns of interplay from a large database of adaptation responses offers new insights on the relative roles of both autonomous and planned adaptation for mobilizing adaptation pathways in locally relevant, scalable, effective, and equitable ways.
Conceptual representation of the Autonomous-Planned Continuum and the nine typologized ways the two can interact and influence each other.
The figure represents the “bundle” (1) where autonomous and planned adaptations co-exist, but do not necessarily act on or interact with each other. The teal to gold arrows show how planned adaptation can act on autonomous: constraining it (2a), enabling it (2b), and being sustained by it (2c). The gold to teal arrows show how autonomous adaptation can act on planned: constraining it (3a), driving it (3b), informing it (3c), and evolving into it (3d). Types on the left of the diagram demonstrate a stronger influence for autonomous adaptation; types on the right a stronger influence for planned. The “collaborative” type (4) falls directly in the middle of the figure because planned and autonomous are exerting equal influence on each other.
Team Leader: International Climate Risk and Adaptation; Senior Research Fellow
SEI Headquarters
Feature / SEI and partners created a climate village at a historic arts festival in Hungary to bring youth views and artistic expression into climate policy discussions.
Event on 18 May – 21 May in Cavtat / Luke Gooding will present a new paper which focuses on scaling participatory retrofit across diverse housing stocks.
Perspective / This perspective argues for a systemic approach by integrating mitigation and adaptation by default into every policy, budget and planning decision.
