Strategies for urban climate adaptation: Pathways towards equitable resilience in Barcelona and Berlin

This article explores the way normative reference to climate justice influences approaches to adaptation planning in the two 'early adopter' cities of Barcelona and Berlin, and traces this influence through an analysis of their strategic policy and planning documents framed according to the three key dimensions of equitable resilience.

In conclusion, the article therefore shows that the concept of equitable resilience can be productive in critical-analytical terms - highlighting challenges in framing strategies for adaptation planning according to equity principles and differences in awareness and performance across case-studies - as well as in normative terms. In first instance, this represents a necessary enrichment of the conceptual framing of climate adaptation planning. As an analytical framework, the resilience concept grants openness to various planning approaches and methodological attempts that might be neglected by more rigid constructs.