Urbanization demands sustainable planning and building, to handle the strain of a growing population. Strong urbanization is considered as a driver for vulnerability, and climate resilience has become a key concept. The UN 11^th Sustainable Development Goal in Agenda 2030 states that cities should be made inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, making green and public spaces accessible in particular for women, children, elderly and people with disabilities. Yet, a social sustainable analysis is often lacking in planning aiming for the climate resilient city.

The waterfront area is a place where the tensions between “green cities”, climate resilience and social sustainability will bring the matters to a head, why we will use planning in waterfront areas as an example in our discussion. Waterfront areas have in many cities become areas of revitalization and planning ideals of concentration and competiveness, often with attractive, high cost housing aiming for environmental sustainability and “the green city”. These are areas planned to handle multiple climate effects, e.g. flooding and rising sea-level, while the local physical milieu, for example feelings of inclusion and safety, often get less attention in these processes.

The presentation builds on ongoing work that bring together literature of social sustainable perspectives - including topics like accessibility, safety, inclusion/exclusion, gender and justice - with climate resilience planning research, since there is a lack of research addressing these issues together. These fields need to be connected, in theory and practice, to reach a planning with both climate change resilience and social sustainability in mind.