Dissecting climate adaptation strategies and planning of ports from different theoretical angles

Abstract

As the key nodes of globalization and international business, ports are exposed to the impacts of climate change, mainly because of their locations, including low-lying areas, coastal zones, and deltas. While there is increasing research on climate adaptation strategies and planning of ports, there is a lack of works that explain how scholars address the topic from different theoretical angles. This paper fills this gap by dissecting climate adaptation strategies and planning of ports from four main perspectives, including institutional systems, path dependence, supply chain risk management, and stakeholder management. It is a germane reminder to port decision-makers that effective climate adaptation is not limited to engineering technicalities but is an ideological issue that requires shifting existing political, economic, and social paradigms. Towards the end, we propose a process of effective adaptation planning to climate change impacts by ports.