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El rol de las ciudades en el cambio climático, en términos de mitigación de emisiones, transacciones de créditos de carbono y adaptación a los impactos locales y regionales, es un tema de creciente interés y preocupación. La documentación del Panel Intergubernamental de Cambio Climático (IPCC), iniciativas como los instrumentos de Kioto (como el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio y el Fondo de Carbono del Banco Mundial) y los riesgos generados y enfrentados por ciudades (a la luz de la experiencia de Nueva Orleans, por ejemplo), enfatizan la necesidad de ponerlas en el centro de la discusión del cambio climático. Este artículo utiliza estas fuentes y otras en la construcción de las indicaciones necesarias para la incorporación de consideraciones de cambio climático dentro de la planificación estratégica en particular. Además, se propone la manera más apropiada de incorporar estas consideraciones en el pensamiento urbano y regional de quienes toman las decisiones y en sus herramientas. Las lecciones para el caso de Santiago de Chile, como ciudad-región sin un plan de adaptación, son presentadas en las conclusiones.

From its origins in the Brundtland report, sustainable development was projected as an activity that was best generated and most appropriate at the local scale. This localisation of the phenomenon was also central to the thinking behind Local Agenda 21. Despite numerous worldwide initiatives along the lines of LA21, it is clear that local applications in metropolitan areas operating without an overarching city-wide framework oriented towards sustainability are likely to confront serious obstacles. While recognising the value of localised initiatives, it is vital that sustainability is at the core of metropolitan level planning. Specifically, the role of strategic urban planning has considerable overlaps with the pretensions of the sustainability agenda, such as high levels of participation, long time horizons, and integrated rather than sectoral decision-making. This article highlights these overlaps and the potentialities for regarding urban sustainability as a conceptual platform for strategic urban planning. Various metropolitan experiences of strategic planning are considered, particularly the case of Santiago de Chile.

For most urban areas, the challenges of adaptation are as urgent as those of mitigation. This is particularly the case where adaptive capacity is weak, particularly in low‐ and middle‐income countries, and the benefits of global mitigation in the short term will be experienced beyond 2050. A focus on adaptive capacity‐building in these vulnerable settings is imperative. Much of the emphasis in climate change since the early 1990s has been on basic science and how public policy should respond to it; less attention has been paid to the governance implications and connections with wider development processes. This article explores the governance challenges of adaptation in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. It points to weaknesses in the water and energy sectors, which have highly sectoral, horizontally unintegrated institutional structures and instruments that pose significant challenges for adaptation. Such cases point to the need to engage with both the wider planning concerns of existing development strategies and the basic elements of transdisciplinarity, finance and human capital‐building, in order to forge a more integrated adaptation response. Without an engagement with the governance issue and wider debates around metropolitan planning and socioeconomic development, it is unlikely the response will move beyond a limited physical infrastructure investment programme.

Water management systems have been typically designed and operated under the assumption of stationarity. This assumption may no longer be valid under climate change scenarios. Water availability may change dramatically at some locations due mainly to possible impacts of changes in temperature and precipitation over streamflow volume and seasonality, adding pressure to water supply systems. It has been shown that snowmelt-dominated basins are particularly sensitive to such changes. Hence, human settlements and economic activities developed in such areas are particularly vulnerable. The Maipo river basin in Central Chile – where more than 6 million people live – is one of these areas. We used a calibrated water resources model of the Maipo river basin, in order to propose a general framework to evaluate adaptation options at the urban level. When comparing a mid-21st century period to a historic control period, results for three selected performance metrics showed a decrease in water system performance. Adaptation measures were evaluated in their capacity to maintain current water security standards. Two alternatives stand as highly effective options to this end: water rights purchases and improvements in water use efficiency. The political and economic costs of implementing these options, which could deem them unviable, are not considered here but are worthy of further research.

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Building on Hayter et al.'s (2003) characterisation of resource peripheries in terms of four institutional dimensions, this article conceptualises four, similar 'transformations' (political, economic, socio-cultural and environmental) intended to evolve this conceptual framework. The case of Chile is analysed in order to ground the analysis, emphasising the structural aspects of its historical experience as a resource periphery. It is clear that the country's condition as a resource periphery has been central to the transformations that have taken place since the early colonial period. In order to illustrate this, the article briefly explores the links between Latin American structuralist and emerging resource periphery accounts. As such, we discuss some of the policy options that might allow the country to move beyond resource periphery status -a goal which is necessary if uneven development in Chile is to be tackled. We conclude that if even and equitable development are goals of geographical analysis then structuralistinformed political-economic work of this nature warrants renewed emphasis.

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