IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

As climate change intensifies, it exacerbates existing urban and rural inequalities (Won et al., 2024), leading to disproportionate impacts on low-income populations and remote communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the UK Fens, a region increasingly vulnerable to sea-level rise, flooding, social inequality, and policy inaction (Tyndall Climate Centre, 2024). Despite mounting risks leading to irreversible damage, the UK is “lagging behind” in climate preparedness (National Trust, 2023), particularly in supporting those unable or unwilling to relocate from the places they call home. This raises urgent questions about how to enable dignified, community-led futures in the shadow of policy inaction. Focusing on the UK Fens as a case study, this research asks how careful and responsible design practices can intervene where policy fails, and what can be learned through international comparison? Through participatory and anticipatory design strategies, this paper examines how design can foster resilience, enhance social well-being, and support economic prosperity (Velenturf and Purnell, 2021), while also contributing to social protection and social happiness (Social Policy Association, 2025), by engaging communities emotionally, culturally, and economically embedded in at-risk landscapes. Extending beyond a single context, the study draws on comparative insights to situate local challenges within broader global patterns of climate vulnerability and response. By advancing an anticipatory, care-informed design framework, this paper demonstrates how design can meaningfully respond to the social and spatial consequences of climate unpreparedness. It calls for a more inclusive understanding of climate adaptation; one that not only strengthens policy responses but also centres justice, community agency, and the right to shape meaningful lives beyond survival in the face of environment crisis (European Environment Agency, 2023).