Understanding U.S. Internal Climate-related Migration: Research to Date and Implications for Planners

Climate-related migration is likely to become important demographic data for urban planning, as climate impacts increase over this century. Our systematic literature review examines current scholarship on internal climate-related migration modeling, destinations, sending and receiving communities in the United States. Based on background articles plus 30 articles in the systematic literature review, we find that climate-related migrants mostly relocate to adjacent areas, and receiving communities experience socio-infrastructural hardships. Also, modeling is not yet precise enough for local planning use. But our findings do suggest which communities are most at risk of climate-related population change and suggest directions for future research.