Urbanization Strategies in a Changing Climate
Looking “North” with Jesse Keenan
03 februari 2026
On October 9, Red&Blue hosted Jesse Keenan for a lecture on his new book, North: The Future of Post-Climate America at TU Delft. Keenan is an internationally renowned scholar of sustainable real estate and urban planner based at Tulane University in New Orleans and a member of the Red&Blue advisory board.
Extreme heat, stronger storms, and other dimensions of climate change are making regions like the US Southwest and Gulf Coast less livable, Keenan contends. This marks an important shift: the trajectory US regional and urban growth during the second half of the twentieth century had a southerly orientation. For decades, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Houston, Tampa and Atlanta have been among the fastest growing cities in the US. Many of the fundamental advantages that fueled this growth – like favorable tax policies or labor laws, first-time public infrastructure investments, or accessible finance for housing – are diminishing as these places mature. The spatial development of these cities has been marked by sprawling auto-dependence, often in ways that have ignored or exacerbated ecological vulnerabilities. Think of the intensive urbanization of Florida’s coast, which is total home to trillions of dollars of property yet is acutely exposed to rising seas and stronger tropical cyclones. In conjunction with climate change, the futures of these places may be less bright, Keenan argues.
In contrast, regions with comparative climate advantages – like more mild seasonal extremes, or access to fresh water – may be poised to benefit from future growth. In many cases, these include the very places in the US North that saw growth slow or decline as the South boomed. From Minnesota to Vermont, many communities have now attracted attention as would-be “climate havens.” Several of these communities have seen outsized population growth in recent years, generating new pressure on their physical and social infrastructure.
Keenan’s talk was accompanied by a reflective interdisciplinary panel discussion comprised of TU Delft faculty – Tatiana Filatova, Marcel Hertogh, Zac Taylor, and Tom Daamen – and IPCC-expert Winston Chow from Singapore Management University.
