An innovative approach to planning education for wicked climate change problems: A case study involving enhanced bushfire risk in periurban areas

Climate change is described as a "super-wicked problem", inferring that it is a problem involving not only great complexity and deep uncertainties but also the urgency of time running out. Climate change is expected to exacerbate current levels of bushfire risk in the periurban areas of Australia's cities and so intensify the complexities of environmental planning. Such complex problems are making novel demands on planners' capacities. This paper describes an innovative WIKI platform that gives environmental planning students the opportunity to (i) develope their capacities for addressing complex climate change problems; and (ii) undertake strategic approaches to environmental planning. The WIKI approach involved small teams working collaboratively to critically analyse existing strategies and develop strategic frameworks aimed at increasing social-ecological resilience to bushfire risk in the study area. Subsequent review and reflection lead the authors to reframe their understanding.