Climate mobility, the movement of people in response to climate-related risks, presents urgent and complex challenges for communities across the world and across the United States. By 2100, millions may be displaced by sea-level rise, stronger storms, wildfires, drought, and other climate-driven hazards, while other areas may experience rapid population influxes. The Gulf Coast exemplifies this dual reality: it is both a sending and receiving region, as seen after Hurricane Katrina, when more than 200,000 displaced New Orleans residents evacuated to Houston and tens of thousands ultimately made the city their permanent home. These interconnected dynamics create significant planning pressures related to housing, infrastructure, ecosystem health, social services, land markets, and fiscal resilience.

In response to these evolving challenges, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s Consortium for Scenario Planning launched a 2025 Request for Proposals to support three community-based exploratory scenario planning (XSP) projects focused specifically on climate mobility. These projects are currently designing and delivering participatory workshops that use climate projections to explore multiple plausible futures, identify strategies that perform well across scenarios, and strengthen collective decision-making capacity. 

This presentation will share early observations and anticipated areas of insight from the ongoing work, including methods for translating climate data into relatable narratives, approaches for engaging diverse and historically underrepresented stakeholders, and emerging considerations related to equity, governance, housing, and institutional readiness. While results are still in development, the session will outline initial themes and research questions surfacing across the three project sites. These insights aim to support planners, researchers, and practitioners seeking to integrate climate mobility into resilience planning while navigating deep uncertainty.