MR2025

MR2025: Mobility, Adaptation, and Wellbeing in a Changing Climate | June 16-18, 2025 | Columbia University, New York City

In partnership with the Global Centre for Climate Mobility


ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
The Columbia Climate School has hosted Managed Retreat conferences every two years since 2019. In 2025, we are changing the name to MR, for Mobility and Resilience, in recognition of the fact that “managed retreat” as a term is contested and specific to particular geographic contexts. The conference addresses a range of topics beyond retreat, including other responses to climate risks such as voluntary or seasonal migration, adaptation in place, public policy, housing, insurance markets, green infrastructure, and resilience-building (see list of MR2025 topics below). So whether you choose to think of MR as standing for Managed Retreat or Mobility and Resilience, we welcome you to the 2025 conference!

SUBMISSIONS
Submit a proposal for a complete group session or an individual presentation, workshop, or poster using this form. The new deadline for submissions is Monday, January 27, 2025, by 5pm Eastern time.

CONFERENCE THEMES

Sessions and presentations at MR2025 will engage a wide variety of pressing topics at the intersection of mobility, adaptation, and wellbeing:

Numerous people atop a jeep in Niger leaving because of food insecurity or lack of work related to changes in agricultural yields linked to climate change. Credit: Kevin Uno
Mobility

Planned relocation / resettlement | Migration as adaptation / maladaptation | Voluntary migration | Facilitated migration (government funding or support for migration) | Displaced populations | Daily mobility patterns (access to jobs and services)

Farmers at the site of a fire set to clear land for agriculture near Pucallpa, Peru. Credit: Kevin Krajick
Resilience: Climate, Ecology & Sustainability

Climate science for managed retreat | Non-coastal climate risks (flood and riverine areas; drought and dryland expansion; temperature extremes; wildfire in the urban–wildland interface) | Ecosystem conservation and migration | Green infrastructure (ecosystem-based adaptation; bioswales)

Columbia researchers and collaborators from Jamaica meet with farmers in Jamaica's Blue Mountains. Credit: Malgosia Madajewicz
Communities

Environmental justice and equity (differential impacts; climate gentrification) | Sending zones (who leaves, who stays; involuntary immobility; economic impacts | Receiving zones and communities | Communication strategies (storytelling; teaching about managed retreat; arts) | Social science for managed retreat (vulnerability; risk; opportunity) | Community resilience (community organizing; vulnerable populations; social psychology; mental health; crowding out; residents’ perspectives)

Malgosia Madajewicz presents a slide on water levels from a 100-year flood in Rockaway, Queens.
Built Environment

Design and architecture | Land use / urban planning | Infrastructure approaches | When infrastructure fails

Marco Tedesco presents a slide on the Climate Displacement and Social Vulnerability Index.
Governance, Policy & Law

Governance, policy and planning (decision-making; international frameworks; federal management; state programs; local planning; multi-level policy coordination) | Buyouts and property acquisition | Legal issues and tools (property rights; zoning & land use; immigration)

A vacant lot where a home likely stood before Hurricane Sandy struck this neighborhood in Breezy Point, Queens. Some residents chose to take government buyouts, while others chose to rebuild. Photo: Sarah Fecht
Economics & Development

Private sector perspectives (economic development strategies; corporate relocations; labor market dynamics) | Finance and economics (market signals; real estate; insurance; capital markets) | Receiving areas (growth management and sustainable regional development) | Housing markets | Insurance markets