The impacts of climate change will manifest differently in urban areas depending upon the individual characteristics and contexts of each settlement. The study of climate adaptation planning for towns and small cities is a relatively under-researched field, there has thus far not been a standard typology for characterising towns and cities located at the coast. A typology can inform stakeholders about the physical hazards a coastal town or small city may be exposed currently and in the future; identify the impact that may have to the local population and the economic, cultural, and environmental assets in the settlement; and identify any barriers or opportunities to plan, develop, and implement adaptation strategies. A typology is presented here that includes 34 parameters that cover physical, economic, environmental and social characteristics. This typology has been used within this Special Issue to obtain information about all 22 case studies of the Special Issue. Future work will concentrate on developing the typology further and analysing the data collected to provide a systematic understanding of some of the data gaps that still exist within the field of adaptation in coastal towns and small cities and allow future research to focus on the aspects that are most needed.

气候变化对城市地区的影响将根据每个定居点的个体特征和环境而有所不同。城镇和小城市气候适应规划的研究是一个研究相对不足的领域，迄今为止还没有一个标准的类型学来表征位于海岸的城镇和城市。类型学可以让利益相关者了解沿海城镇或小城市目前和未来可能面临的物理危害；确定可能对当地人口以及定居点中的经济、文化和环境资产产生的影响；并确定规划、制定和实施适应战略的任何障碍或机会。此处介绍的类型学包括 34 个参数，涵盖物理、经济、环境和社会特征。在本特刊中使用这种类型来获取有关特刊的所有 22 个案例研究的信息。未来的工作将集中在进一步发展类型学和分析收集到的数据上，以系统地了解沿海城镇和小城市适应领域中仍然存在的一些数据差距，并使未来的研究专注于最需要的。