Adaptation pathways are composed of sequences of adaptation actions connected through collaborative learning with the possibility of enabling transformations in urban and infrastructure systems . Individual adaptation actions co-evolve with risks  and development processes  to compose more or less planned adaptation pathways that can include a range of unanticipated outcomes. This section engages with this complexity by approaching adaptation through the notion of infrastructure. The adaptation options for individual infrastructure systems are reviewed, and in Section 6.4 brought together through assessment of cross-cutting enabling conditions. Interpreted broadly, infrastructure includes the social systems, ecological systems and grey/ physical systems that underpin safe, satisfying and productive life in the city and beyond . Social infrastructure includes housing, health, education, livelihoods and social safety nets, cultural heritage/institutions, disaster risk management and security and urban planning. Ecological infrastructure includes nature-based services: temperature regulation, flood protection and urban agriculture. Grey, or physical infrastructure, includes energy, transport, water and sanitation, communications , built form and solid waste management. Framing infrastructure in this way enables an assessment of adaptation that is not constrained to the administrative boundaries of urban settlements, but also includes the flows of material, people and money between urban, peri-urban and more rural places, and can include adaptation actions deployed by government, individuals and the private sector. Recognising the complexity of adaptation and
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report