Assessment, Engagement, and Collective Action: A Toolbox for Climate Adaptation Planning

Southern New England American Planning Association Conference October 24, 2014

RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk Assessments take scaled-down climate data to highlight critical local vulnerabilities and opportunities to enhance resilience.

For NECAP, the Summary Risk Assessments used two emissions scenarios – low-emissions and high-emissions – to make climate projections over three time periods: short term (2010 - 2039), medium term (2040 - 2069), and long term (2070 - 2099). The team combined these future climatic changes (including temperature, precipitation, and sea level rise) with other factors (such as the built environment, economics, demographics, and natural context) to create integrated risk and vulnerability assessments for each town. Each risk was also paired with sample adaptation methods that prioritize reducing exposure and sensitivity, and increasing adaptive capacity. The Summary Risk Assessments were used to inform the project’s Stakeholder Assessments and were a broad brushstroke look at potential risks and impacts from climate change.

STAKEHOLDER ASSESSMENT

Stakeholder Assessments engage stakeholders to determine how possible climate change impacts might affect different members of the community, existing stakeholder views, and potential barriers to action.

The NECAP team interviewed a wide-ranging sample of community stakeholders to determine their understanding of and views about the climate change risks identified through the Summary Risk Assessments, as well as their attitudes toward adaptation planning.

ROLE PLAY SIMULATIONS (RPS)

Role-play simulation exercises offer a powerful way for decision-makers, stakeholders, students and others to engage with problems similar to those they face in the real world or may face in the future. Whether in a classroom or community meeting as part of a larger collaborative process, participants can gain insights, test tools and approaches, hone skills and enhance working relationships by grappling with hypothetical or simulated problem-solving situations.

In NECAP, RPS were tailored specifically for each community, and designed to engage participants in a mock decision-making process about key climate change risks facing their community, such as the possibility of severe sea level rise and related impacts on coastal infrastructure. We ran these simulations with stakeholders, public officials, and citizens in each partner municipality to help people learn about local climate change risks and to help communities begin to explore ways of preparing for and adapting to climate change.

For more information please visit necap.mit.edu