Climate Adaptation Strategies
A climate adaptation strategy is a plan designed to reduce the threats that come from climate change. Small and large governments around the world have already begun the process of adapting their communities to changes in our climate.
Here’s how climate adaptation strategies are being developed and executed at each level of government:
Cities
Cities have a unique threat from climate change because of their population density. Cities currently hold more than 56% of the world’s population and this is expected to reach 68% by 2050.
Climate threats are highest near coastlines, islands, and floodplains where volatile weather patterns can wreak havoc on the environment. Due to historical trading routes and access to natural resources, these geographic areas are also where the majority of the world’s cities have been built up over time.
Cities finding themselves in the path of more volatile weather events are adapting with two types of strategies:
1) Reducing the negative impact of volatile weather events
2) Increasing their ability to respond to unexpected events
Here are some of the main adaptation strategies cities are employing:
Nature-Based Climate Solutions
Nature-based solutions strategically develop vegetated areas to help buffer against expected natural threats like high winds, flooding, and landslides. Some nature-based solutions include:
- Planting trees and native vegetation along city streets reduces atmospheric carbon through carbon sequestration processes while also reducing flood potential by providing permeable surfaces in areas predominantly constructed with concrete.
- Installing buffer zones with native and hydrophilic vegetation reduces flooding, runoff, and urban pollution with natural barriers.
- Installing new urban drainage systems helps reduce flood severity and protects urban waste systems from flood damage and other climate-related impacts.
Not only do nature-based climate solutions reduce the risk of environmental pollution and negative climate-related impacts on human health, but they also contribute to benefits beyond adaptation – including economic prosperity through job creation. Over 1 billion jobs exist in farming, fisheries, forestry, and tourism – all of which are industries that cities utilize for nature-based climate adaptation strategies.
Systematic Resiliency
“Systematic climate resilience” is a term used to describe a city’s ability to withstand and recover from a range of climate-related hazards. Almost all cities incorporate resilience into their climate adaptation strategies, but there is plenty of room for improvement and further implementation. To improve systematic climate resilience, cities must have a well-rounded understanding of climate risks and their impacts. By incorporating climate risks into planning, developing early-warning systems to alert citizens and officials of severe climate events, and having financial assurances for human and environmental damages in place, human and ecological risks shrink to manageable levels.
Outlined below are the four primary systematic climate-resilience actions:
- Conduct Risk Assessments – i.e., Hazard maps, impact assessments, and geospatial analysis.
- Incorporate Climate Risks into Current and Future Urban Planning.
- Implement Early Warning Systems and Protocols.
- Prioritize Insurances
By increasing public climate awareness, introducing biological engineering strategies, and updating existing infrastructure, cities can prioritize the safety and wellbeing of urban residents and local natural environments. However, none of these strategies are effective alone – they require a systematic approach to combat climate change and minimize climate risks effectively.
Early-Warning Systems and Protocols
To keep urban populations safe from potential high-risk, severe climate events, cities must implement early warning systems that reach all citizens in the instance of an emergency. Cities around the globe have implemented such procedures in response to previous high-risk events – many of which were witness to numerous human deaths or severe environmental damage. In May of 2010, the city of Ahmedabad in India suffered an intense heatwave that led to nearly 1350 unnecessary deaths – showing just how vulnerable urban populations can be in extreme climate events. The Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation developed a First Action Heat Plan to build public awareness and community outreach, enhance building capacity among healthcare professionals, and reduce heat exposure by mapping high-risk areas in response to the event. Since 2010, far fewer deaths have occurred in similar climate-related instances.
Local Governments
To help protect communities and natural environments from the risks and impacts of climate change, local governments must adapt and prepare with new and innovative solutions. Communities and environments are vulnerable in different ways around the globe, so we can not depend on state and national governments to focus on local issues. Instead, local governments must implement climate adaptation strategies that help negate the impacts of climate change individually. For example, San Fransisco faces drastically different threats than the Florida Keys, so local government strategies must reflect each specifically.
Outlined below are a few ways governments positively impact climate risks locally.
Low Carbon Resilience Strategies
Low carbon resiliency is a climate adaptation strategy that uses a largely nature-based approach to combating atmospheric carbon’s effects on climate change. Increasing green spaces, planting more trees, and managing the impacts of flooding with natural vegetation all offer higher carbon sequestration rates – reducing air pollution and minimizing local temperate increases. Not only do low carbon resilience strategies help reduce things like the urban heat island effect, but they also protect wildlife habitats, promote natural biodiversity, and enhance outdoor recreational opportunities in local communities. Further, many low carbon resilience strategies are often budget-friendly, significantly benefiting governments with limited environmental budgets.
Climate Modeling and Risk Assessment
While many tools currently exist to model climate change and assess risks in various geographical locations, governments must continue to push the envelope and utilize more of these technologies. By doing so, governments can make informed decisions on climate adaptation to reduce financial risk, improve public safety, and preserve natural resources. Some governments are even going as far as developing annual regional climate projection reports to understand current and future climate threats better.
Energy Conservation Strategies
Local governments can significantly impact communities and private sectors with a lead-by-example strategy in energy efficiency. By improving energy efficiency infrastructure in new, existing, and renovated facilities, community leaders, the general public, and investors may begin to see the benefits and financial opportunities in enhancing energy efficiency.
According to the EPA, energy accounts for nearly 10% of a local government’s annual operating budget. Upgrading and enhancing energy efficiency in public buildings could save US taxpayers billions of dollars every year – lowering taxes or opening up the door to funding new climate adaptation strategies. Still, local governments are slow to adopt energy efficiency strategies, whether it’s due to the initial costs, restricted budgets, or a lack of support from the public or its policymakers.
Investing in energy efficiency at the local level goes well-beyond climate benefits. Governments can directly promote economic benefits through market development and job creation by enhancing energy efficiency. According to the DOE, nearly 60% of energy investments go toward labor costs – with over 50% of energy-efficient technology and equipment purchased from local suppliers.
Communities
Communities are looking forward to a future of higher regional and global temperatures, erratic weather patterns, spontaneous natural disasters, and rising sea levels. While the impacts of climate change vary widely by geographic location, various factors are at large that threaten the livelihood of individuals and communities. To minimize the adverse effects of climate change on natural environments and human populations, we must work at the community level to increase awareness, develop strategies, and prepare for a less predictable future. Below, we discuss a few ways people can work on the community level to minimize and manage the effects of the changing climate.
Water Resource Management
Water availability and water resource degradation are at an increased risk due to climate change, and the risk is only growing. Rapidly changing precipitation patterns, increased rainfall events, high storm intensity, and global sea-level rise contribute to water resource management troubles. Without immediate support and direction from local governments, communities struggle to manage water resources. Still, there are ways that we can better manage water resources within our communities.
Public awareness is one of the best ways to improve water resource management on the community level. By understanding that water resources are limited and vulnerable to degradation, people will realize that their actions can significantly impact water resource sustainability. Here are a few ways individuals and communities can contribute:
- Use less water – showering, washing dishes, watering lawns, etc.
- Be mindful of wastewater – fertilizers, laundry detergents, etc.
- Reuse water when possible – reuse, recycle, repurpose
Waste Management
Waste management is a significant concern for communities moving into the future. The impacts of climate change, particularly flooding, are threatening the environment, natural resources, and public health by contaminating waste management facilities – especially in developing countries with less than adequate waste systems. In many areas worldwide, waste systems quickly flood, bringing human and animal waste to city surfaces. Not only is the waste a threat to human health, but it also threatens natural biodiversity through the destruction of wildlife habitats and resource pollution.
To combat waste management issues on a community level, people must work together to change policy and redirect funding toward enhanced waste systems – especially in coastal areas where rising sea levels threaten communities with more significant flooding occurrences.
Public Transportation Adaptation
One of the best ways to adapt to the changing climate on individual and community levels is to utilize public transportation regularly. Using public transportation reduces the amount of atmospheric carbon by significant amounts – slowing the rate of climate change and reducing its effects. While utilizing existing and future public transportation options is a step in the right direction, communities must push for government support with policy and risk assessment to protect these systems. Communities need to demand transportation-based risk assessments, put in plans that account for extreme weather and flooding, and relocate or build new transportation infrastructure to reduce future climate events’ impact on the ability to use public transit.
Communities must be willing to make changes to utilize public transportation. Still, they also need assurance that their efforts will not leave them in an undesirable position – one where they have no option to get to work or make necessary trips around their city.
Local Institutions
Since climate adaptation is predominately a local issue, it’s imperative to understand the role of local institutions in shaping adaptation plans and improving the ability of communities and social groups to withstand the effects of climate change.
There are three types of local institutions that are relevant to climate adaptation:
- Public
- Private
- Civic
Public, private, and civic institutions all play a pivotal and unique role in climate change adaptation and how we reduce climate-related risks in our communities. Each institution manages certain community functions. Information collection, resource mobilization, resource allocation, skills and knowledge development, capacity building – the list goes on.
While there should be some clear boundaries in how these institutions operate and collaborate, there seem to be some common discrepancies regarding climate change adaptation processes.
To start, public and private institutions play a significant role in studying and adopting adaptation strategies. Each institution has a voice representing some aspect of the community, and each must hear one another to ensure responsibility and commitment across the board. While straightforward in theory, funding and implementation of climate strategies often fall victim to the conflict between public and private institutions. To ensure a well-intentioned, more direct approach to climate resilience in the future, we must begin to adopt new methods for interaction between parties, whether that means diversifying funding or allocating assets more agreeably.
Secondly, public, private, and civic institutions often fail to make distinct and straightforward efforts to facilitate the inner workings of each institution. There is an apparent lack of fluidity between all parties regarding climate adaptation, as each institution has its own goals and motives. To adequately manage and incorporate climate adaptation strategies, all institutions, regardless of status, must make an effort not to thwart entire climate strategies for the sake of their interests. In the end, all parties benefit from climate solutions, regardless of how parties distribute immediately available funding.
Lastly, institutional arrangements with an informal tone and direction allow for a much higher level of collaboration and policy success – as each party feels their voice heard on all matters. To continue to make positive changes in the fight against climate change, institutions on all sides must continue to foster informal or semi-informal relationships to ensure a climate-competent future. Local-level adoption fails more than often when institutions have conflicting ideals or run on another through a stage of hoops – making it critical that individuals and communities vote for change through government and public leadership roles.
It’s important to remember that local institutions are essentially in place due to the demand or support of the communities they serve. Without individual and community consent, they should not – and often do not – have the right to operate freely without the people’s voice.
A climate adaptation strategy is a plan designed to reduce the threats that come from climate change. Small and large governments around the world have already begun the process of adapting their communities to changes in our climate. Here’s how climate adaptation strategies are being developed and executed at each level of government: Cities Local…