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Mountain communities and climate change adaptation: barriers to planning and hurdles to implementation in the Southern Rocky Mountain Region of North America

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Abstract

Geographic factors make mountain communities around the world vulnerable to the direct effects of climate change, and reliance on recreation and tourism can increase vulnerability to the secondary economic impacts.The goal of this research was to investigate the current state of community adaptation planning in the Southern Rocky Mountain region of North America. Using original survey data this paper discusses the challenges that community and county officials currently face, the perceived effects of future climate change in this region, and the perceived barriers to adaptation planning and hurdles to adaptation implementation. Results show lack of resources, information and political will are the most commonly reported barriers to adaptation. This paper also examines the connectivity between mountain communities and the surrounding federal public lands. Fifty one percent of respondents report that decisions made on nearby public lands frequently or always affect planning and decision making in their community. Collaborative efforts between these entities are proposed as a way to reduce the resource burden of adaptation planning for both entities. Finally, this paper discusses how attitudes and beliefs about climate change affect responses to questions about adaptation planning. On average, respondents who report higher levels of concern about and belief in climate change and those who are better informed about climate change report higher levels of adaptation planning. Elected officials in this sample have, on average, lower concern about and belief in climate change than bureaucratic respondents. Thus changes in elected official composition or improved leadership on climate change planning by incumbent officials could facilitate progress on adaptation

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Acknowledgments

I thank the hundreds of municipal employees who took the time to answer my survey and contribute their knowledge to this study. I also thank the pre-testers whose insights provided depth and clarity to our study. I gratefully acknowledge support from the NOAA Climate Program Office through the Western Water Assessment RISA at CIRES, University of Colorado-Boulder. I also gratefully acknowledge CIRES Graduate Research Fellowship support during this research. I also thank Lisa Dilling for her thorough feedback and thoughtful guidance, and Daniel Fernandez for his exceptional GIS contributions. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

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  1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR), Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1333 Grandview Ave, Campus Box 488, Boulder, CO, 80309-0488, USA

    Kelli Marie Archie

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Archie, K.M. Mountain communities and climate change adaptation: barriers to planning and hurdles to implementation in the Southern Rocky Mountain Region of North America. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 19, 569–587 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-013-9449-z

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