Looking under the hood of local adaptation plans: shedding light on the actions prioritized to build local resilience to climate change

Abstract

In the face of a changing climate, many United States (US) local governments are creating plans to prepare. These plans layout how a community is vulnerable to existing and future changes in climate as well as what actions they propose taking to prepare. The actions included in these plans provide insight into what local governments feel they have the ability to undertake, as well as what actions they believe are important to building resilience. To date, little to no analysis has been conducted on the content of these plans, leaving researchers, practitioners, and those supporting communities with limited understanding of what gaps need to be filled or how best to support locally prioritized climate action. This paper analyzes the content of 43 stand alone climate adaptation plans from US local communities to identify the types of actions proposed and how those actions compare to what researchers indicate the communities should be prioritizing based on regional climate projections. The results indicate that local communities include numerous and varied actions in their adaptation plans and that the majority of communities are selecting actions that are theoretically appropriate given projected changes in regional climate. Yet some types of actions, such as building codes and advocacy, are not being widely used. These results contrast with previous studies, which found that local communities focus primarily on capacity building approaches. Findings also demonstrate that plans rarely contain significant details about how actions will be implemented, raising questions about whether plans will translate into real-world projects.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Initial metrics included by the authors in the first phase of coding within the “strategies” principle

This table summarizes all of the criteria included by the authors within the strategies principle. Column one lists the names of the individual criteria. All criteria are grouped into two categories: those that are specific types of adaptation strategies and those that help justify the need for adaptation strategy implementation. Column two briefly describes each criterion, and column three presents the percentage of plans within our sample that included the criterion.

Criterion	Description	Percent plans (%)
Type of adaptation strategy proposed
Capacity building	The plan includes capacity building strategies. Capacity building is developing human resources, institutions, and communities, equipping them with the capability to adapt.	84
Advocacy	The plan includes advocacy strategies. Advocacy includes encouraging regional and state agencies to have adaptation-appropriate strategies.	25
General strategies	The plan includes generic adaptation strategies, which are strategies not specific enough to be classified in another category.	91
Information and awareness	The plan includes information and awareness strategies, which are strategies focused on increasing public knowledge.	84
Research and monitoring	The plan includes research or monitoring strategies, which are those that focus on gathering information and creating reports, maps, or models; monitoring includes observation or repeated measurements over time.	95
Planning	The plan includes planning-related strategies, which include strategies that incorporate understanding of climate science, impacts, vulnerability, and risk into government and institutional planning process, efforts, or existing initiatives.	91
Practice and behavior	The plan includes strategies to change practice and behavior. Practice and behavior strategies revise or expand practices and on-the-ground behavior that affect resilience.	95
Policy and legislation	The plan includes policy and legislation strategies aimed at preparing for climate change.	80
Physical infrastructure	The plan includes physical infrastructure strategies to prepare for climate change.	82
Building codes and engineering design standards	The plan includes strategies to improve physical infrastructure’s response to changing climate through improved standards or engineering.	70
Green infrastructure	The plan includes green infrastructure strategies aimed at providing protection from climate hazards.	64
Land use	The plan includes land use strategies focused on preparing for climate change.	82
Conservation	The plan includes conservation strategies to preserve biodiversity and protect open space under a changing climate.	66
Financing	The plan includes financing or insurance strategies to prepare for future climate changes.	55
Technology	The plan includes technology strategies.	66
Justification for the adaptation strategies
Prioritized actions	The plan prioritizes adaptation strategies.	34
Prioritized strategies detailed	The plan prioritizes adaptation strategies and describes how strategies were ranked.	20
Specific adaptation strategies	The plan includes strategies that are linked to specific impacts.	55
Cost	The plan estimates the cost of implementing specific adaptation actions.	30
Cost detailed	The plan identifies the cost of implementing each adaptation strategy.	16
Cost of inaction	The plan states that taking action to adapt to climate change costs less than not acting.	43
Cost of inaction detailed	The plan provides specific dollar figures on the cost of inaction versus adaptation.	30
Co-benefits	The plan identifies co-benefits associated with taking adaptation action.	50

Appendix 2: Initial metrics included by the authors in the first phase of coding within the “implementation and monitoring” principle

This table summarizes all of the criteria included by the authors within the implementation and monitoring principle. Criteria are grouped into two categories: those that support implementation and those that support monitoring. Column one lists the names of the individual criteria, column two briefly describes each criterion, and column three presents the percentage of plans within our sample that included the criterion.

Criterion	Description	% plans
Implementation metrics
Timetable for implementation	Provides a timetable for when each action will be implemented	32
Implementation responsibilities	Assigns responsibility for policies broadly to organizations or agencies	39
Implementation responsibilities detailed	Assigns responsibility for the implementation of each strategy	34
Funding (need for)	Describes the need for funding sources to implement the plan	36
Potential funding sources detailed	Clearly describes potential funding sources and associates them with particular strategies	23
Mainstreaming	Discusses mainstreaming climate change adaptation, mainstreaming refers to the integration of climate adaptation into other sector policies or plans	84
Mainstreaming detailed	Identifies specific plans and programs as opportunities for mainstreaming, mainstreaming refers to the integration of climate adaptation into other sector policies or plans	61
Barriers	Mentions barriers to climate adaptation	23
Monitoring metrics
Reporting requirements	Includes requirements for the regular reporting of implementation progress	16
Monitoring responsibility	Mentions assignment of responsibility for monitoring	20
Evaluation method	Establishes a process to evaluate the plan	7
Evaluation method detailed	Describes when analyses of progress toward objectives will take place and how results will be used	5
Evaluation metrics	Mentions how to measure progress towards implementing strategies	16
Evaluation metrics detailed	Mentions how to measure progress towards implementing each strategy identified in the plan	14
Plan updates	Mentions need for updates	27
Plan updates detailed	Includes timetable for updating plan	16

Appendix 3: List of plans included in our analysis

List of communities with an adaptation plan (left column) and name of the plan (right column) included in our analysis.

Community	Plan title
Albany, NY	Albany Climate Change: Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan
Anne Arundel County MD	Sea Level Rise Strategic Plan: Anne Arundel County
Austin, TX	Toward a Climate-Resilient Austin
Baltimore, MD	Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project: Combined All Hazards Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan
Boston, MA	Climate Ready Boston: Municipal Vulnerability to Climate Change
Boulder County, CO	Boulder County Climate Change Preparedness Plan
Chester, PA	The City of Chester Vision 2020: Climate Adaptation Planning Elements
Chula Vista, CA	Climate Adaptation Strategies: Implementation Plans
City and County of Denver, CO	City and County of Denver Climate Adaptation Plan
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, MT	Climate Change Strategic Plan
Dane County, WI	Climate Change and Emergency Preparedness
Dorchester County, MD	Sea Level Rise: Technical Guidance for Dorchester County
Durham, NH	Climate Adaptation Chapter: Developing Strategies to Protect Areas at Risk from Flooding due to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK	Interior Issues Council Climate Change Task Force: Preliminary Vulnerability Assessment Report
Flagstaff, AZ	City of Flagstaff Resiliency and Preparedness Study
Fresno County, CA	Integrated Strategies for a Vibrant and Sustainable Fresno County
Grand Rapids, MI	Grand Rapids Climate Resiliency Report
Groton, CT	Preparing for Climate Change in Groton, Connecticut: A Model Process for Communities in the Northeast
Guilford, CT	Town of Guilford Community Coastal Resilience Plan
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, WA	Climate Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan
Keene, NH	Adapting to Climate Change: Planning a Climate Resilient Community
Lafourche Parish, LA	The Lafourche Parish Comprehensive Resiliency Plan
Laguna Woods, CA	Climate Adaptation Plan
Lee County, FL	Lee County Climate Change Resiliency Strategy
Lewes, DE	The City of Lewes Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Action Plan
Los Angeles, CA	Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Study for the City of Los Angeles
Marquette, MI	Adapting to Climate Change and Variability
Miami-Dade County, FL	Second Report and Initial Recommendations: Presented to The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners
Milwaukee, WI	Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts: Milwaukee Working Group Report
Missoula County, MT	Missoula County Climate Action: Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Community
New York City, NY	A Stronger, More Resilient New York
Oakland, CA	Community Based Climate Adaptation Planning: Case Study of Oakland, California
Portsmouth, NH	City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s Coastal Resilience Initiative Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan
Punta Gorda, FL	City of Punta Gorda Adaptation Plan
Salem, MA	Ready for Tomorrow: The City of Salem Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan
San Luis Obispo (county), CA	Integrated Climate Change Adaptation Planning in San Luis Obispo County
Santa Barbara, CA	City of Santa Barbara Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Study
Santa Cruz (city), CA	City of Santa Cruz Climate Adaptation Plan: An Update to the 2007 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan 2012-2017
Seabrook, NH	Adaptation Strategies to Protect Areas of Increased Risk From Coastal Flooding Due to Climate Change
Somerset County, MD	Somerset County, Maryland: Rising Sea Level Guidance
Swinomish Tribe, WA	Swinomish Climate Change Initiative Climate Adaptation Action Plan
Waveland, MS	City of Waveland Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
Worcester County, MD	Sea Level Rise Response Strategy: Worcester County, Maryland