Capacity Building
Conducting scenario planning exercises
The British Columbia Local Climate Change Visioning Project provides a participatory, scenario-based lens through which decision makers and planners can examine climate change impacts and develop policy responses at a local level. Created by project leaders at the University of British Columbia’s Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning (CALP) program in 2005, this project uses imagery of downscaled future climate scenarios in order to allow decision makers to visualize potential adaptation responses at the local level. Using climate models, socioeconomic scenarios, and GIS mapping, local visualizations are produced for climate impacts and response scenarios. A 2009 survey of community members from these areas found that this visualization process increased public awareness of climate change and potential responses and increased the urgency and importance of addressing climate change issues. In 2010, project leaders released a guidance manual on visioning for use by others.
Why is it a good example?
- Provides full description and guidance on how to conduct scenario planning exercises
Conducting vulnerability assessments
The Massachusetts Adaptation Project is a joint effort by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences and the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The project aims to ensure that climate change impacts and considerations are detailed within the conservation strategies outlined in the State Wildlife Action Plan; a primary component of this project has been to conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of habitats in the state. An expert panel was convened to evaluate a number of habitats under climate change conditions, including forests (spruce/fir, pitch pine/scrub oak, etc.), wetlands (emergent marsh, boreal swamp, etc.), coastal (intertidal mudflats, salt marsh, brackish marsh), and aquatic (coldwater streams and lakes, etc.). The project, Integrating Climate Change into the Massachusetts State Wildlife Action Plan Using an Expert Panel-based Vulnerability Assessment, aims to evaluate the relative vulnerabilities of habitats, focal areas, and species under climate change in order to inform the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife’s habitat acquisition priorities.
Why is it a good example?
- Provides an atypical approach to vulnerability assessment