The need to adapt to climate change impacts, whilst simultaneously limiting greenhouse gas emissions, requires that the government's efforts are joined by public action. In England and Wales, housing contributes significantly to the emissions and many properties are at risk of flooding. This paper investigates the preparedness of homeowners in England and Wales to make changes to their homes in response to the predicted effects of climate change. A telephone survey of 961 homeowners investigated their interest in purchasing mitigation and adaptation improvements against their concern about climate change, awareness of flood risk and attribution of responsibility for action. Whilst the majority of homes had some energy-saving improvements, few were found to have property-level flood protection. The high levels of awareness about climate change and flooding were coupled with the perception of risks as low. Whilst some respondents accepted personal responsibility for action, most believed that the authorities were responsible for flood protection, and would not pay the costs required to make their home more energy-efficient and better prepared for the eventuality of floods. The results suggest that there is scope for further improvement of energy-saving measures, and that the levels of adoption of flood-protection measures are very low. Multi-faceted strategies, including more effective communication of risks and responsibilities, incentives, and material support for the poorest, will need to be developed to overcome the current reluctance by homeowners to invest in flood-protection measures and further energy conservation solutions in the future.
2016) Nature-based solutions for the contemporary city/Re-naturing the city/Reflections on urban landscapes, ecosystems services and nature-based solutions in cities/Multifunctional green infrastructure and climate change adaptation: brownfield greening as an adaptation strategy for vulnerable communities?/Delivering green infrastructure through planning: insights from practice in Fingal, Ireland/Planning for biophilic cities: from theory to practice, Planning Theory & Practice, 17:2, 267-300,
IntroductionSustainable development and the heightened sense of risk from the anticipated impacts of climate change provides an important context for spatial planning and the development of spatial strategies. Over the last decade, a series of Planning Theory & Practice Interfaces have examined the environmental dimensions of spatial planning. This includes Campbell (2006) exploring the role of planning within climate change debates, Scott et al. (2013) on living with flood risk, Walliser et al. (2012) exploring the potential of green design, and Davoudi et al. ( 2012) critiquing the potential and limitations of resilience thinking for planning theory and practice. A common thread through these Interface pieces is a questioning of planning's ability to address the scope and scale of these complex and multidimensional challenges, while also reflecting on how these environmental challenges have the potential to reshape or reframe planning practices and theory by drawing our attention to questions of uncertainty, risk, vulnerability and adaptive governance.In this Interface, we aim to contribute further to these debates by exploring the relationship between "nature" and the "city" as a means of reconciling urban development with the biosphere (Wilkinson, 2012): in other words, proposing a deepening of an ecological turn in planning theory and practice. In recent years there has been increased attention given to understanding the potential avenues for planning to deliver ecologically sound outcomes through examining the intersection between ecosystem approaches and spatial planning frameworks (Lennon & Scott, 2013) and which considers the city in terms of a social-ecological system. As spatial planning is inherently concerned with social -ecological interactions (Wilkinson, 2012), this "shift in the view of an ecosystem to one where people are considered part of an interactive holistic system" (Raffaelli & Frid, 2010, p. 4), acknowledges the role that informed planning can play in enhancing the beneficial functioning of ecosystems. Within this emerging literature, however, limited attention has been given to addressing the principles of spatial planning and how these may be translated into practice through the procedures employed in the formulation and implementation of policies designed to stimulate practical interventions. One way to address this deficit is through the concept of nature-based solutions and green infrastructure.
Nature-based solutions and planning practiceNature-based solutions have emerged as a concept to op...
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