Planning adaptation based on local actors’ knowledge and participation: a climate governance experiment

Abstract

Involving a wide-range of stakeholders at different moments in the planning of urban adaptation to climate change can help to overcome different barriers to adaptation, such as a lack of common perception, or control over options. This Article argues for an approach that involves a wide range of actors throughout the planning process in order to confront the challenges of urban adaptation to climate change. It builds on the results of a three-year participatory action research project to identify the catalysts with which local administrations can overcome the lack of data, the low level of engagement around the climate issue, and the cause-and-effect linkages of climate change impacts on the urban environment. Significant factors include territorial rootedness, leveraging actors' experience, interaction between actors, as well as the valuing of local actors as experts of territorial management rather than as novices with regard to climate change adaptation. In addition to contributing towards the engagement of a large number of stakeholders around adaptation issues, a planning process that involves representatives from various sectors and during several stages contributes to a greater understanding of these issues and their linkages. It follows that such a process will bring changes to urban practices by better articulating local concerns about climatic issues. Policy relevanceAlthough participation is commonly advocated in policy responses to climate change, only few empirical studies have investigated the ways in which local actors' knowledge can be integrated into climate change adaptation planning processes. The article builds on the results of an action research project carried out in Québec City, Canada, to address the relevance of involving a progressively broader range of actors as the adaptation process moves through its various phases. Given that a multitude of barriers to adaptation are at play at different times in a municipality, collaborations between local stakeholders emerge as a key factor. These collaborations provide greater insight into the linkages between climate change impacts and the urban environment and, in doing so, bring into question ordinary urban management and design practices.

Wildfire risk, biodiversity and peri-urban planning in the Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia

“…Beck, Giddens, and Lash (1994: 5) note that the emergent risk society "Designates a developmental phase of modern society in which social, political, economic and individual risks increasingly tend to escape the institutions of monitoring and protection in industrial society," and they continue on to argue that an alternative, second modernity is possible based on a recognition of the unique attributes of place, people, knowledge and cross-boundary communications. It is within such a complex, resource constrained second modernity that impacts of natural hazards, including floods, droughts, landslides, severe storms, heatwaves and wildfires are changing perceptions of human security, and generating calls for the unique, context specific integration of risk into policy through reflexive analysis (Beck, 2010;Bardsley, 2015;Cloutier et al 2015).…”

Sustainable and Resilient Coastal Cities: Trigger to Enhance Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change/Sea Level Rise – The Belgian Case

“…As part of the adaptation and mitigation efforts to address environmental challenges, the city should work on increasing the adaptive capacity of buildings and critical infrastructure [3]. To allow for this, the system would need an institutional set up that allows for participation, as well as an urban risk assessment and a robust decision-making process that is based on cost-benefit assessments valuing social, economic and environmental aspects and considers risk and a longer time horizon [4]. Community engagement and improved social participation are essential to build local resilience and reducing risk by providing bonding, bridging, and linking practices that enhance appropriation of neighbourhoods and ecosystems.…”

City and Building Designers, and Climate Adaptation

“…Recent development in research on adaptation planning and action argues for the co-production of knowledge between scientific and non-scientific stakeholders [4,5] that is consistent with societal needs [6,7] and is problem-oriented [8]. In order to plan and produce adaptation measures that are socially relevant, attention has been given to the process through which various stakeholders produce different types of contributions [4,9,10].…”

“…In order to plan and produce adaptation measures that are socially relevant, attention has been given to the process through which various stakeholders produce different types of contributions [4,9,10]. Involving operators, managers, citizens, elected representatives, business people, etc.…”