The Role of Non-Climate Data in Equitable Climate Adaptation Planning: Lessons from Small French and American Cities

Abstract

There is a growing consensus that to effectively adapt to climate change, cities need user-friendly tools and reliable high-resolution biophysical and socio-economic data for analysis, mapping, modeling, and visualization. This study examines the availability of various types of information used in climate adaptation plans of 40 municipalities with a population of less than 300,000 people in the United States and France, probing into the choice and usage of relevant information by small municipalities. We argue that non-climatic spatial data, such as population demographic and socio-economic patterns, urban infrastructure, and environmental data must be integrated with climate tools and datasets to inform effective vulnerability assessment and equitable adaptation planning goals. Most climate adaptation plans examined in this study fail to address the existing structural inequalities and environmental injustices in urban infrastructure and land use. Their challenges include methodological and ideological barriers, data quality issues, and a lack of meaningful community connections. Adaptation methodological approaches should be reassessed in the context of much-needed societal transformation. Lessons learned from our studies offer valuable insights for the potential development of national and state-level climate adaptation information services for cities.

No City Left Behind: Building Climate Policy Bridges between the North and South

“…On the other hand, Latin America has the highest share in terms of "economic development" [51] policies and "land use" [52]. North American cities are associated with the highest share of policies in "air pollution" [53] and "energy security" [54]. It is noteworthy that not all climate policies (mitigation or adaptation) are transferable between cities because of context-specific attributes, along with the biases and maladaptations in practices.…”

Harnessing climate services to support community resilience planning: lessons learned from a community-engaged approach to assessing NOAA’s National Water Model

“…Climate services can help at-risk communities more effectively manage climate variability, save lives, and preserve livelihoods. To harness this potential more needs to be done to improve utilization and highlight the value-added of climate services and other climate risk management tools for policy makers and communities at risk (Onwuemele, 2014;Vaughan et al, 2016;Hewitt et al, 2020;Lioubimtseva and da Cunha, 2023).…”

“…While there is clearly practical value associated with predicting when and where water will be, climate services such as the NWM are generally underutilized (Onwuemele, 2014;Vaughan et al, 2016;Raub and Cotti-Rausch, 2019;Hewitt et al, 2020;Lioubimtseva and da Cunha, 2023). Even when climate services are used, communities frequently apply them incorrectly or in ways that are not as intended by their developers (Raub and Cotti-Rausch, 2019).…”