Community level adaptation to climate change: The potential role of participatory community risk assessment (Global Environmental Change

Volume 18, Issue 1, February 2008, Pages 165-179)

Abstract : This paper explores the value of using community risk assessments (CRAs) for climate change adaptation. CRA refers to participatory methods to assess hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities in support of community-based disaster risk reduction, used by many NGOs, community-based organizations, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent. We review the evolution of climate change adaptation and community-based disaster risk reduction, and highlight the challenges of integrating global climate change into a bottom-up and place-based approach. Our analysis of CRAs carried out by various national Red Cross societies shows that CRAs can help address those challenges by fostering community engagement in climate risk reduction, particularly given that many strategies to deal with current climate risks also help to reduce vulnerability to climate change. Climate change can also be explicitly incorporated in CRAs by making better use of CRA tools to assess trends, and by addressing the notion of changing risks. However, a key challenge is to keep CRAs simple enough for wide application. This demands special attention in the modification of CRA tools; in the background materials and trainings for CRA facilitators; and in the guidance for interpretation of CRA outcomes. A second challenge is the application of a limited set of CRA results to guide risk reduction in other communities and to inform national and international adaptation policy. This requires specific attention for sampling and care in scaling up qualitative findings. Finally, stronger linkages are needed between organizations facilitating CRAs and suppliers of climate information, particularly addressing the translation of climate information to the community level.

Climate Adaptation Services for the Netherlands: an operational approach to support spatial adaptation planning, Regional Environmental Change,June 2014, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp 1035–1048

Abstract : There is a growing availability of climate change information, offered to scientists and policy makers through climate services. However, climate services are not well taken up by the policy-making and planning community. Climate services focus on primary impacts of climate change, e.g., the disclosure of precipitation and temperature data, and this seems insufficient in meeting their needs. In this paper, we argue that, in order to reach the spatial planning community, climate services should take on a wider perspective by translating climate data to policy-relevant indicators and by offering support in the design of adaptation strategies. We argue there should be more focus on translating consequences of climate change to land-use claims and subsequently discuss the validity, consequences and implications of these claims with stakeholders, so they can play a role in spatial planning processes where much of the climate adaptation takes place. The term Climate Adaptation Services is introduced as being a stepwise approach supporting the assessment of vulnerability in a wider perspective and include the design and appraisal of adaptation strategies in a multi-stakeholder setting. We developed the Climate Adaptation Atlas and the Climate Ateliers as tools within the Climate Adaptation Services approach to support decision-making and planning processes. In this paper, we describe the different steps of our approach and report how some of the challenges were addressed.

Dear Javed,

Already perceptible at the global level, important climate changes and their impacts are likely to be more marked in the future. In Europe, mountain regions, coastal areas, wetlands and the Mediterranean region are particularly vulnerable. Although positive effects are not excluded, many impacts should be harmful. Existing adaptation measures are concentrated on flood defense, which leaves a considerable room for maneuver in the planning and implementation of adaptations in other areas such as public health, water resources and ecosystem management. Adaptation refers to policies, practices and projects that can limit damage and / or create opportunities associated with climate change. At the global level, the 2004 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is committed to developing a five-year work program structured on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. So far, climate change considerations have not yet been integrated on a large scale into key community environmental policies, such as the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Habitats Directive and the Water Framework Directive. This integration is also lacking in other relevant Community policy areas, such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). At national and community levels, several research programs assessing the implications of potential impacts of climate change have been planned or are about to be launched. More recently, research has begun to support the planning of National and international adaptation. In 2004, the European Commission Started to develop a European action program on risk management And has recently submitted a draft directive on this subject. In this context, climate change has been identified as a key theme. In October 2005, the Commission also launched the second phase of the European Climate Change Program. The main purpose of this program is to identify Measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol. It was within this framework that it was agreed, for the first time, to address adaptation issues. A consultation process with stakeholders was organized in 2006 to discuss the role of the EU in adaptation policies climate. The aim is to integrate adaptation into relevant European policy areas in order to identify good the development of adaptation policies and encourage their learning. The Commission published a Green Paper at the end of 2006. At the national level, strategies are currently being prepared in Denmark, Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom. In many member countries of the EEA, adaptation measures are planned or implemented in the context of the prevention of natural hazards, protection of the environment and sustainable management of resources.

Examples of measures planned or implemented:

Austria: Natural hazards and tourism in the Alps

Belgium: Flood risk management

Finland: Hydraulic power generation infrastructure (transport, buildings) and forestry

France: Health and forestry sector

Italy: Management of coastal zones and tourism in the Alps

Norway; Infrastructure (buildings) and forestry

Netherlands: Flood Risk Management and Flood Defense in Coastal Areas

Spain: Agriculture (droughts)

Sweden: Forestry

Switzerland: Hydropower, ecosystems and tourism in the Alps

United Kingdom: Flood Risk Management, Insurance and Flood Defense in Coastal Areas

 With my best regards

Prof. Bachir ACHOUR

At community level adaptation programs for meeting the challenges of climate change in a developed country like netherlands could be

1. dissemination of the future cc scenarios to the society (common man, all public/private sectors) and the possible associated effects

2. communication of the early forewarning systems for extreme/episodic events

3. Spelling out the range of adaptation methodologies covering all the major sectors

4. Disseminating the options for sustenance in a changed scenario in water, energy, health, transport, forestry, agriculture as well inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral interactions

5. Communicating the government proposed actions as well spelling out the specific actions to be undertaken by the community and individual responsibilities to safeguard the environment

6. Introducing laws /amendments to be followed by the public / private agencies as mitigation and adaptation options to combat the effects of climate change

7. demonstrating specific case studies/examples to the society fotr understanding the system's behaviour as well for options to face the cc

Regards

I appreciate Dr Kalra for his thought on climate change for developed countries like Netherlands. Use of renewable energy, I think, would be the best choice to curb fossil fuel burning. They can afford it for the sake of poor countries arround the globe.