{"title":"An open access approach to mapping climate risk and vulnerability for decision-making: A case study of Birmingham, United Kingdom","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.cliser.2024.100521","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The global climate is changing, and local authorities must respond to changing climate risk to protect citizens and the urban environment in which they live. This paper presents an open access approach to map climate risk and vulnerability using Birmingham, the UK’s second city as a case study. A Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) was co-created with Birmingham City Council to ensure the approach supports the organisation’s needs, now and in the future. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) software, eleven geospatial datasets expressing physical, environmental, and social variables were combined to characterise holistic climate risk and vulnerability relative to the city boundary, where the higher the score, the higher the combined climate risk and vulnerability of an area. The resulting map (i) transparently evidences climate impacts across the city and the underpinning drivers, (ii) supports the prioritisation of interventions for those areas most at risk or vulnerable to climate change, (iii) supports the implementation of more climate-resilient development, and (iv) can be managed by stakeholders going forward for monitoring and evaluation purposes. While there are inevitable limitations in what can be achieved with an open access approach, the current CRVA can be considered a ‘minimum viable product’ that can be developed and improved iteratively in climate adaptation planning cycles. Its results can feed into broader policy agendas, such as national adaptation plans, adaptation reporting, just transition, and biodiversity net gain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51332,"journal":{"name":"Climate Services","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Climate Services","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405880724000761","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The global climate is changing, and local authorities must respond to changing climate risk to protect citizens and the urban environment in which they live. This paper presents an open access approach to map climate risk and vulnerability using Birmingham, the UK’s second city as a case study. A Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA) was co-created with Birmingham City Council to ensure the approach supports the organisation’s needs, now and in the future. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) software, eleven geospatial datasets expressing physical, environmental, and social variables were combined to characterise holistic climate risk and vulnerability relative to the city boundary, where the higher the score, the higher the combined climate risk and vulnerability of an area. The resulting map (i) transparently evidences climate impacts across the city and the underpinning drivers, (ii) supports the prioritisation of interventions for those areas most at risk or vulnerable to climate change, (iii) supports the implementation of more climate-resilient development, and (iv) can be managed by stakeholders going forward for monitoring and evaluation purposes. While there are inevitable limitations in what can be achieved with an open access approach, the current CRVA can be considered a ‘minimum viable product’ that can be developed and improved iteratively in climate adaptation planning cycles. Its results can feed into broader policy agendas, such as national adaptation plans, adaptation reporting, just transition, and biodiversity net gain.
期刊介绍:
The journal Climate Services publishes research with a focus on science-based and user-specific climate information underpinning climate services, ultimately to assist society to adapt to climate change. Climate Services brings science and practice closer together. The journal addresses both researchers in the field of climate service research, and stakeholders and practitioners interested in or already applying climate services. It serves as a means of communication, dialogue and exchange between researchers and stakeholders. Climate services pioneers novel research areas that directly refer to how climate information can be applied in methodologies and tools for adaptation to climate change. It publishes best practice examples, case studies as well as theories, methods and data analysis with a clear connection to climate services. The focus of the published work is often multi-disciplinary, case-specific, tailored to specific sectors and strongly application-oriented. To offer a suitable outlet for such studies, Climate Services journal introduced a new section in the research article type. The research article contains a classical scientific part as well as a section with easily understandable practical implications for policy makers and practitioners. The journal''s focus is on the use and usability of climate information for adaptation purposes underpinning climate services.