Adaptation policy objectives
The Climate Change PPS requires planning authorities ‘to prepare and manage the delivery of spatial strategies that secure new development and shape places that minimise vulnerability and provide resilience to climate change’.
A helpful framework to ensure a robust, strategic approach to adaptation is to consider vulnerability and resilience in relation to the key risks posed by climate change. This toolkit uses the four key risk areas identified in the TCPA’s Climate Change Adaptation by Design Guide as the basis for policy development for adaptation. To view click here.
These are:
- Increasing temperatures and the urban heat island
- Flood risk
- Water availability and quality
- Land stability
An evidence base should be developed for each risk area which should, in turn, be used to inform the policy objectives. There are many overlaps in the requirements for the evidence base in each risk area and these are highlighted in the approach for each policy objective.
The evidence base can also be used to feed into a risk assessment for climate change. A framework based on the UKCIP methodology for risk assessment is provided in the setting the baseline section of principles of an evidence base and may be helpful context to inform your approach. You may wish to log the risks on the corporate risk register. If your local authority is signed up to NI188 you may be able to draw on the outputs, or contribute to the development of the Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) by addressing this policy issue. Even if your authority does not have NI188 as one of the top 35 indicators in its Local Area Agreement, all local authorities are required to report on progress against all indicators (including NI188) as part of the Audit Commission's Comprehensive Area Assessment.
To help you understand the requirements of NI188 you may wish to visit Defra’s advice pages.
Another document of interest has been produced by CAG Consulting containing 27 case studies, 3 from each region under several adaptation themes. A summary with a few extracts from the case studies is included at the front for those who want a brief overview. To view click here.
