Climate-Informed Planning: Elevating Science and Equity Considerations

Course Details

This presentation focuses on findings in recent publications: "Climate-Influenced Lake Level Variations" and "Climate Change Impacts and Equity: Data, Tools, and Resources for Planners in the Great Lakes."

Climate change has long-lasting impacts on planning practice. Planners can help their communities prepare by accounting for projections related to factors, such as lake-level variations, that directly impact the lives of community members.

The course dives into how past actions affect resilience today. Presenters discuss how to connect climate-adaptation practices in underserved communities, building on APA's recent Planning for Equity Policy Guide, and identify actions that address historic decisions that result in disproportionate climate-change risk for community members.

Addressing these issues takes concerted effort, community support, and long-term visions for resilience and equity. This presentation equips planners with tools, data, and resources that can help communities plan while considering climate-adaptation science and equity priorities. Both components support planning processes, informed by local priorities, that can lead to long-term climate resilience in communities.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how climate data and science resources can be integrated into local plans and policy, with special emphasis on the Great Lakes region.
• Identify how social-equity concepts intersect with decisions, plans, and applications of projects that address changing climate conditions.
• Explore resources to integrate adaptation sciences and climate-societal interactions to inform planning processes.