Regional Climate Adaptation

Course Details

Many communities are preparing for increased flooding and other climate-change hazards. Future climate impacts will not end at municipal borders, and the actions of one community could affect its neighbors. A regional planning approach offers a comprehensive, consistent, and collaborative pathway to prepare for future conditions.

In Massachusetts, watershed associations are championing climate adaptation at a regional scale. Without their leadership, municipalities would lack the support needed to pursue large-scale strategies and major state and federal funding opportunities. For these partnerships to be highly effective, their work must be informed by its members and the publics they serve. Climate-resilience strategic plans at the watershed scale facilitate long-term, positive changes by creating a roadmap for collaborative partnerships, decision making, resource allocation, grant applications, and implementing adaptation strategies.

This presentation covers specific components of a climate-resilience planning process, including visioning sessions, gathering feedback on goals and values, and developing and prioritizing resiliency strategies. Presenters share how to use dynamic online tools to facilitate discussions and synthesize results. Learn how to create clear, public-facing deliverables that communicate technical topics in accessible formats.

Learning Outcomes

• Implement strategic plans that include developing and prioritizing action items with a regional or watershed-scale collaborative.
• Incorporate equity in resiliency planning through outreach engagements.
• Develop accessible and visual materials to communicate climate-change topics to a range of audiences.