Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

2 Introduction & Key Concepts Global climate change is arguably one of the most pervasive issues in our modern world, drawing in everyone from politicians, planning practitioners, and researchers to academics, social activists, and average citizens. Depending on who you ask, climate change is among the greatest threats facing humanity and the planet as a whole [1,2]. Since the 1980s, considerable attention and resources have been directed toward climate models, which project the physical, ecological, and biogeochemical effects of a changing planet [3-5]. Recent priorities include shoring up of urban infrastructure to withstand those changes: efforts such as building a seawall to combat sea level rise [6], upgrading a sewer system to accommodate heavy precipitation [7], and lightening road surfaces to reduce heat absorption [8]. More recently, researchers and practitioners have come to focus on the human outcomes of climate change [9,10]; those aspects that are crucially important but harder to tackle: mental and physical illness, economic inequity, and displacement, to name a few [11-13]. With all of this in mind, we must ask ourselves, “How do we make a city and its inhabitants resilient to climate change?” We will go deeper into this question throughout the present text, exploring various perspectives on resilience; theoretical and practical descriptions; regional climate resilience plans; and opportunities for integrating salient concepts into climate resilience planning efforts. As you will see, resilience is a tricky, variably-defined, flexible notion. You will be asked to develop, discuss, and revisit your own perspectives on the subject throughout the course in order to cultivate a better understanding of this complex topic. Climate Science & Manifestations of Change Climate science is an intricate discipline unto itself, and we will not cover it in too much depth here. Rather, the following information should serve as a refresher for some, and basic orientation for others. For a helpful visual overview of the information included below, please visit the Planet Nutshell Climate Science Series at https: /planetnutshell.com/climate-science/ . Climate change is commonly associated with an increase in global temperatures, and is sometimes used synonymously with “global warming,” though the latter is only one facet of the larger issue. While “climate change” refers to long term weather patterns encompassing temperature, precipitation, and humidity, both natural and anthropogenic, “global warming” refers specifically to human- induced warming since the pre-industrial period. Though climate change is a natural process, its progression and global warming have reached unprecedented levels in our post-industrial world [14]. Research, conducted over many decades, points to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as the primary culprit, resulting mainly from combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land cover change [15]. While a certain amount of CO2 - from respiration, decomposition and other natural processes - would not be cause for concern, excessive amounts as we have today accumulate in the atmosphere, producing a greenhouse effect which traps heat, warms the planet, and disrupts known weather patterns [14]. Changes in weather - hotter or colder days, drought, heavy rain, snow and storms - are just some of the manifestations of climate change on our planet and in our lives. Others include melting glaciers and sea level rise; extreme flooding, erosion and wildfires; altered growing seasons which affect food security; disruption or collapse of ecosystems; water contamination; destruction of infrastructure including buildings, roads, and ecological resources; and spread of disease [15,16]. All people and places will not experience the same effects to the same degree, but the global reach of climate change is undeniable. It is imperative that cities and communities understand their unique risks, and explore opportunities to maintain vital physical infrastructure, ecosystem services, and social supports in the face of an uncertain future. Thinking about Resilience Resilience, specifically climate change resilience, is at the core of this volume. The word has become ubiquitous across numerous disciplines - engineering, ecology, urban planning, and various social sciences, to name a few - but still lacks a clear, universally- accepted definition or interpretation. Indeed, the exact parameters of resilience tend to change considerably depending on the academic discipline or practical context within which it is applied. Is resilience to maintain the status quo and resist change, or to roll with the punches, adapt, and recalibrate? Is a resilient system rigid or flexible; diverse or specialized; well-connected or self-contained? Is a resilient city one in which buildings remain standing; capital is uncompromised; humans are able to thrive in body and mind? In section II, you will have the chance to explore various conceptions of resilience, but for the moment, consider what you know about this word and what it means to you. As an additional point of consideration, practical work with resilience is sometimes impeded by the lack of a universal interpretation or assessment framework. Plans or research projects across disciplines and sectors may appear to address resilience in spirit, but use inconsistent language such as “adaptation,” “stability,” or “recovery.” Furthermore, variability in identifying and measuring resilience provides challenges when comparing data or even trying to assess the situation in a single case [17]. Examples of various assessment frameworks, and practical iterations of resilience in planning, will be covered in sections III and IV. Though resilience is often propped up as an ideal state or condition of systems (infrastructural, social, ecological, or otherwise), the concept has not been without critique. Namely, with regard to climate change, activists and scholars have pointed to the potential for a goal of resilience to reify socio-economic inequity and environmental injustice [18]. Though newer developments in the field