Community Adaptation to Climate Change: Environmental Planners' Knowledge and Experiences in British Columbia, Canada

Governing Complexity: Recent Developments in Environmental Politics and Policy

“…In almost all political contexts, bureaucrats will play a particularly important role in facilitating CPI, but they do not always have the capacity and institutional leverage to see it through. Picketts, Curry, and Rapaport () show that planners in British Columbia, Canada preferred that adaptation goals be incorporated into existing planning documents, but the planners lacked crucial knowledge about what adaptation was, how it differed from mitigation, and how to accomplish it. Additional studies of adaptation in Canada suggest that national and subnational governments may give lip service to adaptation but often fail to provide the necessary resources for planning and implementation (Craft, Howlett, Crawford, & McNutt, ).…”

Scaling‐Up, Scaling‐Down, and Scaling‐Out: Local Planning Strategies for Sea‐Level Rise in New South Wales, Australia

“…Re‐zoning, strategic land purchases, and changes to the land tenure system are well‐recognised options for managing inundation risk. Our discussions with councils underlined many of the now familiar implementation barriers associated with these options such as concerns over diminished property rights, community expectations, political acceptance, and local financial capacity (Preston et al ., ; Smith et al ., 2008a; Measham et al ., ; Picketts et al ., ). Unsurprisingly, the main obstacle to local governments engaging in the public purchase of at‐risk land is the financial burden on local finances given the significant value attributed to properties in high amenity coastal environments.…”

“…The contribution and role of environmental planners in assisting local communities as they face an uncertain future in the context of climate change have been recognised (Picketts et al ., ). However, there are many challenges that need to be overcome to ensure that local adaptation is effective (Measham et al ., ).…”

Pragmatism, projections, priorities, plans and politics in Prince George: Adapting to climate change in a Canadian community.

“…The fact that all participants acknowledged the reality that adaptation affects social, environmental and economic aspects of a community is exceptional, as the misconception that adaptation is solely an environmental issue is prevalent within local governments (Measham et al 2011;Baker et al 2012). Although there are limited existing studies assessing the capacities of various groups, the knowledge amongst the sample group is considerably higher than recent assessments of city staff members in Australia (Measham et al 2011), and planners in BC (Picketts et al 2012a). The respondents also convey more knowledge than shown by Lyth et al (2007), who found that engineers, planners and architects in Australia had a variable knowledge and skill-base regarding adaptation.…”

“…In a recent survey, environmental planners indicated that the most significant climate impacts in BC 50 years from now will relate to forests, agriculture, river flooding, transportation infrastructure and water quality. Planners believed that impacts related to forests, agriculture and increases in severe weather events will have the greatest effect on Northern BC in 50 years (Picketts et al 2012a).…”