| Popis: |
The challenge of adaptation – responding to the threats and opportunities of future weather and climate – can seem daunting to many. Immediately questions are raised that require an understanding of the scenarios and projections, concepts of risk and uncertainty, and long time horizons, all of which may be new to those tasked with adaptation. Despite this apparent complexity, local authorities are now required to take on the adaptation challenge both on their own behalf and on behalf of their local community. In 2006, UKCIP developed a simple framework for considering the current weather and its impacts which was called a Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP). Since then, around 100 local authorities have begun to develop their own LCLIP. UKCIP’s framework was deliberately flexible with the intention that individual authorities could develop their own approach and that we could all learn from these ‘experiments’. Early in 2009, a research project was commissioned to review the wide range of LCLIPs that were now underway. It considered the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches, and made recommendations for new guidance. This new set of guidance is UKCIP’s response to this research. It recognises that there are many different approaches to understanding current vulnerability but offers more practical guidance for a preferred approach. This revised guidance: • restricts LCLIPs to consideration of the very recent past and does not advise investigating either the distant past or expected futures; • re-enforces the principle that an LCLIP should focus on the consequences of weather events and on the role of agencies with responsibility for dealing with these consequences, rather than on the weather events themselves. This new guidance note is intended to provide a brief introduction to the task and can be used by any organisation wishing to review the consequences of recent weather events in a locality. More extensive guidance and a wide set of additional resources, including examples of LCLIPs, can be found on the UKCIP website at www.ukcip.org.uk under publications. |
