Vulnerability Case Study for an Extreme Storm

Put yourself on the map. Everybody's relationship to climate change depends on their location.

What is special about where you live? Here are four ways to look at your area through maps.

Humans need to adapt to the weather conditions we have created.

Look at the sky. Feel the wind. That's your weather.

The weather is often not very remarkable. It follows a general pattern for your location on the planet. No single day of weather anywhere on the planet should be connected to climate change. It's the overall weather patterns that are linked to climate change.

Let's define some terms.

Climate refers to the immediate or long-term weather patterns. Every location on this planet has a local climate.

Climate change refers to the overall global increase in rain and heat (even if some places are dryer and cooler). Climate change has been scientifically confirmed to exist and be caused by human behaviour.

Weather event or climate hazards refer to an occurrence of a large weather system that causes damage. These weather events are not considered climate change events. They may occur more often, or create more damage (as measured by how much communities have to spend to clean up after them). But, they cannot definitely be linked to human behaviours.

Towns, cities, and municipalities need to perform risk assessments in order to choose how to spend their money. How communities direct their money will help them prepare and protect against future events.

We will use a case study of extreme storm to analyze how a community is vulnerable.

After you review the stats you can review the City of Peterborough's detailed analysis of their response to the May 2022 derecho.

Lesson plan coming Fall 2024

Weather events cause damage and this costs money. There are lots of parts of a city that can be damaged: roads, buildings, parks, schools, sewage systems, movie theatres, doctor's offices, electrical stations, public buildings, gas stations, industrial buildings, commercial buildings, libraries, grocery stores, private homes, etc. When parts of cities are damaged it costs a lot of money and time to fix them. It is your local communities responsibility to have a plan to manage the damage. In these units we use the terms community, city, and municipality. A municipality is often a larger area that incorporates a bigger city.

Having a plan in place saves both money and time.

Adopting a climate lens is not new. The stakes are just higher now. City councils are project-based collaborative systems. They are always considering impacts and trying to save money.

The  Federation of Canadian Municipalities  is at the forefront of linking local climate adaptation planning to federal funding. Watch the Climate in Focus - Introductory video below.

The change in weather is called climate change. The attempts to try to slow climate change are called climate mitigation. Mitigations refer to all the methods used to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

The way your community prepares for and responds to weather events is called climate adaptation planning (CAP).  The United Nations documents that countries started building climate adaptation strategies in 2010.  These strategies are called National Adaptation Plans, or NAPs.

While the case for adaptation is clear, some communities most vulnerable to climate change are the least able to adapt because they are poor and/or in developing countries already struggling to come up with enough resources for basics like health care and education... Since 2011, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a number of countries have developed National Adaptation Plans. ~ UN, Climate Adaptation, 2022

There are 2 main ways to plan for an extreme weather event.

1. Emergency Preparedness
2. Reflecting on past events.

Communities look at past events to help them think ahead.

Climate adaptation is about preparing for future events by measuring how your community responds to past events. This process helps a community see where it is vulnerable. It is called a climate vulnerability and risk assessment (CVRA).

Let's look at a CVRA for a derecho.

When a community builds a new strategy it goes through many phases.

• Vulnerability Assessments - Which groups of people, places and things in your community are the most impacted by climate change?
• Risk Assessments - What is the probability of those groups of people, places, and things being impacted?
• Climate Adaptation Plan (CAP) - What is your community strategy over the next 1, 5, and 10 years for your community of people, places, and things.

People in communities, cities, and regions are coming together to adapt to the climate hazards.

Let's dive into the basics of some city climate adaptation documents. Below, you will find the graphic released with the  City of Ottawa's Climate Resiliency  strategy.

(Academic activity plan to come for Fall 2023).

Western society was built on a linear economic model. Linear economies expect to make trash. In fact, it relies on waste. It wants people to throw stuff out so that they buy new stuff.

The "developed" countries shifted to a linear, "waste" mindset during industrialization.

We have to be creative to shift away from a waste-based economy. This is called innovation. We need to shift our societies back to a circular economy mindset.

Good News Alert!

Humans used to live in circular economies.

The best news within climate adaptation is that Indigenous communities have saved much of humanity's creative solutions. Phew!! Oral storytelling cultures that rely on elders to pass information down to youth is a great system that will help climate adaptation. In fact, oral storytelling is the system all humans, everywhere, used until we started recording and writing stories.

Humans have been innovating solutions for tens of thousands of years.

Use the knowledge we already have! Yay!

Indigenous knowledge systems are a central way to shift from linear thinking to circular thinking. This is important for people, society, and the planet as we adopt a climate lens.

Many systems will come together to organize for climate adaptation. Here are other useful systems.

There are some simple solutions, such as the ones below. Watch the second video to understand how to practice engaging with deeper systemic reforms.

Meet Gabriella Gomez-Mont and her work in Mexico City. UNDP - Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) , Urban Talks: Virtual Forum on Urban Transformation, Mayors and cities making change.

(Academic activity plan to come for Fall 2024).

(Academic activity plan to come for Fall 2023).

Learning implies that there is change in understanding over time within a given area of knowledge and skills. Learning is an acquisition of knowledge and an ability to apply a new skill set in a specific context.

Climate adaptation is an interdisciplinary pursuit. The required skill sets for the future are not in one discipline or domain. Research has established that applied and project-based learning is the key to deep learning and change. Let's review the possible standards for AdaptEd units.

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