Develop / implement adaptive management strategies

Climate change has serious and far-reaching health implications for present and future generations. A team of international scientists recently described these challenges in The Lancet as “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century” (Lancet 2009).

Even if there is local and global action to immediately reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we will likely feel the impacts from the current build up of emissions in the atmosphere for decades. These impacts, such as hotter summers and wetter, warmer winters for the Pacific Northwest, will likely affect our health, especially those most vulnerable. Communities must, therefore, begin to plan and prepare for the likely impacts that will be experienced because of the emissions already present in the atmosphere.

The Multnomah County/City of Portland Climate Action Plan identified “Climate Change Preparation” as one of its eight key action areas with the objective to “adapt successfully to a changing climate”. Adaptation means “to adjust to a new situation or environment” such as an increase in consecutive days over 95 degrees. This public health plan is a part of broader ongoing efforts by the City of Portland and Multnomah County to make our infrastructure, our natural environment, and our society more resilient to climate change. This plan communicates why we as a community, as policymakers and as public health professionals should care about climate change; what the local impacts may be; which populations and areas may be impacted; why equity and justice are key parts of this work; and what we can do to further prevent health issues and disparities.

The Crook County Health Department Climate and Health Action Plan was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative which was assigned to assist 16 states and 2 cities develop ways to anticipate health effects by applying climate science, predicting health impacts, and preparing flexible programs. The grant was administered by the Oregon Health Authority and the project ran from August 2011 through August 2013.

This grant opportunity was meant to enhance the ability of public health to engage in this important work. The Crook County Climate Health Action Plan developed by Public Health will:

• Develop strategies for public health staff to be a source of leadership, expertise, and guidance concerning sustainable development in Crook County;
• Raise awareness in Crook County as to the important responsibilities of, and actions regarding sustainable development and climate change; and
• Help shape local policy promoting sustainable development, with strategies to mitigate climate change for Crook County.

Jackson County Health & Human Services (JCHHS) is ideally suited to coordinate and plan local adaptation strategies relating to the health impacts from climate change. The climate issue is a global problem, but responses may be ideally dealt with at a local level. Much of what we do as a county health department is appropriate to the monitoring, assessment, and response to the health effects from climate change. Surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreaks, public health emergency preparedness planning, and environmental health messaging and oversight are core functions of Public Health.

This plan was an outgrowth of JCHHS’s role in a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project from July 2011 to August 2013, using the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework. This project was designed to help states, cities and county health departments investigate, prepare for, and respond to the health effects that climate change may have on people.

Public Health staff and managers worked with external advisors and stakeholders to define the projected climate outlook for Jackson County Oregon at mid-century. Engaged advisors came from public and non-profit agencies, scientists, local business, and interest groups. Adaptation interventions and actions were jointly developed with input from multiple sources to insure appropriateness to the local social, economic, and political milieu.

NCPHD staff determined which climate factors might already be addressed via other public health programs and local emergency management plans, and which factors would likely need more attention. Drought seemed the most likely factor that is currently not focused on by public health, and due to its chronic nature, not as well addressed via emergency management lens. So for now, NCPHD will focus on building community resiliency to address the many possible public health sequela of drought. Climate health will be rolled into the All Hazard Response plan cycle so that the NCPHD Climate Action Planning Team may revise the priorities and adaptation strategies to align with new climate and health discoveries and new insights provided by climate health scientists.

Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, and the scientific community is confident that global warming is the most important cause. Higher sea levels translate to more and higher coastal floods. To forecast future risk, this analysis integrates historic flood statistics with local sea level rise projections developed by the U.S. National Research Council. Under mid-range projections, floods exceeding today’s historic records are likely to take place throughout California, Oregon and Washington within the next 30 years. In Southern California, such floods would become annual events within the same period; in Northern California and Puget Sound, this would take up to six decades.

The tool includes:

• Interactive local projections of sea level rise and increasing coastal flood risk from 1-10 feet by decade;
• A zooming, zip-searchable map of low-lying areas threatened, plus layers showing social vulnerability, population density and property value;
• Detailed assessments of populations, property, infrastructure and contamination sources exposed, for each implicated county, city, town, zip code, planning district, legislative district and more; and
• State- and county-wide heat maps facilitating high-level vulnerability comparisons. Detailed knowledge of vulnerability is a critical tool for communities seeking to build resiliency to the climate challenges of today and the future.

Extreme weather events coupled with sea level rise and erosion will cause coastal and riverine areas where people live and maintain livelihoods to disappear permanently. Adaptation to these environmental changes, including the permanent relocation of millions of people, requires new governance tools. In the USA, local governments, often with state-level and national-level support, will be primarily responsible for protecting residents from climate-change impacts and implementing policies needed to protect their welfare. Government agencies have a variety of tools to facilitate protection in place and managed coastal retreat but have very limited tools to facilitate community relocation. In addition, no institutional mechanism currently exists to determine whether and when preventive relocation needs to occur to protect people from climate change impacts. Based on research involving four Alaska Native communities threatened by climate-induced environmental impacts, I propose the design and implementation of an adaptive governance framework to respond to the need to relocate populations. In this context, adaptive governance means the ability of institutions to dynamically respond to climate change impacts. A component of this adaptive governance framework is a social-ecological monitoring and assessment tool that can facilitate collaborative knowledge production by community residents and governance institutions to guide sustainable adaptation strategies and determine whether and when relocation needs to occur. The framework, including the monitoring and assessment tool, has not been systematically tested. However, the potential use of this tool is discussed by drawing on empirical examples of Alaskan communities faced with accelerating rates of erosion.

The updated Safeguarding California Plan reflects hundreds of comments received during the public comment period and includes several new chapters and features, including a Climate Justice chapter highlighting how equity is woven throughout the entire plan.

• Assessing transportation vulnerability

• Studying grid vulnerability in Los Angeles County

• Building drought resilience in Tulare County

The goal of the Hawaiian Islands Climate Synthesis Project was to develop comprehensive, science-based syntheses of current and projected future climate change impacts on, and adaptation options for, terrestrial and freshwater resources within the main Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaiian Islands Climate Vulnerability and Adaptation Synthesis presents the results of the major project components - climate impacts assessment, vulnerability assessment, and adaptation planning - and provides an inter-island analysis of the findings. More detailed information is available in the individual vulnerability assessment syntheses and adaptation summaries, and should be referred to for decision support, which can be found at http://bit.ly/HawaiiClimate.