Respondents were asked to identify their position type, professional affiliation, and the sector(s) and state(s) in which they work. Respondents self-identified across a range of positions, including managers/coordinators (27%), executives (22%), policy analysts (17%), planners (16%), community organizers (16%), and scientists (12%) (Figure 2).

The largest number of survey participants represent nongovernmental or community organizations (48%), followed by city government (21%), county government (9%), and tribal nations (6%). The lowest participation included federal and state government representatives (Figure 3).

Respondents primarily represent housing (51%), environmental and/or economic justice (40%), planning (39%), or policy (37%) sectors (Figure 4). The lowest participation included those representing engineering (4%), law (4%), and economic development and financing (3%).

Respondents were also asked to indicate the state(s) in which they work (Figure 5). Most respondents represent California (23%), Washington (12%), Florida (7%), and Illinois (7%). No responses were received from individuals in American Samoa, Arkansas, Delaware, Guam, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, U.S. Virgin Islands, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Approximately 37% of respondents represent SPARCC states, including those from California (41), Colorado (3), Georgia (5), Illinois (12), and Tennessee (6).

Of the 179 respondents, 171 work and live in specific communities of different sizes from <10,000 (12%) to over 2 million (26%) residents (Figure 6). Eighty-eight percent of respondents indicate that their community is experiencing moderate to significant development or redevelopment pressure (Figure 7).

Ninety-one percent of participants agree that climate change is having or is likely to have a significant effect on their communities (Figure 8). Overall, respondents indicate that they are very (27%), moderately (50%), or slightly (18%) knowledgeable about climate change, with only 5% indicating that they are not at all knowledgeable (Figure 9).

Respondents working in the environmental and economic justice field self-identified as having significantly higher knowledge about climate change than those representing the development, education and outreach, or housing sectors (Figure 10). The highest rankings of “not at all knowledgeable” came from respondents in housing (6%), development (4%), education and outreach (4%), public health (4%), and infrastructure (4%).