City Council works with university and community to spread the word about adaptation
September 2009
Manchester City Council used their long standing relationship with the University of Manchester to help compile a Local Climate Impacts Profile for the Greater Manchester area.
The main driver for the project has been National Indicator 188 but, due to a strong working relationship with the University of Manchester, they were able to draft in help from the Eco Cities project.
The Eco Cities initiative involves the University of Manchester and developer Bruntwood and seeks to develop the first blueprint for climate change adaptation for Greater Manchester by 2011.
The University developed a database of weather events using sources such as local media and public sector data, backed up by data from the Met office, fire and police service. This data was then used to develop scenarios for future weather and climate in the Greater Manchester area using UKCIP climate modelling technology.
The City Council also engaged community forest organisation Red Rose Forest to complete a pilot investigation into levels of awareness and preparedness to the effects of climate change within the organisation.
For this part of the work, 6 case study service areas were selected including; social housing provision, highway services, corporate IT services, green spaces and adult physical disability services. Service managers were interviewed to gain an insight into levels of understanding of vulnerability to climate and extreme weather events of these services.
Business plans and strategies related to business continuity were also reviewed to assess the level of planning already in place to deal with the potential impacts of climate change.
The LCLIP has considerably raised the profile of adaptation within the council and brought to light areas of current and future vulnerability. For example the council’s green spaces team were made aware that increases in the frequency and intensity of future extreme weather events could substantially impact their budget. It is hoped that future planning will reflect this.
The council is continuing its involvement with the Eco Cities project and furthering their adaptation work after finalising the LCLIP report in May 2009.
Future work towards NI 188 will focus on developing a Climate Change Risk Management framework to assist service managers and LSP partners in completing an effective analysis of the potential impacts of climate change.
MCC feel that the most essential part of any climate change risk framework is that risks are assessed for the most appropriate spatial and organisation level at which they should be dealt with.
- For further information please contact: Corin Bell, Green City Project Officer.
