Reflection on the UAA
Whether your Urban Adaptation Assessment (UAA) data suggests your city has low or high risks, climate change can be full of surprises. Use time to your advantage and start now. It takes time to build community readiness. These questions will help you reflect on your UAA data outcomes, resources in your city and identify steps for taking action.
Priority Hazard(s)
Based on your UAA data, specific hazards stand out to you from the others. Let’s focus on your priority hazards with these questions:
- Based on the priority hazard(s) in your UAA profile, what actions could be taken in your city to reduce exposure? Sensitivity?
- Based on the priority hazards in your UAA profile, what actions could be taken in your city to increase readiness?
- Of those hazards that have the highest risk and estimated cost, what communities in your city are most exposed? What about these communities increases their risk?
- Which assets and resources are critical to your community functioning, especially during and after a disaster?
- Who has control and authority over these assets and resources?
Community and Political Support
Urban adaptation requires support — you can’t do this by yourself! Reflect on these questions to help identify resources that may already available to you:
- Who are potential support groups or political champions in your most at-risk communities that you can work with toward solutions? If you don’t know, who would know?
- What are the barriers to political and community collaborations?
- What resources or strategies might you employ to reduce them?
- What are some communication resources and avenues you have available to help communicate with the public?
- What data sources might you access and monitor, particularly economic data (benefits derived, avoided damage, ancillary benefits), to track adaptation efforts?
- How are nearby cities handling similar risks? Use the City Matrix to compare your City to peers.