Adaptation Strategy
This is the post consultation Climate Adaptation Strategy of the Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Climate Impacts Group – it details the risks the region might face in future as climate change increasingly affects the UK and identifies how we can adapt to these changes.
4.1 Actions for regional collaboration
This action plan summarises the impacts from climate change on each sector and identifies the short-term actions from the Adaptation Plan (Section 3) for delivery over the next 2 – 3 years. It also provides a list of actions that strategic organisations can encourage businesses and individuals to implement.
4.1.1 Steps towards adaptation
Strategic directions for each sector are outlined in Table 8.
Table 8. Climate Impacts and Strategic Directions for Each Sector
| Sector and Impacts | Strategic Direction |
| Natural environment Damage to habitats, soils, aquifers, and natural carbon stores Increased invasive species, pests, and disease | 1. Support and actively improve the adaptive capacity of landscapes and habitats. 2. Use agriculture / forestry networks and knowledge to implement best practice. Provide them with key information to protect ecosystem services. 3. Maximise community participation and connection to nature. |
| Infrastructure Flooding, erosion, and extreme weather events | 4. Develop cross sector collaboration to equip the region with the knowledge and skills to take adaptation action. 5. Enhance long term Infrastructure resilience through local stewardship. |
| Health and built environment Flooding and extreme weather | 6. Increase community awareness of how climate change can impact physical and mental health. 7. Support residences and business premises on private water supplies to adapt to climate change threats, including security of supply and changing water quality. 8. Assist public services to understand climate change impacts on their assets, service delivery and the community’s health. 9. Minimise heat-related illness and death. 10. Ensure the region is ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal change. |
| Business and industry Flooding, drought, and extreme weather | 11. Equip the sector with the knowledge and skills to take adaptation action. 12. Develop industry readiness for impacts (e.g. supply chain). 13. Enhancing long-term business resilience through local stewardship |
| Cross Cutting Increased disease occurrence Food insecurity Extreme heat | 14. Improve the community’s knowledge and awareness of the health impacts of climate change, both current and into the future. 15. Improve food security within the region. 16. Information and liaison on effects climate change has on crime rates and the potential for civil disorder. |
4.1.2 Getting started
The Adaptation Plan considers four spheres of adaptation planning and action, relating to different parts of society (policy/regulator-level, organisational-level, community-level, and individual-level actors). Short-term actions for 2023-2025 to adapt to climate change, for each societal group, are outlined in Table 9.
Table 9. Short term actions
| Policymakers, regional / local government and arm’s length bodies |
| INFA1 – Build on and develop resilience partnerships. Ensure their Command, Control and Co-ordination arrangements for an emergency which involves the loss of both power and telecoms, and actively involve utilities companies in local planning where required to ensure linkage with regional and national developments. |
| HBEA1 – Develop a Climate Change awareness campaign to inform stakeholders, including the public of the projected range of changes and their impacts alongside how we are adapting and what we can all do to respond. |
| HBEA2 – Public authorities to continue to provide timely & localised information on climate change impacts to enable appropriate adaptation planning by all. |
| HBEE4 – Policymakers to engage with the public to ensure awareness and understanding of the predicted impacts of climate change around the coast generally, and on their local communities specifically – to co-produce knowledge and agree viable actions. |
| Organisations, NGO’s, Infrastructure operators, businesses, charities, trusts |
| NEA1 – Develop a collaborative regional water strategy to manage water availability and safe treatment and disposal of waste water, including aquifer recharge, control over-extraction, increase the use of rainwater harvesting, reduce effluent discharge etc. |
| NEB1- Promote soil management techniques (Min-till cultivation, cover crops, ley-arable rotations) to protect and improve soil structure / nutrient levels and increase resilience to adverse weather / aridity impacts. |
| NEC1 – Provision of capacity building support and advice to community groups for taking action to support nature enhancement (e.g. Wild About Devon). |
| INFB1 – Develop joint strategies, research, and longer-term schemes with SWW and Catchment Partnerships (and other risk management partners where appropriate) to improve catchment management both for high flow areas at flood risk and protect low flow by reducing demand / drought impacts. |
| BIAA3 – Develop and expand the Climate Emergency / Readiness Action group – (Steering group formed from business, public sector, and academia) to take the lead on more projects within the region (e.g. Climate Ready Clyde). |
| BIAB4 – Put in place a flood plan to ensure business continuity and community awareness – sign up for alerts and check insurances for coverage on flooding / severe weather events. |
| CCA2 – Define a regional approach (e.g. ‘One Health’) to prevent the emergence of zoonotic diseases (infectious diseases transmitted between animals and people). |
| CCA3 – Raise awareness on the impacts of anti-microbial resistance and prevention measures (e.g. reducing antibiotics use in livestock). |
| CCA4 – Work with partners, including universities, to examine the effects of climate change on crime rates and the potential for civil disorder. |
| Community Groups, local hubs |
| HBEC–3 – Work with partners to develop the materials and training to support in the establishment and operation of local Community Resilience Groups (or similar existing groups) and the development of community adaptation plans. |
Wider actions to adapt to climate change for individuals
| Individuals |
| Climate change is a global concern, experienced locally. It requires actions at both levels. For climate change impacts to be effectively addressed and adapted to, individuals should take an active role in assessing their own, and their communities’, vulnerabilities to extreme weather events, including impacts from flooding, heatwaves, and water scarcity. Individual property-level adaptation actions may include: – Install rainwater harvesting, such as a water butt. – Increase your property’s resilience to flooding. – Check your insurance coverage levels and limitations. – Upgrade your household water fittings to reduce your water use. – Switch to water-efficient appliances. – Choose porous surfaces for your driveways and paths. – Add solar shading to the south façade of buildings and/or introduce passive cooling measures to reduce heat impacts. – Fit insect screens where needed. – Maintain building structure, including roofs. – Increase the capacity of guttering down-pipes. |
4.2 Diagrams of dynamic adaptation pathways
4.2.1 Introduction to dynamic adaptation pathways
Adaptation pathways help to address the challenges and uncertainty involved in climate change decision making given the uncertainties of climate change predictions and international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They allow the consideration of multiple possible futures and provide an opportunity to explore the strengths and flexibility of the various options within each possible future.
The Pathway diagrams (Figure 6) list adaptation options on the y-axis. Each line on the diagram shows how a single adaptation option is likely to remain effective over time. The pathway maps are not meant to imply that all options should be used, instead, they indicate the various options which are available, some of which may be used whilst others not. For each option, future decision points are identified to indicate when it may be worthwhile switching to deliver an alternative adaptation option.
Ahead of each decision point within an option there would usually be consideration at what point that decision should be made. Decisions are triggered by some change (environmental or social) in the design of the strategy. It is key in the design of these strategies that these trigger points are defined, monitored, and reviewed (e.g. a specific amount of sea level rise or erosion intensity).
The x-axis on the diagrams represents a general trend in changing environmental or social conditions through time, indicating the level at which the threshold had been set in the strategy.
Figure 6. Example Adaptation Pathway and Key. This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location. Source: RSK
The general approach taken for developing adaptation pathways is shown in Figure 7. Key in determining the range of available options is understanding the objective or aim of the adaptation and what impacts would trigger the organisation or community to invest.
Figure 7. Approach taken for the development of dynamic adaptive strategic pathways. Source: RSK
4.2.2 Example adaptation pathways
In some cases actions intended to adapt to climate change may do more harm than good. Hard engineering projects to prevent floods or increased use of air conditioning systems to cope with extreme heat require will divert us from a low-carbon pathway. Adaptation actions, implemented early, may play a key role in delaying harder measures with their associated negative impacts.
We provide four example adaptation pathways that summarise the general adaptive actions and decision points based on arbitrary thresholds that may need to be addressed when developing localised strategies to manage and adapt to the impacts from climate hazards:
- River and surface water flooding – Figure 8
- Reduced water availability (drought conditions) – Figure 9
- Extreme heat and heatwaves – Figure 10
- Sea level rise (coastal flooding and erosion) – Figure 11
River and surface water flooding
Note: This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location.
Figure 8. River and surface water flooding example pathways. This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location. Source: RSK
Reduced water availability (drought conditions)
Note: This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location.
Figure 9. Potable water scarcity example pathways. This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location. Source: RSK
Extreme heat and heatwaves
Note: This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location.
Figure 10. Extreme heat example pathways. This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location. Source: RSK
Sea level rise (coastal flooding and erosion)
Note: This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location.
Figure 11. Sea level rise example pathways. This figure is indicative only and is not representative of a particular location. Source: RSK
