Closing the Climate Gap

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings

Although theory and practice contend that local knowledge improves climate adaptation planning, little research has documented the kinds of information shared by residents. Planners can use this information to assist in the creation of planning processes and tools, as well as investigate how local knowledge contributes—or does not contribute—to planning outcomes. We developed a provisional typology of how local knowledge has been used for adaptation planning and used a case study to ask: When compared with existing research, what information do residents share? How might this knowledge be useful for climate adaptation? In interviews, residents identified new ideas about local knowledge and climate adaptation planning: cascading harms and repeated trauma from—and mental health implications related to—climate events, lack of trust in municipalities, and how community capacity increases climate adaptation. Although these themes support existing research, to our knowledge, these findings are the first empirical data from studies focused on local knowledge in which frontline residents themselves identified the need for increased attention to mental health, community capacity, and trust building. Our findings contribute to larger conversations about climate adaptation planning as well as help inform the development of an adaptation tool in Austin (TX).

Takeaway for practice

We identified three takeaways for climate adaptation planning: increase acknowledgment of and attention to mental health effects, integrate local knowledge about community capacity, and consider incorporating local knowledge to build trust.

Keywords:

• climate adaptation planning
• climate trauma
• community capacity
• local knowledge
• mental health

RESEARCH SUPPORT

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1952196, and by Planet Texas 2050, a research grand challenge at the University of Texas at Austin.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2318226.

Notes

1 We differentiate local knowledge from citizen science, with citizen science defined as “invit(ing) laypersons to contribute observations, perspectives, and interpretations feeding into scientific knowledge systems,” compared with local knowledge as a separate knowledge system operating in parallel to scientific knowledge (Tengö et al., 2021, p. 503).

2 The City of Austin defines climate preparedness as “having the necessary policies, infrastructure, relationships, and behaviors in place to prepare for and recover from climate impacts,” both at home in and within a community (City of Austin, n.d.a). The city’s definition of climate preparedness is aligned with the definition of climate adaptation we use here and is broader than disaster preparedness, which is defined as knowledge and ability held by governments, organizations, and individuals to anticipate, respond to, and recover from disasters such as floods, heat events, and wildfires (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, n.d.).

3 The Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan, the Resilience Action Plan for City Assets and Operations, the City of Austin Hazard Mitigation Plan, Austin Water Utility’s Water Forward Plan, Austin/Travis County Community Wildfire Protection Plan, the City of Austin Urban Forest Plan, and the City of Austin Climate Equity Plan (City of Austin, n.d.b).

4 Table 4 in the Technical Appendix shows existing research compared with the Navigators’ information (Tables 1 and 3 combined).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Lieberknecht

KATHERINE LIEBERKNECHT ([email protected]) is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) School of Architecture.

Nancy Carlson

NANCY CARLSON ([email protected]) is a doctoral student at UT Austin.

Keri Stephens

KERI STEPHENS ([email protected]) is a professor at the UT Austin Moody College of Communications.

Fernanda Leite

FERNANDA LEITE ([email protected]) is a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at UT Austin.

Frances Acuña

FRANCES ACUÑA ([email protected]) is chief resilience lead organizer at Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin.

Jonathan Lowell

JONATHAN LOWELL ([email protected]) is engagements and programs coordinator for the Office of the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavors, at UT Austin.