Are You Ready? A Framework for Identifying Climate Risks, Prioritizing Actions, and Securing Funding

Anticipating, preparing for, and mitigating the impacts of climate change is critical to ensuring our communities continue to prosper and provide a high quality of life. This two-part session will first introduce a transferable methodology for assessing and visualizing the wide-ranging impacts of climate change at multiple scales within a community, from individuals parcels to an entire municipality. We will then shift focus to demonstrate how the results of this climate risk assessment can be used to identify and prioritize projects, programs, and policies that mitigate climate change, increase community resilience, and equitably distribute resources.

The first part of the presentation will use the Albany County Climate Resiliency planning process as a case study to describe a climate risk assessment that considers future flood risk, heat vulnerability, and social vulnerability. We will describe how to access and analyze the datasets used to conduct the climate risk assessment and discuss the utility of the assessment’s results in supporting decision-making at multiple scales (e.g., property owner, township, county) and informing future development.

The second part of the presentation will focus on applying the results of the climate risk assessment to identify and implement proactive projects, programs, and regulations that not only address climate impacts but also improve the public realm and quality of life for all. We will bring an interdisciplinary perspective to this portion of the session, discussing a suite of inter-related approaches to climate resilience and mitigation, including land use regulations, the integration of natural infrastructure into urban environments, strategic open space acquisition, and the importance of tackling climate issues from a coordinated, interdisciplinary, and regional perspective (increasing capacity, building partnerships, and resource sharing is key!).

State and federal governments are investing significant amounts of funding in climate mitigation and resilience-focused projects. Recognizing the importance of aligning funding sources with planning recommendations, we will conclude the presentation by highlighting several public funding sources available for tackling climate change.

Our session will utilize interactive polling throughout the presentation to encourage audience participation and information sharing. We will also conclude each part of the presentation with discussion questions to facilitate a dialogue with the audience.

Speakers:
Liz Podowski-King, AICP
Molly Gaudioso, AICP

**The Pennsylvania Chapter is not responsible for the materials or opinions of the speaker(s) you will hear**

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

If you’re interested in sponsoring a Webinar Wednesday session or have a session for Webinar Wednesday please contact us. Send your request to info@planningpa.org.

Please note: You will receive a reminder email a few days before the webinar with zoom information (please check your spam/junk folders). This email will be sent to the email address you used to register for the event.