climate adaptation- county planning

Building local resilience to climate change in Salt Lake City

July 2015

Self Sufficiency Roots

1. Ensure we can continue to keep its service commitments and protect people, property and infrastructure

2. Make decisions today that account for tomorrow’s vulnerabilities

3. Plan early to keep costs down

4. Continue our legacy of effective long-range planning

5. Capitalize on co-benefits

What is government’s responsibility?

Warming “average” temperatures

Rising sea Levels

Retreating glaciers and snowpacks

More frequent, more intense weather events including: heat waves, hurricanes, snow and rain storms, droughts

“Weather Weirding”

What’s being observed?

Photo: Salt Lake Tribune, Aug 2010

“Storm shatters rainfall records, floods homes across Utah”

Photo: Salt Lake Tribune, Aug 2010

Photo: KSL.com, Dec 2011

“Sustained winds over 100 MPH, one gust reaches 146 MPH.”

Park City Mountain ResortJan 31, 2015

Photo: Salt Lake Tribune, Feb 2015

Canyons Resort Dec 6, 2012 (SL Tribune)

Photo: Salt Lake Tribune, Aug 2013

Assess the risk from climate change and extreme events

Prioritize local impact areas

Integrate adaptability and resiliency into existing and future City plans and operations

How do we build local resilience?

PHASE 1 : Conduct an Internal Vulnerability Assessment

PHASE 2 : Determine resiliency needs PHASE 3 : Imbed resiliency planning in other plans

PHASE 4 : Expand/collaborate with other agencies

Approach

SLC Vulnerability Assessment

Medium Risk Impacts

High-Risk Impacts

City Budgets

•Air quality degradation•Housing Shortages•Food scarcity•Waste management pressures•Transportation pressures

•Water Supply & Treatment•Ecosystem Degradation•Infrastructure losses•Community Health/Safety

•Increased emergency services and response costs•Increased infrastructure repair costs

Convene regional practitioners

Inventory current efforts

Create a local repository of information

Develop mitigation and adaptation strategies

Establish a robust Regional Climate Network

Utah Climate Network

Utah Climate Network

Catalyze research, action and engagement to ensure a coordinated response to climate change and its impacts on the people, economies and general prosperity of Utah.• No advocacy• No politics• Just collaboration

This is an Opportunity

Dr. Gregory Johnson, NOAA