Scenario planning is a technique used to inform decision-making under uncertainty, and is increasingly applied in the field of climate change adaptation and policy. This paper describes applications that combine previously distinct scenario methods in new and innovative ways. It draws on numerous recent independent case studies to illustrate emerging practices, such as far stronger connections between researcher-driven and participatory approaches and cycling between exploratory and normative perspectives. The paper concludes with a call for greater support for, and collaboration among, practitioners with the argument that mixed methods are most effective for decision-making in the context of climate change challenges.

The purpose of this report was to investigate how municipals in the county of Västra Götaland work with climate adaptation of storm water management and to identify problems that occur in the work. As with the rest of the world, Sweden will be affected by expected climate changes and it is therefore important that Swedish municipalities work with climate adaptation and to help them make the work manageable. The method used was semi-structural qualitative interviews where 13 municipalities were interviewed in April 2016. The result of the interviews shows that there is an ambition to work with climate adaptation of storm water management but that there are different problems associated with the work that have made it difficult to start. 69% of the municipalities include climate adaptation to some extent when they work with master plans and 5 out of 8 municipalities are or will be including climate adaptation strategies in their storm water management document. A majority of the municipalities don’t prioritize climate adaptation and could be doing more to include climate adaptation in their work. The most common problems reported by the municipalities were too little resources/lack of finance, undecided responsibility and not clear enough laws regarding the subject.

Abstract We are facing a century of rapid change in climate, with significant challenges in managing the impact of changes in living conditions for plants and animals. We can already see the responses of species through changes in phenology and spatial distribution, which may change ecosystem structure and function, with subsequent effect on ecosystem services and biological diversity. In Sweden, between 2005 and 2010, the red-listed species has increased by 13 % and similar trends can be seen across the world, making it difficult to attain national and international environmental objectives of preserving biodiversity. One way to reduce the loss of biodiversity is to protect nature from exploitation by allocating valuable areas as nature reserves, but climate change affects protected areas just as much as other landscapes and therefore requires elaborate systems of protection to facilitate species' survival. The paper has examined  how the decisions and management plans for nature reserves in Sweden have been followed-up and whether they are climate adapted or not by examining 30 nature reserves, classified as newly formed (2012), recently revised (2009-2011) and older (1977-2007) reserves, and assessed what is in the decisions and management plans for follow-up, revision, long-term goals and documentation. Officials in ten county administrative boards in Sweden were interviewed about how they handle documentation and monitoring of management plans, and if they take into account climate change in the forming of new nature reserves and if they have begun to look at the climate adaptation of nature reserves. The results show that county administrative boards do not take account climate change in the handling of new nature reserves and they generally have not started looking at climate adaptation of the nature reserves. Documentation is supposed to be carried out according to most management plans (77%) and was in fact carried out in reality in 70% of the county administrative boards, although a new system is being introduced by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Monitoring of management actions should be done according to most management plans, but in reality, monitoring of management plans is generally not performed (only 20% of the county administrative boards do). My results shows that nature reserves in Sweden are not climate adapted and have not taken into account climate change when formed and there is no continuous  follow-up done of decisions and management plans. There are many reasons for authorities to reconsider this, even if it requires a thorough review of current research. / Sammanfattning Vi står inför ett århundrade med snabba förändringar i klimatet och möter stora utmaningar i att hantera effekterna av ändrade levnadsförhållanden för växter och djur. Redan nu kan vi se responser från arter genom förändrad fenologi och geografisk utbredning vilket för med sig förändringar i ekosystemens struktur och funktion som i sin tur påverkar ekosystemtjänsterna och den biologiska diversiteten. I Sverige har mellan åren 2005 och 2010, de rödlistade arterna ökat med 13 % och liknande tendenser syns över hela världen vilket gör det svårt att nå nationella och internationella miljömål om att bevara biodiversiteten.  Ett sätt att minska förlusten av biodiversitet är att skydda naturen från exploatering genom att avsätta värdefulla områden som naturreservat men klimatförändringen påverkar de skyddade områdena lika mycket som övriga landskap och därför krävs genomtänkta system av skydd för att underlätta för arters överlevnad.  Uppsatsen har undersökt hur beslut och skötseldokument för naturreservat i Sverige följs upp samt undersökt om de är klimatanpassade genom en granskning av 30 naturreservat uppdelat på nybildade (2012), nyligen reviderade (2009-2011) samt äldre (1977-2007) reservat och bedömt vad som står i beslut och skötselplaner avseende uppföljning, revidering, långsiktiga mål och dokumentering. Personer på tio länsstyrelser i Sverige har intervjuats om hur de hanterar dokumentering och uppföljning av skötselplaner samt om de tar hänsyn till klimatförändringen vid avsättningen av nya naturreservat och om de har börjat titta på klimatanpassning av reservaten. Resultaten visar att länsstyrelser inte tar hänsyn till klimatförändringen i hanteringen av nya naturreservat och de har generellt inte börjat titta på klimatanpassning av naturreservat än, medan dokumentering ska utföras enl. skötselplanerna (77 %) och utförs i verkligheten hos 70 % av länsstyrelserna men ett nytt system är på väg att införas från Naturvårdsverket. Uppföljning av skötselåtgärder ska göras enligt de flesta skötselplanerna men i verkligheten utförs det inte generella uppföljningar av skötselplanerna (bara i 20 % av länsstyrelserna görs det).  Resultatet visar att naturreservat i Sverige inte är klimatanpassade och har inte avsatts eller avsätts inte med klimatförändringen i beaktande och deras beslut och skötselplaner följs inte upp kontinuerligt.  Det finns många skäl att tänka om för ansvariga myndigheter även om det kräver en grundlig genomgång av pågående forskning.

Addressing today's complex environmental challenges requires learning, collaboration across sectors, and long-term collective action. This dissertation examines the role of place-based climate adaptation workshops can play in helping communities as they grapple with the current and anticipated effects of anthropogenic climate change. The manuscript contains five chapters. The introduction (Chapter 1) presents the phenomenon of place-based climate adaptation workshops and offers an overview of the research in this dissertation. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are stand-alone manuscripts. Chapter 2 draws upon surveys with participants in 33 workshops that took place in the United States between 2017 and 2020 to identify perceptions of meaningful outcomes and effective workshop elements. Chapter 3 describes a comparative case study that delves more deeply into 30 of the workshops from Chapter 2 and includes interviews with facilitators and local organizers to identify which workshop characteristics were most often associated with subsequent adaptation-related planning and action. In Chapter 4, we examine learning processes and outcomes in eight additional adaptation workshops held in communities in the United States from 2021 and 2023 by testing a hypothesized learning typology and exploring how it aligns with the theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Our findings suggest that workshops contribute to learning, strengthened feelings of efficacy, and deepened relationships, which, in turn, can yield meaningful planning and action outcomes. We suggest that workshops also expand reference groups and foster norms around climate change adaptation. We identify a range of factors that are associated with higher-performing workshops, including the presence of a local champion, co-design of workshop with participants, sustained support from workshop organizers or a backbone support organization, and a suite of effective facilitation techniques. Our exploration of learning in climate adaptation workshops indicated that learning takes place within distinct declarative, procedural, and relational domains and across tacit and explicit dimensions. We found no differences in participants' learning outcomes between in-person and online workshops. Our findings suggest that effective workshops could be designed to help participants articulate, share, and combine disparate sets and forms of knowledge. In the conclusion (Chapter 5) , I synthesize our findings and reflect on my Ph.D. experience. / Doctor of Philosophy / Tackling the kinds of intertwined social and environmental problems facing the world today requires that groups collaborate, coordinate, and learn together to take long-term action. One place where communities are coming together to learn, plan, and prepare to act is in climate adaptation workshops. These events are designed to help communities as they grapple with the current and future effects of human-caused climate change. My dissertation focuses on theses workshops, the kinds of learning that takes place in them, and the actions that happen as a result. The introduction (Chapter 1) describes place-based climate adaptation workshops and offers an overview of the research in this dissertation. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 are stand-alone manuscripts. Chapter 2 explores what workshop participants think were meaningful outcomes and effective workshop elements of the process in which they participated. Chapter 3 goes deeper into a subset of the workshops from chapter 2 and tries to identify which workshop features were most often linked to planning and action. In Chapter 4, we examine learning processes and outcomes in eight additional adaptation workshops held in communities in the United States from 2021 and 2023. We examine the kinds of learning that takes place and the ways that knowledge is shared within a group. Our findings suggest that workshops contribute to learning, empower participants, and deepened relationships, which, in turn, can yield meaningful planning and action outcomes. We suggest that workshops can also contribute to a shared identity around climate change adaptation. We identify a range of factors that are associated with higher-performing workshops, including the presence of a local champion, co-design of workshop with participants, sustained support from workshop organizers or dedicated community organizations, and a suite of effective facilitation techniques. Our exploration of learning in climate adaptation workshops indicated that important aspects of learning for adaptation involve facts and figures, processes, and learning about the group of individuals involved in adaptation. Each of these elements have easily articulated elements, as well as aspects that are less easily shared. One way workshops can help advance adaptation is by guiding groups as they make their knowledge more readily sharable. We found no differences in participants' learning outcomes between in-person and online workshops. Our findings suggest that effective workshops could be designed to help participants articulate, share, and combine disparate sets and forms of knowledge. In the conclusion (Chapter 5), I synthesize our findings and reflect on my Ph.D. experience.

This dissertation investigates how social justice is considered as local governments in the United States develop and implement climate adaptation plans and is composed of an introduction (Chapter 1), three stand-alone manuscripts (Chapters 2-4), and a conclusion (Chapter 5). The introduction gives a brief overview of climate adaptation planning, the intersection of social justice and climate adaptation, and existing research about how social justice is considered as communities prepare for climate change. To conceptualize social justice throughout this dissertation, we adopt the three-dimensional theory that includes recognitional, distributional, and procedural justice. Both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on adaptation planning through a review of 101 climate adaptation, climate action, and climate resilience plans published between 2010-2021 by US municipalities. In Chapter 2, we used data from this review to understand generally how recognitional, distributional, and procedural justice were considered within these documents. In Chapter 3, we used the same data and demographic data for each community to understand trends over time and other patterns in how each type of justice was considered through a series of regressions. Chapter 4 serves as a follow-up to the adaptation plan review to understand how local governments are considering justice as they move forward and implement adaptation initiatives. We interviewed the plan leads from 25 communities that published a recent climate plan that we reviewed and asked them how their local government has considered social justice as they've implemented adaptation projects, what factors have enabled these considerations, and what challenges they've encountered. The results of these studies show that social justice is increasingly addressed in more recent climate plans, but recognitional and distributional justice are often considered more than procedural justice. Most communities we spoke with are still in the early phases of implementing these plans, and largely centered on how these municipalities have engaged marginalized individuals, with most aspiring towards empowerment but informing or consulting with residents. Our findings revealed that many opportunities remain to advance justice further, especially in how municipalities can meaningfully engage and empower marginalized residents in adaptation initiatives. The conclusion summarizes how social justice is considered in adaptation planning and implementation, as well as what gaps remain. Within this section, I reflect on my experiences as a Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech and my future goals within academia. / Doctor of Philosophy / As local governments prepare for climate change, they are grappling with how to ensure everyone is equipped to adapt, including their most vulnerable residents. Even with increased attention on social justice in climate adaptation efforts, it is unclear how municipalities plan to achieve this. Climate adaptation plans are one resource US municipalities can employ to address justice as they tackle climate change. While research has increasingly focused on climate adaptation planning, there's been little follow-up to suggest communities are moving from planning to implementation. The research included in this dissertation investigates how social justice is considered in climate adaptation, climate action, and climate resilience plans published between 2010-2021 by US municipalities and how justice is addressed when these plans are being implemented. The study considers social justice through the three-dimensional theory of recognitional, distributional, and procedural justice. The results show that social justice is increasingly addressed in more recent climate plans, but recognitional and distributional justice are often considered more than procedural justice. Most municipalities were still in the early phases of implementing these plans, so our discussions with government employees largely centered on how they have engaged marginalized individuals in initiating programs, with most aspiring towards empowerment but informing or consulting with residents. Many opportunities remain to advance justice further, especially in how municipalities can meaningfully engage and empower marginalized residents in adaptation initiatives.

In Lesotho, climate change adaptation funding is being managed and distributed by the same mechanisms which have traditionally operationalized humanitarian aid and international development assistance in the country. Lessons from the HIV/AIDS disaster, along with insights into the value of participatory approaches foregrounding the expertise of indigenous communities, must be heeded in order to ensure that those most affected by climate change have a say in how adaptation is carried out. This paper proposes that indigenous people have developed and actively maintained resilience strategies, encoded in social practices and farming techniques, designed out of long experience with climatic variability. Through case studies, indigenous resilience strategies are explored, with emphasis on the anarchistic, improvisational nature of traditional ecological knowledge. Future directions for policy makers and practitioners dealing with climate change adaptation are suggested, namely the need to foreground indigenous knowledge and the experiences of frontlines experts in key policy arenas.

Rivers are vital for sustaining biodiversity and human development, yet globally only a small fraction of rivers enjoy protection and those with protections are often impaired or modified. Rapid rates of freshwater species’ extinctions indicate current conservation practices are failing. Despite over fifty years of scientific evidence justifying river conservation, it remains that less attention is focused on protecting ecosystems than on developing water resources for economic growth. This disparity is indicative of the ‘nature as resource’ versus ‘conservation of nature’ paradigm. Today, this paradigm is complicated by new attentions centering both on water resource development projects and conservation policy as climate change adaptation strategies. Policies protecting rivers are recommended for contending with more intense storms and flooding, increasing resilience for species, forests, and agricultural areas, and fostering some types of water security. Creating, implementing, and managing climate adaptation policies will require a strong state presence in water resource governance. We know, however, the aforementioned paradigm hinders conservation policymaking. Therefore, understanding how conservation policy has already been rationalized, implemented, and managed is critical to advancing climate adaptation policymaking. Yet, little empirical research has been conducted on federal river conservation policy creation or application across the U.S. To that end, this dissertation, presented in three discrete original research articles, examines the United States National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Specifically, this study investigates the socio-ecological drivers behind the creation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (WSRA hereinafter) and the spatial dimensions of the policy’s application and management over time. This study is grounded empirically in extensive archival materials, interviews with federal land management agency personnel, conservation advocates, and technical experts, as well as spatial and temporal analysis of a geodatabase. Together, these methods were employed to answer the following research questions which guide this study: (1) What factors influence the temporal and spatial distribution of river segments protected under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act? (2) What does the history of management in designated segments suggest about emerging trends and patterns in river conservation? (3) How are competing environmental values and ideologies understood and reconciled in the context of river conservation?

This thesis looks at the practice of climate modelling at the urban scale in relation to projections of future climate. It responds to the question of how climate models perform in a policy context, and how these models are translated in order to have agency at the urban scale. It considers the means and circumstances through which models are constructed to selectively represent urban realities and potential realities in order to explore and reshape the built environment in response to a changing climate. This thesis is concerned with an interdisciplinary area of research and practice, while at the same time it is based on methodologies originating in science and technology studies which were later applied to architecture and planning, geography, and urban studies. Fieldwork consisted of participant-observation and interviews with three groups of practitioners: firstly, climate impacts modellers forming part of the Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate (ARCC) programme; secondly, planners and adaptation policymakers in the cities of Manchester and London; and thirdly, boundary organisations such as the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP). Project and climate policy material pertinent to these projects and the case study cities were also analysed in tandem. Of particular interest was the common space shared to researchers and stakeholders where modelling results were explained, contextualised, and interrogated for policy-relevant results. This took the form of stakeholder meetings in which the limits of the models in relation to policy demands could be articulated and mediated. In considering the agency of models in relation to uncertainties, it was found that although generated in a context of applied science, models had a limited effect on policy. As such, the salience of urban climatic risk-based assessment for urban planning is restrained, because it presupposes a quantitative understanding of climate impacts that is only slowly forming due to societal and governmental pressures. This can be related both to the nature of models as sites of exploration and experimentation, and to the distribution of expertise in the climate adaptation community. Although both the research and policy communities operate partly in a common space, models and their associated tools operate at a level of sophistication that policy-makers have difficulty comprehending and integrating into planning policy beyond the level of simple guidance and messages. Adaptation in practice is constrained by a limited understanding of climate uncertainties and urban climatology, evident through the present emphasis on catch-all solutions like green infrastructure and win-win solutions rather than the empowerment of actors and a corresponding distribution of adequate resources. An analysis is provided on the means by which models and maps can shape climate adaptation at scales relevant for cities, based on considerations of how models gain agency through forms of encoded expertise like maps and the types of interaction between science and policy that they imply.

Resilience and solar energy are separately growing in popularity for urban planners and similar professionals. This project links the two discrete terms together and examines the extent to which solar energy can improve local government resilience efforts. It includes a detailed literature review of both topics, as well as the methodology and findings related to a survey and interviews of local government officials and key stakeholders across the country related to hazard mitigation and energy assurance planning. This research finds that integrating the use of solar energy can improve local government resilience efforts related to mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities in the following ways: by being incorporated into hazard mitigation strategies as a means to maintain critical operations, thereby reducing loss of life and property; by being utilized in comprehensive planning efforts to increase capacity and decrease reliance and stress upon the grid, thereby reducing the likelihood of blackout events; by being used in tandem with backup storage systems as an integral part of energy assurance planning, which can help ensure critical functions continue in times of grid outage; by being used to provide power for response activities such as water purification, medicine storage and device charging; and by being used as an integral part of rebuilding communities in a more environmentally-conscious manner. The result of the research is a document entitled Solar Energy & Resilience Planning: a practical guide for local governments, a guidebook for local government officials wishing to have more information about incorporating solar energy into current resilience initiatives; it is included at the end of the report as Appendix C.

Daylight is an essential element for both the built and natural environment. A careful design that acknowledges daylight performance can improve energy efficiency and environment protection, thus making construction more sustainable. However, allocating time to deeply evaluate all the aspects in a project might be challenging. In this framework, the aim is to analyze, through a specific designed case study, the different available options when it comes to manage daylight as a building material. Climate adaptation as a base for an architectural project is essential to achieve a regenerative evolution of the built environment. It should be holistically considered from the very outset, to conclude in a livable, sustainable and quality-designed space.  The aim of the present research is to thoroughly analyze daylight in order to use it as an input at the very early stage of an architectural project. Analyzing two different latitudes, Uruguay and Sweden, provided with a wide range of information, evidencing that assessing daylight is as complex as crucial.  Hence, the combination of academic methods with professional practice is key to design the built environment. By using an experimental cabin as case study, and with the support of the program Climate Studio, daylight is analyzed in these two different locations.