Informing sector-based approaches to city climate resilience and adaptation

Expressions of interest are invited for those with sector, city resilience and/or Earth Observation expertise, looking at how climate EO data can support city resilience planning and delivery. Confirmation of places will be given by Monday 5th February.

We recognise the short notice of this event - we are taking advantage of the availability of visiting researchers. If you would like to attend this type of workshop at a future date but cannot make the 13th, please register your expression of interest so that we can consider this when planning our future work programme.

The workshop, convened by the London Climate Change Partnership and the Space4Climate group, will include 3 keynote talks to set the context and then a scoping session drawing on the expertise of all participants, to identify what EO could bring to London’s efforts towards a sector-based approach to climate resilience and adaptation planning. The sectors that will be discussed at this workshop are those priority sectors already with LCCP workstreams underway; transport, housing, healthcare delivery, natural environment, food, and, water.

The workshop will cover the development of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) global indicators and the relevance of satellite data for more local adaptation planning, risk management and resilience. This will require the design and development of key local information and indicators for city and constituent borough policy makers using EO and other climate data ,including the potential for prognostic and socio-climate indicators.

If a viable project is conceived, this workshop will form the basis of scoping a demonstrator for city level EO climate indicators for resilience planning.

Workshop programme

13:30 Registration and tea & coffee reception

14:00 Welcome & Introductions - Prof Chris Rapley, Chair of LCCP

14:05 UK Climate EO expertise and capability - Briony Turner, Space4Climate group

14.10 London’s sector-based approach to city resilience -Kristen Guida, Manager, LCCP

Q&A

14:30 Earth Observation -from global indicators to city level prognostics and monitoring tools - Prof Stephen Briggs, Visiting Scientist University of Cambridge & University of Reading

Q&A

14:50 Walking the Talk after Paris: the role of EO analytical tools in city level climate risk management - Prof Charles Kennel, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

Q&A

15:15 Table work on sector basis

16:00 Tables report back

16:20 Discussion

16:50 Summary and next steps - Prof Chris Rapley, Chair of LCCP

17:00 Event close

Informal networking drinks in The Bridge Lounge and Dining Room, 186 Tooley St

Policy context

Objective 8.1 in the new London Environment Strategy proposes that London take a sector-based approach to understanding and managing the risks to the city from climate change. This will allow detailed scrutiny of how well London’s major services and functions (transport, health, food supply, etc.) are able to cope with extreme weather now and a changing climate.

The role of London Climate Change Partnership

There is currently no systematic collection of data to illustrate how well London is adapting to the impacts of severe weather and future climate change, and whether interventions to improve climate resilience are successful.

Such data collection, drawn largely from existing data sets, would help London become more resilient to climate change. It would capture evidence of good and poor performance, identify adaptation priorities, and highlight knowledge gaps. Where possible, this would include assessing the financial costs of severe weather to support the business case for climate resilience.

The London Climate Change Partnership is therefore devising the mechanics of delivering a sector-based approach with the following intended outcomes, led and defined by sector experts [definitions and metrics will not be imposed from outside]:

• A clear definition of the scope of the sector
• Metrics / indicators to determine the sector’s resilience to shocks and longer-term stresses (including climate change) and whether our interventions to improve resilience are working
• An understanding of the sector’s baseline resilience that can be re-assessed periodically using the metrics
• An understanding of gaps and potential opportunities to ensure that the sector is better prepared for the future (ideally written up as an action plan)
• A way of capturing dependencies between sectors so that potential cascading failures might be addressed

Indicators will be developed in collaboration with partners and stakeholders from priority sectors that have key roles to play in improving resilience. These include transport, energy, water, and buildings. The indicators will cover climate risks, impacts, and adaptation measures, and will also include reference to social vulnerability to climate change.

Keynote speaker biographies

Prof. Stephen Briggs

Visiting Scientist, Dept. of Chemistry, Cambridge University & Dept. of Meteorology, Reading University.

Stephen is currently Chairman of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Steering Committee and in this context interacts with the UNFCCC and with the IPCC WGs on adaptation and mitigation. He has also worked with the World Bank Global Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and with the insurance industry for improved risk modeling. He has led ESA work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) on disaster management scenarios.

In previous roles in ESA, since 2000, he was responsible for the ESA Earth Observation Science Programme and for wider data exploitation and for managing the interactions between ESA and its user communities.

Prof. Charles Kennel

Visiting Research Fellow, Cambridge University.

Charles is a visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Charles formerly worked for NASA and remains on the NASA Advisory Council, having served on it for 12 years, chairing it from 2000-2005.. He was a member of the National Science and Technology Council and the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites while at NASA. He has chaired the US National Academy’s Board on Physics and Astronomy and Committee on Global Change Research and the Space Studies Board of the US National Academy of Sciences since 2008. For the State of California, Charles was a member of the founding board of the California Climate Action Registry, the first chairman of the California Ocean Sciences Trust, and now chairs the California Council on Science and Technology. A more detailed biography is available here.