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Problem, research strategy, and findings: Many global cities are making good progress on climate adaptation. There is less information, however, on climate adaptation among smaller cities and towns: Are their approaches similar when undertaking adaptation? Do the barriers they face mirror those of large cities? In this study, we undertake fine-grained empirical research on the perceptions of 18 municipal planners in 14 coastal cities and towns in Massachusetts; our findings are thus limited to planners’ perceptions of efforts and barriers in one region of the United States. These communities are very early in the uptake of climate adaptation policies and use a range of approaches when they do begin adaptation, including planning, mainstreaming, or addressing current hazards. The planners interviewed reported that barriers to adaptation actions tend to be interconnected; for example, the strength of private property interests often limits local political leadership on the issue. Without such leadership, it is difficult for planners to allocate time and/or money to adaptation activities. It is also challenging to gain support from local residents for climate adaptation action, while a lack of accepted technical data complicates efforts.
Takeaway for practice: In coastal Massachusetts, and perhaps elsewhere, local residents, planners, and their municipal bodies, as well as the states, must act in multiple ways to encourage the development of meaningful climate adaptation action in smaller cities and towns.
Notes
1 The Commonwealth's policy report on climate adaptation was completed in late 2011 (Executive Office of Energy and Environment, Adaptation Advisory Committee, & Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011). This is an advisory-only plan, with no requirements or mandates from the state to its municipalities. Our interviews were in mid-2011, before the plan had come out, and thus our interviewees did not have it for reference for technical information such as projected sea-level rise.
2 For more on town meetings and the various forms of municipal governance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, see the state website: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cistwn/twnidx.htm
3 Data on demographics, income, and wealth come from www.city-data.com
4 Note that there was likely some respondent bias in that interviewees may have wanted to appear more sophisticated or advanced in climate change actions than if we were asking about a wide range of actions: There is always the desire to please the interviewer. For this reason, we encourage some skepticism, particularly in the category of expressed intention, which is about what the planners think they may do at some point in time; the other categories require more explicit back-up in terms of actual policies or plans, so they may be more reliable.
5 There was a third community involved in this same adaptation planning process, but that community was not part of our sample.
6 In Moser and Eckstrom (2010), this includes technical information such as regional climate forecasts as well as staff time and expertise, but our coding suggests that staff time and money is one issue, while data is another. As a result, we coded technical information in the next group.
7 Note that we coded responses here that had to do with the planners’ concern over climate uncertainties; local belief in climate change is discussed in the section on local values.
8 One community had undertaken a workshop run by a Boston-area faculty member to increase public awareness of climate change, but not to develop science. After the study, one of the authors worked with one of the communities to draft an adaptation chapter for their master plan, but that was a result of contact made through the interviews and had not taken place at the time of the interviews.