Improving community engagement

Exposed to westerly and south-westerly Atlantic weather systems, the Outer Hebrides are a series of islands where the inhabitants are already well versed in coping with severe weather.

Driven by a desire to improve engagement on climate risk and resilience with local communities, the Outer Hebrides Community Planning Partnership (OHCCP) Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), alongside the Làn Thìde Climate Beacon, the Adaptation Scotland programme, and the Met Office created a project to explore the development of a storyline to communicate climate change information to the Outer Hebrides community.

Examples of climate impact story mapping used in the project

Music from climate data

Collaborating with a local artist, Sandra Kennedy, a collection of musical pieces, collectively named Tuil is Geil (Gaelic for “Flood and Wind”) was created through a combination of sonified climate data, local voices and field recordings of local weather.

The three pieces were created and these musical pieces, alongside a science presentation on projections of climate change for the Outer Hebrides, formed the centre of public engagement sessions where members of the public were able to share their thoughts about climate vulnerabilities and adaptation needs on the islands.

These tools provide the OHCPP Climate Change Working Group and Làn Thìde with a new and innovative tool to communicate future climate trends and projections in a way that is interesting and accessible, to generate discussion and gather local knowledge and lived experience to inform adaptation planning activities.

Encouraging dialogue

The partners held an event in Stornoway to launch the music. Rather than using the pieces as a prompt for participants to discuss climate impacts and adaptation actions, the event was held more as a gentle and open space for people to react and process some of the emotions the pieces gave rise to.

A facilitated creative writing exercise known as the ‘Golden Shovel’ was used. Attendees were provided with quotes from transcripts of the verbal elements of the pieces, asked to choose one to work with, and wrote it down vertically on their paper. They then created poetry where each word of the quote formed the last word in each line of their poem. Participants then shared their poems with each other, which also allowed them to reflect on thoughts and feelings which had arisen while listening to the pieces.

Creating safe spaces for people involved in adaptation work to acknowledge and process the emotions that can often arise when thinking about climate impacts on their community are important, and these pieces combined with a creative exercise provided a useful, sensitive mechanism to do so.

Eleanor Pratt, Senior Climate Resilience Manager, Sniffer

This briefing discusses what can be done to build climate resilience at a local level in a way that also benefits health.

Working together for change

The Adaptation Scotland programme worked with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and the Improvement Service to develop this introductory briefing on working together to build climate-resilient, healthy and equitable places.

This resource is for local government and partners such as Health Boards, Community Planning Partnerships, and local organisations. It sets out how our changing climate can affect health and health inequalities both directly, and indirectly through impacts on housing, transport, and access to goods and services, which are the building blocks of good health.

People who are socially and economically disadvantaged often experience significantly poorer health and are more vulnerable to climate impacts. These inequalities are underpinned by poverty, lack of power and the unequal distribution of resources and assets in the community.

The briefing discusses what can be done to take a preventative approach to building climate resilience at a local level in a way that also benefits health. It starts with understanding how the challenges are interconnected, adopting a whole system approach and working together to identify actions that address the underlying causes. The resource includes a range of tools and case studies to support this.

The Community Climate Adaptation Routemap is a practical guide to help communities adapt to climate change. No matter what kind of community you are, there are actions you can take to build resilience, prepare for climate change, and make your area healthier, safer, and more comfortable for people and wildlife.

This Routemap offers clear steps for local action groups, community councils, and development trusts to build their resilience to climate change. It is available in English and in Gaelic.

Every community is unique, and so are the impacts of climate change on each place. Addressing climate change can feel overwhelming on top of everything else you’re already working on—it’s complex, interconnected, and it’s not always clear where to start. The Community Climate Adaptation Routemap is based on the belief that it’s both crucial and possible to build resilience and adapt to climate change while also addressing other important community issues like housing, transportation, and jobs.

This Routemap is useful for anyone who wants to:

• Understand and address climate change impacts in your community, now and in the future.
• Discover actions you can take to build resilience and adapt while tackling other community issues.
• Invest in your community to reduce future costs and find out what funding and support are available

The Routemap offers clear definitions of climate change adaptation and resilience, a simple overview of what climate change means for Scotland in the long term, and tools to understand local impacts. It includes 20 examples of practical adaptation actions and many resources to help your community adapt.

Verture produced the Routemap as part of the Adaptation Scotland programme, in collaboration with Highlands and Islands Climate Hub, the Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN Hub), and the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN) alongside contributions from ReadyScot, Sustrans, Architecture & Design Scotland, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and others.

This case study shares our experience of developing a pilot approach for using participatory mapping to gather lived experience and local knowledge of climate change impacts and community priorities for adaptation in North Uist. It is part of our wider work with partners in the Outer Hebrides.

It provides details of the approach taken, some of our key learning and recommendations for use in other locations and contexts. It also provides links to some of the tools and resources used.

Find out more about our work in the Outer Hebrides, or read our guide to running a similar mapping activity in your own community.

Scotland has seen a significant change in its climate over the last 50 years – on average our weather has become warmer and wetter and we have seen more extreme events. This trend is set to continue with impacts felt across all parts of society.

The amount of information on climate change risks and potential adaptation measures in Scotland is increasing – at the national level, within sectors, and for specific locations. However, it can be difficult to access the breadth of information and consider it in an integrated way.

The six places

The Climate-Ready Places resource takes six typical Scottish ‘places’ and identifies:

• the key climate change impacts and risks identified for Scotland; and
• the adaptation measures that could contribute to a climate ready (adapting) place.

The visuals

The visuals will be used to introduce adaptation to a broad audience – providing visual representation of climate impacts and a shared vision of ‘climate ready places’. They will be used to engage with specific audiences (e.g. planners or communities) to identify what they could contribute to achieving a ‘climate ready place’.

The adaptation ideas were gathered at a dynamic workshop that brought together people working on adaptation across Scotland and from many different sectors. The images used in the tool were drawn by professional illustrators as participants described the characteristics of each place, how climate impacts them, and how our adaptation responses would change that location.Adapting uplands

The resource can be used by anyone with an interest in exploring adaptation ideas, from planning professionals to school children, community groups to corporate business.

It is worth remembering that this resource is a collection of ideas – it is not descriptive, it is not a plan. There will be many more ways to get your own place climate ready.

The ideas for adaptation were gathered from a dynamic workshop with people working on adaptation across Scotland and in many different sectors. The discussions at this workshop were captured in images drawn as participants described the characteristics of each place, and then how climate impacts and our adaptation response would change that location. 

Funding

The project received additional funding from the Scottish Government, Scottish National Heritage and Historic Environment Scotland.

Downloadable resources

The Climate-Ready Places pictures and the expert information behind them are now available as downloadable resources for you to print off and use to start an adaptation conversation of your own.

Below you will find A3 printable versions of all six of our typical Scottish ‘places’, showing them as both unadapted and adapting areas. There are also Information Sheets for each of the six places, explaining the changes that have been made.

Printing note: To get the best out of these resources, we recommend printing the A3 posters single-sided. This allows them to be set down side by side, making it easier to see what has changed.

Lesson plans

Lesson plans for primary and secondary schools using Climate-Ready Places have been developed. These allow students to think about their place and different environments and how a changing climate might impact their place.

A practical guide to values-based communication – engaging meaningfully with a diverse range of individuals and organisations is one of the biggest challenges surrounding climate change adaptation.

This practical ‘how-to’ guide has been developed by Climate Outreach in collaboration with Adaptation Scotland. It introduces the concept of values-­based communication and provides clear, concise summaries of the principles of engagement, combined with practical examples of how public bodies can use these principles in their work.

The above image is licensed and reproduced with permission from Big Stock Photo.

These resources allow students to think about their place and different environments and how a changing climate might impact their place. It allows students to consider and debate the positive and negative aspects of their place and how they might improve it. These resources also provide students with an opportunity to consider their own place in the context of a changing climate.

They can be used for general education purposes to raise awareness about place-making and climate change adaptation, or more specifically to help young people express their views about changes in their environment, or to contribute effectively to any climate adaptation strategy, plan or action process. The activities in the lesson plans could be run individually over the course of several weeks, or run consecutively as a one-off lesson.

Primary School

1. Climate-Ready Places Primary School Lesson Plan
2. Resource 1 – Background information for teachers
3. Resource 2 – Different environments
4. Resource 3 – Weather introduction
5. Resource 4 – Information sheet on landscape scenarios

Secondary School

1. Climate-Ready Places Secondary School Lesson Plan
2. Resource 1 – Different environments
3. Resource 2 – Presentation for students
4. Resource 3 – Key consequences
5. Resource 4 – Information sheet on landscape scenarios
6. Resource 5 – Place standard

Climate Cards

1. Climate Cards
2. Climate Cards – City
3. Climate Cards – Coastal
4. Climate Cards – Industrial
5. Climate Cards – Lowlands
6. Climate Cards – Suburbs
7. Climate Cards – Urban

Copyright

1. Copyright

Climate-Ready Places: Print Resources

Downloadable resources showing unadapted and adapting landscapes

Individuals and households

Climate change is impacting our homes and neighbourhoods, from storm damage in the winter to overheating in the summer. Learn how you can take action with our tools and resources.

An episode of Fife College’s CampusCast podcast

Verture’s Head of Climate Ready Leadership, Jonny Casey, joined the Fife College’s CampusCast podcast in 2024 to introduce listeners to climate adaptation. Jonny spoke with the hosts Hayley and Sharrell about the work the Adaptation Scotland programme has done with Fife College to support the integratation of climate change adaptation actions and design elements into its new Dunfermline Learning Campus.

Click below to listen and learn more about what climate adaptation is, how we can collaborate for action, and what you can do in your place to adapt: