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Screenshot of a template for undertaking a stakeholder power mapping excercise using Miro

Workshop Outline and Template

Working together for systems change

A tool to help you understand who is important to involve in planning and delivering local climate resilience and adaptation actions. Places, communities, and organisations cannot adapt in isolation; it requires the involvement of different individuals and institutions, bringing them on board and influencing decision making. Building climate resilience is a process that needs collaboration at different scales, so it is useful to map out who needs to be involved. This can help:

The tool is for anyone who is beginning to work on climate change adaptation in their place and wants to understand who they should involve. This tool will also be helpful for groups that have been engaged in local climate action and want to re-evaluate who they are engaging with.

DOWNLAND
Picture of a beach on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides (Image credit: Jonny Casey)

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.

Post it notes stuck on maps of the Outer Hebrides islands

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
Illustrations of people with tools, a solar panel, and a tree

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.

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Illustration of a community hub

Local Authorities in Scotland are taking action to increase resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Here we present a simple directory of local authority contact points for Climate Change Adaptation related enquiries. This directory may be useful for individuals, community groups or businesses who want to find out more about climate change adaptation in their area. You can read more about our work with Public Bodies through our Public Sector Climate Adaptation Network.

You can check which local authority you are in by using the Postcode checker tool.

Please note we cannot guarantee that information provided is up to date. If you would like to contact us about this resource, please email [email protected]

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:

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.

Adaptation Scotland produced the Routemap 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 ReadyScotSustransArchitecture & Design Scotland, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and others.

Download the Routemap — for digital view Download the Routemap — A4 print version Download the Routemap Poster — A2 Download the Routemap in Gaelic

Sniffer team and Adaptation Personas workshop participants photograph

This workshop outline and template can help you to create personas to encourage better understanding of climate change, its impacts and adaptation actions for your place.

It is for anyone who wants to design and run creative and engaging conversations about climate change adaptation and develop a more nuanced understanding of how climate change impacts different people. This tool is especially helpful for understanding of climate change impacts on more vulnerable groups (such as women, disabled people, young people, the elderly, or non-human inhabitants of the area).

Screenshot of the Adaptation Personas workshop outcome

If you’d like to read about an example of using personas in action, read our case study on Climate Ready Ken.

“Personas turn insights about real people into a fictional character, with backgrounds, goals, and values. Using personas can help people to see climate change impacts in relation to specific ‘types’ of characters, which can generate a deeper understanding of their broader needs, underlying challenges they may face, and what might enable them to adapt.” — Iryna Zamuruieva, Senior Climate Resilience Manager

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Climate Ready Ken and Adaptation Scotland project members stood next to a project branded marquee on a street in Dumfries

Climate Ready Ken and Adaptation Scotland project members in Dumfries

This case study shares the insights of local partners from the Loch Ken Trust in Dumfries and Galloway, about their journey embarking on building climate resilience in the area as part of Adaptation Scotland’s localities work programme 2020 – 2022.

Community Development Trust initiates local efforts on climate resilience

“The impacts of climate change are already too obvious in our communities, whether it is wildfires raging in the Galloway Forest Park or extreme flooding of towns and villages around Loch Ken. This work will helped us understand the practical things we can do right now, to set us up to really prosper in an uncertain future.” – Barnaby Fryer, Loch Ken Trust officer
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Improving river quality and reducing flood risk with the communities of the Eddleston Water in the Scottish Borders.

The Eddleston Water is a sub catchment of the River Tweed. It measures 69 square km. The main stream is 12km. Lying to the North of Peebles in the Scottish Borders, the Eddleston Water covers a large area of hill and improved grassland. The Eddleston Water Project aims to reduce flood risk and restore the Eddleston Water for the benefit of the local community and wildlife.

The project is a partnership initiative led by Tweed Forum, with the Scottish Government, SEPA and University of Dundee, and works with a range of other key partners, including landowners and the local community so that everyone can contribute ideas and follow the project’s progress.

Work to slow the flow and increase storage of flood waters is ongoing across the catchment, including using techniques such as:

  1. Planting native woodland on floodplains and in hill cleuchs. The trees and coarse grass generated will help slow the surface flow rate which will help take the peak off the flood water.
  2. Creating new water retention ponds to capture flood water. Re-meandering canalised ditches and watercourses will encourage a more natural watercourse ecosystem to develop.
  3. Installing log-jams in the headwaters to slow down run-off. This will benefit water quality, wildlife and the fisheries.

This film includes more information about the work that is being carried out in the Eddleston Water catchment

For more information, see the project website here where there is also a progress report from 2021 available to download.

Community mapping workshop in North Uist

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.

Download the case study
Place Standard with a Climate Lens

The Place Standard with a Climate Lens has been developed to help people understand how climate change might play out in a local area and support them to design their future place with climate in mind.
It builds on the core Place Standard tool and is designed to support a joined up, collaborative, and participative approach to climate action within a place.

The tool was jointly developed by Sniffer, Sustainable Scotland Network and Architecture & Design Scotland, together with and funded by Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government.

The Climate Lens includes a suite of tools for facilitators and organisers of Place Standard sessions, including:

Find out more
Illustration of happy people on a street with hopscotch painted in chalk on the path

Video introducing the Place Standard with a Climate Lens resources