A Guidebook for Community Based Climate Adaptation and Psychological Resilience: A Case Study from Coastal Connecticut

Abstract

Climate change presents immense risks to all communities, with each one facing unique challenges, vulnerabilities, and opportunities. Coastal communities around the globe — including the Northeast of the United States — are vulnerable to threats such as more frequent and intense storms as well as sea level rise. The outcomes of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012 have been forcing Northeast communities to think critically about whether they are prepared for ongoing and future impacts of climate change and natural hazards as well as the local resources needed to support community resilience. This is a common tale from countless other communities worldwide that have experienced similar impacts. Common responses tend to invest in infrastructural solutions, but how can we also help people continually feel cognitively and emotionally prepared for future unknowns? This guidebook hopes to start a dialogue with some answers and strategies to address the psychological and social dimensions of climate adaptation. Our goal is for communities to have a broader suite of tools to prepare in advance of an event as well as cope with, and adapt effectively to, ensuing change. This guidebook is the result of a collaborative research study conducted by the University of Michigan in partnership with The Nature Conservancy. Coastal Connecticut was selected as the target area due to the presence of a long-term community resilience-building program, high exposure to climate hazards, and applicability of findings to other communities. In the summer of 2017, participants from a number of cities and towns across coastal Connecticut shared their visions of community-based climate adaptation through a mental-mapping exercise. Individual participants further shared the priorities, challenges, learning opportunities, and skills that they would need to leverage during a transition to a more self-reliant community. They also shared how they felt emotionally about impending change and their ability to resond. The results of our research revealed a number of key insights about shared community features, assets, and needs, which helped to inform alternative strategies for climate adaptation moving forward. The sections in the guidebook include the following: Guiding Framework: This section provides the foundation of key concepts for environmental psychology and community-based climate adaptation that puts the results and methods in context and highlights supportive research from these fields. • Results: This section provides an overview of the findings from the research study, specifically the results of the individual mental maps and interviews. • Tools & Strategies: This section uses the results to develop actionable strategies for communities to use to plan for psychological resilience to natural hazards and environmental change. 4 • Appendix – Mental Mapping Methods Guide: This section serves as a reference for anyone interested in using this methodology in their community and learning more about how it generated the results of the study. We hope that what follows is a useful resource for community leaders and practitioners to take steps towards increasing the resilience and adaptive capacity of their communities through the use of an underused lens – psychology. Some of the guiding principles, results, and suggested strategies may be surprising at first; they focus on helping individuals build competencies in addition to creating supportive cognitive and social environments around them. We encourage readers to explore new ways of thinking about what can bring out the best in people in their community during a period of uncertainty, as this is what will allow people to thrive even in the face of future challenges.