Foundations for Community Climate Action: Defining Climate Change Vulnerability in Detroit

Abstract

According to projections, the average annual temperature in Detroit is expected to increase 1.5-5.4°F by 2050. In the wake of increasing temperatures and changing climate conditions, many cities across the world recognize the need for climate action planning. This style of planning provides a proactive approach to climate change. Comprehensive climate action planning involves both mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation aims to decrease the extent of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Conducting a greenhouse gas inventory informs which mitigation strategies are needed and in which sectors. Adaptation aims to decrease the impacts from climate change by identifying distinct places and groups of people that may be disproportionately affected by a changing climate. Conducting a vulnerability assessment informs which adaptation strategies are needed, and where to implement them.

Our vulnerability assessments focus on two issues: extreme heat and flooding. We selected these two issues because local climatologist have identified extreme heat and increased precipitation as key concerns for Detroit.

The results of the vulnerability assessment informed a set of final recommendations. These final recommendations include: (1) Reconsider distribution and location of designated cooling centers; (2) Reduce impervious surfaces in identified ‘hotspots’; (3) Increase tree planting in identified ‘hotspots’; (4) Acquire additional information from DWSD for further food vulnerability analysis; (5) Ground-truth the most vulnerable heat and food areas to further target efforts at the neighborhood scale.