Global problems, city solutions: A mixed methods analysis of local climate adaptation plans

Abstract

As cities have become leading protagonists in the fight against climate change, the sustainability efforts of high-profile “best practice” cities are increasingly well-documented and replicated. Much less is known, however, about the urban sustainability efforts outside the superstar cities dominating global public discourse. This presentation discusses a cross-disciplinary, collaborative project attempting to address this knowledge gap through a mixed methods analysis of local climate action plans across the State of California. First, we discuss the results of a policy analysis of these plans, which identified an increase in the number of plans incorporating social equity into urban climate planning, and found that the presence of equity language correlates with more systemic solutions, such as affordable housing, being proposed in CAPs. Second, we outline our work-in-progress to apply machine learning techniques to large-scale textual analysis of climate plans and associated public discourse.

Date
Oct 11, 2019 12:00 PM — 2:00 PM
Location
Santa Cruz, California

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