Local Authority Adaptation Strategy Development Guidelines

Local Authority Adaptation Strategy Development Guidelines were developed for local authorities required to prepare adaptation strategies under the National Adaptation Framework. The Guidelines were originally developed as part of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) research project "Local Authority Adaptation Strategy Development Guideline" (2012-CCRP-FS-14) under the EPA Climate Change Research Programme. The original research guidelines were updated and edited by the Climate Ireland research team in MaREI (Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy) to reflect changes that have occurred in adaptation policy at national level since the original research guidelines were published in 2016.

The Guidelines are broken down into six chapters, with Chapters 2–6 dealing with distinct phases of the process of developing an adaptation strategy.

Chapter 1 provides background information on what adaptation entails and provides the rationale behind implementing a local scale adaptation strategy.

Chapter 2 outlines the initial steps required in launching a strategy development process, describing key roles and who can fulfil them, and setting out important factors to consider in the early stages of strategy development.

Chapter 3 explains how to assess the role that weather extremes and periods of climate variability currently play within the local jurisdiction, and it describes why doing so is a fundamental element of working towards a more climate-resilient future.

Chapter 4 moves from the present to the identification of future climate risks, describing a staged risk assessment process and positioning the adaptation strategy within more detailed risk assessments undertaken during shorter term decision-making processes such as statutory plan-making.

Chapter 5 on the basis of the risk assessment process undertaken in the previous chapter, this chapter describes the determination of adaptation goals and objectives and the types of adaptation actions that are available and outlines how each might be identified, assessed, prioritised and implemented.

Chapter 6 outlines the steps required to move from a phase of planning to one of implementation, and it explains the importance of monitoring and evaluation in ensuring that the strategy is achieving its anticipated adaptation objectives.