This event was held on Tuesday 11 March for officers and councillors working on sustainability, climate change, and environmental agendas.
The rising frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, from floods to heatwaves, are already having a significant impact on communities across the UK. As these changes intensify in the coming years, further strain will be put on our infrastructure, our economy, and our wellbeing.
In this context, it is no longer enough to focus solely on climate mitigation — we must also focus on adaptation. Adaptation means preparing for both the changes that are coming and those already underway to make sure that our communities, our buildings, and our local areas are resilient in the face of these challenges.
The roundtable explored how local authorities can develop and implement adaptation and resilience action plans, strategies, and projects to tackle sustainability-based vulnerabilities in their local place. It featured ‘spotlight on’ presentations from councils, followed by a discussion among attendees.
The event was delivered by the LGA in partnership with and funded by the Crown Commercial Service.
David Sale (DS), Climate Change Policy & Partnerships Manager, West Sussex County Council:
DS outlined West Sussex County Council’s approach to climate resilience, including their Climate Vulnerability Index tool.
West Sussex County Council adopted its climate change strategy in 2019 around two central ambitions: to become carbon neutral in their own operations by 2030 and to increase climate resilience to the impacts of climate change.
A centralised working group has been established to oversee carbon reduction across the council’s estate, increasing familiarity with officers and members with the concept of emissions. However, climate resilience was more of an ambiguous topic.
Rising frequency of climate related risks and incidents were seen, including impacts on the council’s own buildings causing them to close after a major flood. Climate incidents were affecting assets, services and communities, however, responses were seen as individual occurrences rather than compounding instances attributable to climate change.
As such, it was identified that a more holistic way to view climate impacts across the county was necessary, connecting the dots across the organisational response and the council’s role in supporting communities to respond to these events as well. Improved understanding was needed to assess the risks across a broad remit and variation of areas, such as coastal zones, the South Downs, and more urban areas. As a coastal authority, the risk of flooding is particularly significant.
The council set out to develop a map that looked at data from several sources, clearly identifying the risks posed to services, assets and residents. To understand and quantify the potential risks posed by climate change, WSCC partnered with the University of Brighton to develop the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI). The CVI is a geospatial mapping tool that contains information about the population (social, demographic, housing, health, and deprivation variables, for example) and environment (climate projections, flood zones, air pollution, and land cover, for example) across West Sussex.
As the council is responsible for multiple social services, it was important to highlight links to societal risk factors. The council led with an environmental justice perspective when thinking about vulnerability across the county. Frontline officers were identifying these societal risk factors in day-to-day work, emphasising that climate vulnerability is both a product of social vulnerability and environmental risk. Often those affected first and worst by climate change are the most vulnerable residents across communities.
When developing the climate vulnerability index, three major areas of vulnerability were considered:
- Firstly, social susceptibility was looked at, including factors that the community can experience making them more vulnerable to acute risks and threats such as socioeconomic status, deprivation of health and general demographics like age.
- The second area was exposure and adaptive capacity, identifying the community’s ability to respond to a threat or risk in areas such as housing and accommodation, available green space, travel patterns and general safety.
- Finally, the council looked at environmental risks that each community faced such as vulnerability to heat or flooding, as well as other environmental factors like air pollution or surrounding land cover.
From looking at all the datasets, around 40 individual layers were developed. Data was normalised to Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) levels. Each LSAO was ranked across all 40 layers to calculate an overall vulnerability index score. The map made clear that the most vulnerable communities were also going to be impacted most severely by climate change, allowing the council to develop targeted solutions when thinking about responses and strategies to support these communities.
The index has been a powerful engagement tool to visualise and engage with services across the council. It has been used in the council’s children and young people directorate to highlight the areas to understand both the societal and climate risks to young people. The tool has supported funding applications and participation in other national initiatives, providing an evidence base to make stronger cases for investment in the council’s work.
The tool has been used in targeted planning to identify with the energy services team where solar suitability would be highest and climate vulnerability would be lowest, identifying suitable sites for where community solar projects would be most resilient.
Executive leadership and cabinet were involved in the development of the tool from the beginning, ensuring executive and political buy in. The tool also helped to make climate relevant for teams across the council from a risk perspective, engaging services that have less of a direct impact on emissions.
WSCC are now working with the University of Brighton to update the tool, ensuring data is up to date and developing sub-indices to look at flooding and heat separately. The council are also considering weighting factors differently to allow for a more balanced use view of environmental risk alongside social vulnerability. The council is making sure the tool is embedded in organisation decision making and referenced in key decision reports, as well as ensuring the CVI is useful for collaborators and the community.
The tool can be viewed here: Climate Vulnerability Index - West Sussex County Council.
Cllr Dr Pete Sudbury (PS), Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Oxfordshire County Council
PS shared Oxfordshire County Council’s approach to flooding, working in collaboration with their local farming clusters to develop prevention measures.
The presentation began with a brief overview of the current science, including Rockström’s work on planetary boundaries which identifies a "safe operating space" within which humanity can operate without overshooting the limits of the biosphere. Key areas of concern include:
- biodiversity loss
- land use change
- freshwater management
- nitrogen and phosphorus pollution
- novel entities (microplastics and hazardous chemicals).
A paper from the Society and Faculty of Actuaries highlighted the accelerating risks of global warming, predicting a potential overshoot of the 1.5°C target. They emphasise that current scientific methods may downplay catastrophic risks. Continued burning of high sulphur fuels provides a temporary cooling effect, but stopping this can lead to a rapid increase in warming (termination shock), as had been observed recently due to a reduction in the use of these fuels within the shipping industry. Accelerated warming results in an increase in evaporation and subsequently an increase in rainfall.
Addressing peak river flow projections in Oxfordshire, areas have been identified where potential change as high as 33 per cent within this decade, reaching 84 per cent in 2060s is possible. In 2024, there were floods in January, February, August, September and November. Five major flooding events were seen in one year compared to one every five to ten years, which would be more usual.
Currently, it is estimated that by 2050 the cost of the climate will be 20 per cent of global GDP. Climate activation with prepared, proactive leaders and informed and activated citizens is the key to action. Mitigation is essential and must be done to make any adaptation work worthwhile.
Oxfordshire had work commissioned to look at flood vulnerability. Several statutory agencies, and district councils, signed up to work together to discuss what they can do to get ahead of the curve and what good looks like in terms of flood prevention. A flooding task force was formed.
The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme widens and deepens existing river channels to prevent street flooding. The scheme got planning permission in 2024 and it'll be completed in 2029. Changing land use can also restore carbon in the soil and the scheme could achieve a 0.4 per cent increase in soil carbon. The Cotswold farming cluster is also doing important work in this space, such as reengineering fields to stop water from flowing onwards. This could reduce peak flows by up to around 38 per cent. Another initiative to create new areas of lowland meadows by restoring flood plain meadows was shared.
Building local capability is key, ensuring every citizen knows their climate risk and the action they can take to mitigate it. All councils need an emergency plan, incorporating their local knowledge about risks and assets. Oxfordshire has piloted a flood warden pilot scheme in 2024, which is now being rolled out with local people in each area affected by flooding. Individuals become trained as system experts, so they can act when flooding comes.
The council has prioritised gully clearance, so every individual drain is cleared on roads on an annual basis. The council has also invested £22 million into a flooding fund matched by the Environment Agency and Thames Water to plan and address causes of flooding. Two flood officers have been recruited to address this.
PS concluded the presentation by emphasising the importance of proactive action against climate breakdown.
Q&A
Q: How do we focus more on the need for food security and food resilience?
A: Cllr Sudbury highlighted the work of Oxfordshire’s farming cluster, addressing maintaining agricultural output without high chemical use, which can also affect flooding risk. Oxford also works to promote changes in diet, such as reducing meat and in turn reducing crop production, which improves food resilience. Only 1 per cent of the food that is eaten is the county is grown within Oxfordshire. The council also works with Good Food Oxfordshire and are keen to strengthen the local supply chain, reducing the demand to import.
Q: In reference to mapping vulnerabilities, once you identify communities within your local authority area that are vulnerable to climate extreme climate events, how do you manage the anxieties associated with that kind of notification?
A: This was a top consideration for West Sussex when producing the tool and messaging has been key. The council have also engaged with districts and borough councils that have direct links to communities, assessing the different levels of ownership activity and levers that could be pulled to address specific vulnerabilities. The engagement effort that accompanies the rollout of the tool is key in conveying priority work for local authorities and empowering communities rather than the tool acting as a cause for alarm.
Q: Do you have any reflections on how we can work better on long term plans amidst four-year election cycles, especially for councils that have significant changes between elections?
A: It is key to embed climate adaptation as a priority within the organisation, emphasising the importance of the dedicated work officers do. Climate needs to be prioritised and addressed throughout all teams across service areas and with stakeholders, so once it is embedded in the priorities of the organisation and service area it is less affected by changes in leadership.
Q: How do we get citizens on board with seeing adaptation as the responsibility of every individual?
A: Leading with the understanding that each community knows their challenges and risks better than the council is essential in bringing citizens on board. Identifying a way to bridge the gap between local authority services and community expertise is a key action. Citizens who have been affected by flooding want to know what to do and see prompt action, for example in clearing drains and proactive strategies to prevent in areas they know are at risk. Oxfordshire’s flood warden scheme is a good example of this, as a pilot for local resilience, spreading knowledge of what and when to act through community networks.
Roundtable discussions:
The roundtable continued into breakout sessions for colleagues to discuss their adaptation initiatives.
Challenges were identified around embedding awareness around adaptation across organisations. Local authorities are skilled at risk management; adaptation should be framed as a risk management task. Identifying climate risk in this way can help improve organisational understanding of the vulnerabilities of services provided by local authorities. One proactive action in planning would be implementing future building regulations now, including not building houses which will not be net zero.
Colleagues emphasised the importance of galvanising community action, and enabling and empowering local people. Engaging with universities, higher education bodies and research groups is also a helpful collaboration when working on resilience strategies.
Knowledge sharing and coordinating efforts across authorities can be valuable in this space, enabling councils to learn from each other and scale successful solutions and strategies.