Talks
Forthcoming talks
Planning for the Worst Case Scenario: The Legal Issues in Responding to Inevitable Climate Change
Where: 2010 National Planning Conference in New Orleans Dates: 10th April 2010 - 13th April 2010 When: 13th April 2010, 7am - 9pm
Co-presented with Dwight Merriam, FAICP, CRE
This presentation anticipates the complex and persistent legal battles that will occur from ad-hoc municipal climate change adaptation plans. Currently, there are two responses to climate change – the well-known and popular carbon mitigation, and the just-emerging and poorly-understood adaptation planning for infrastructure and the protection of property. With a focus on adaptation, this session will cover two broad areas for planners and lawyers.
First Michael Cote, an independent researcher, will comprehensively examine the three common elements of adaptation plans: the interdisciplinary (e.g., interdepartmental) awareness needed of climate impacts; the science based methodologies required to identify vulnerabilities over 20, 50 and 100 year time frames; and the
integration of risk assessments into strategic and capital planning. Two high profile adaptation plans will be examined to illuminate these elements: New York City's adaptation plan, a collaboration with NASA and Columbia University; and New Orleans’ coastal and regional “resilience” plan, which involves community participation, Louisiana state politicians, the Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA and EPA.
Second, the point will be made that communities must anticipate and successfully defend their programs from inevitable legal challenges that will arise from adaptation planning. Coastal erosive, drought prone, and agricultural dependent community's are physically and economically vulnerable to climatic impacts. Hedging against these impacts include complex land management regulatory regimes based on a combination of science and politics – cyclical regimes that tend to ignore the legal implications of long-term planning. Dwight Merriam, FAICP, a lawyer-planner, will discuss anticipated fallout from land-use adaptation decisions including takings, the limits of the Public Trust Doctrine's “high-water mark,” and the evolving role of science in the courtroom.
Like (2)Past talks
A Risk Assessment Model for Community Adaptation
Where: 2009 World Town Planning Day Online Conference, American Planning Association - International Division Dates: 12th November 2009 - 14th November 2009 When: 14th November 2009
A Risk Assessment Model for Community Adaptation
Michael Cote / UMass‐Amherst and Vermont Law School
Description: With no federal or state legislation on the horizon, many communities are left without assistance or policy guidance with respect to climate change impacts. In other words, it is up to local communities to adapt. Impacts on Southern New England include sea‐level rise, higher precipitation, and more variable temperatures. Communities with sensitive floodplains, watersheds, coastlines, agriculture, and other vulnerable infrastructure will be most affected.
Erosion and accretion will affect coastal property boundaries and sensitive estuaries. Inland farms will experience longer growing seasons, creating the need for heavier pesticide sprays. And cities with high impervious coverage will experience engineering troubles from more intense storms and temperature flux. There are two take home messages from this session: 1) Where to access important, but understandable climate science data and 2) Create a risk
assessment model for the basis of an adaptation plan for your community.
Adapting to Climate Change - Folding the Science into Planning
Where: National Planning Conference, 2009 Minneapolis, Minnesota , American Planning Association - Planning and Law Division. Sponsored by MassAPA Dates: 25th April 2009 - 29th When: 28th April 2009
Co-presented with Dr. Paul Kirshen, Tufts University; Amy Malick, ICLEI - Midwest Regional Director; Gary Heath, Director of OperationsBureau of Environmental Planning & Analysis New York City Department of Environmental Protection
What methods can planners use to incorporate climate change science and subsequent adaptation methods into their work? This intensive panel session covers the comprehensive approach that planners and decision makers can take to incorporate climate change adaptation techniques into their community's planning processes including: developing infrastructure capital improvements; trans-departmental and multidisciplinary decision making; assessing new and re-development for risks; and identifying vulnerabilities to climate impacts.
Leaders in the planning and civil engineering fields will discuss their real-world work regarding climate change adaption planning. APA members will see a comprehensive model that communities can adopt now. And they will learn how leaders are incorporating adaptation at the regional and large coastal city scales.
A special adaptation case study will be presented - the ambitious adaptation plans adopted by New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which was designed in cooperation with NASA and Columbia University.
Adapting to Climate Change for City Planners. Risk assessment strategies that work.
Where: Southern New England Planner's Conference SNEAPA 2008, Providence, Rhode Island Dates: 4th September 2008 - 6th September 2008 When: 5th September 2008, 9am - 11am
"Co-presented with Timothy Randhir, UMass; Catherine Miller, PVPC"
Adapting to Climate Change for Planners. Session focuses on climate change risk assessment techniques that urban and municipal planners can use. Risk assessment can be folded into the busy planning profession. Presented are the projected impacts of climate change on regions; a model that municipalities can adopt, illustrated its use in New York City's Dept. of Environmental Protection, and regional adaptation implementation in Massachusetts.
The conference was held in Providence, RI September, 2008 at the annual Southern New England Planning Conference.
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"Presented in three parts. First, Dr. Timothy Randhir, watershed expert, presents the latest climate change data, the need for decision makers to incorporate scenarios rather than depend on historical measures, and the difficulties of predicting regional climate change data. Second, Michael Coté, planning and law graduate student, presents an easy to understand risk assessment model for climate change. He illustrates this model with an infrastructure case-study in New York City in collaboration with NASA. Finally, Catherine Miller, expert Sustainability Planner at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, shows how municipalities are incorporating climate change data into comprehensive plans."
"Impervious Surface Fees: A Model for Small Town Planners in Massachusetts"
Where: Northeast Arc Users Group (GIS by ESRI) Conference - 2008, Hyannis Massachusetts
"Co-presented with Lynne W. Fielding GISP, Town of Westwood; and Thad Dymkowski, Fuss & O'Neill Technologies; Kim Honetschlager GISP, Reading, Massachusetts"
In this presentation, I demonstrate how small town planners in Massachusetts can easily create an effective impervious surface fee policy. Small town planners have limited resources to hire for GIS projects. This project is but one helpful solution.
The main purpose of adopting a fee is to lower the impacts of non-point source pollutants on water quality without constraining a town's fiscal and human resources.
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Details:
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes the leading threat to water resources is non-point source pollutants such as asbestos from brake dust, tire wear, toxic fluid drips and leaks from vehicles, road sand and salt, etc.
Stormwater carries these pollutants into surface waters and is a major source of pollution for all water body types in the US. The impacts of non-point source pollution increases with land development and increased urbanization. While Massachusetts's 'Stormwater Guidelines for Planners' provides guidence to control this pollution, it is not enough. Stormwater runoff volumes have increased significantly due to the amount of impervious surfaces from increased suburbanization and urbanization.
Southborough, Massachusetts was selected as a study area for four reasons: 1) It's the location of the Sudbury Reservoir, an emergency backup drinking water reservoir for metropolitan Boston. 2) Southborough is located in the fastest developing region in the state, the I-495 MetroWest corridor. 3) A fee structure could provide a creative model for small town planners to mirror and spur developers to implement better planning and development techniques, such as Low Impact Development, Best Management Practices, Green Infrastructure, etc. 4) Empower municipalities using their GIS to control both sprawl and water quality.
While other methodologies exist for planners to adopt, such as changing zoning by-laws, the methods discussed here show that GIS provides an efficient alternative to political solutions.
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