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Appendix G. Adaptation Planning for Climate Impacts Effective adaptation planning and management entails dealing with uncertainty. It is a long-term process that should allow immediate action when necessary and adjust to changing conditions and new knowledge. Redwood City plans to initiate an inclusive planning process that ensures the resulting actions are feasible and widely accepted. Adaptation will likely be an ongoing process of planning, prioritization, and specific project implementation. Five important steps to effective adaptation planning are summarized below: 1. Increase Public Awareness, Engage and Educate the Community It is critical that the public understand the magnitude of the challenge and why action is needed. It is also important for the community to be aware of win-win opportunities that can improve quality of life, protect community members, and potentially generate more jobs. The planning process should be inclusive of all stakeholders. Local outreach campaigns are needed to promote awareness of the dangers of heat exposure, flooding, wildfires, and recommend low-cost and low-GHG adaptation strategies. These efforts should leverage similar efforts undertaken at the regional, state, and federal levels. The efforts should be inclusive of community organizations (especially those with socially vulnerable community members), and include community needs early on in the process. 2. Assess Vulnerability Understanding vulnerability to sea -level rise and other climate change impacts is critical to developing adaptation effective strategies. A detailed vulnerability analysis should be performed to assess potential climate change impacts to infrastructure and natural systems. Climate Ready SMC has developed an interactive map of climate impacts for all cities and unincorporated County. Assets and infrastructure can be overlaid with individual or multiple climate impacts to project their future vulnerability. The map includes critical infrastructure, socially vulnerable communities, and health facilities to allow for rapid vulnerability analysis. For example, cities can engage with city staff and community members to "ground -truth" data assumptions based on current observations. Often the people who live and work in the areas modeled can add valuable details, nuance, and missing information to assist Planners. Level of risk can be categorized in terms of likelihood of damage within the forecasting period and the severity of the damages. This allows planners to prioritize their response to climate change over time, known as the adaptation pathway approach. The vulnerability assessment can also provide a framework for agency and community education and participation, feed into other planning documents, and identify funding needs. 3. Establish Goals, Criteria, and Planning Principles Engage with stakeholders to establish planning priorities, determine decision criteria, and build community support for taking action. Include community-based organizations in this process to ensure that these priorities and criteria will reflect their needs as well. Rank physical and natural assets for preservation efforts. Where possible, look for situations where a mitigation action has adaptation co -benefits (e.g., planting trees to reduce urban heat islands while sequestering carbon and providing habitat). City of Redwood City Climate Action Plan 98