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Project title

Resilience Enhancement and Supportive Climate Change Adaptation Toolkit for Local Authorities

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

Met Eireann

Lead Organisation

University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD)

Lead Applicant

Julie Clarke

Project Abstract

Ireland’s changing climate is affecting many aspects of society and has the potential to result in significant future losses due to extreme flooding, heatwaves, windstorms, landslides, as well as sea level rise and coastal erosion. The Climate Act 2021 sets out the objective of achieving a climate resilient Ireland by 2050 through the establishment and implementation of Sectoral Adaptation Plans and Local Authority Climate Action strategies that address adaptation at regional level. While good progress has been made to date in terms of evaluating climate risks at the regional level in Ireland, Local Authorities now need to implement their adaptation strategies to manage and mitigate climate risks at the local level. Many of the 31 Local Authorities manage a large stock of buildings, including social housing, fire stations, offices, heritage assets, etc. and also have responsibility for the delivery of significant new social housing stock. The ability to assess the evolving climate risks for these assets requires bringing together several spatial and temporal varying data sources, including climatological data, building vulnerability data and considerations of building occupancy and usage. When considered holistically as part of a risk framework, this information provides valuable insights that can be used to inform adaptation planning at the local level, including the use of Nature-based Solutions (NbS). The RESCUE project will develop a climate change adaptation toolkit for Local Authorities that can be used to assess the ongoing and evolving vulnerabilities and risks associated with built assets in their regions, and to inform adaptation at the local level. This digital platform will be underpinned by a risk assessment framework and the platform with leverage digital twinning (DT) technologies to consider real-time data relating to climate hazards, building vulnerability and consequence considerations, as well as adaptation solutions, with a particular focus on NbS. The toolkit will enable Local Authorities to assess and manage climate risk for their built assets on an ongoing basis and can be used to inform decisions regarding the implementation and management of NbS but can also be used to inform more immediate responses when faced with extreme weather, increasing the resilience of regions to climate change impacts. In effect, the project will facilitate a move away from ‘static’ risk assessments to dynamic risk profiling for buildings that considers the latest climate regional projections and the most up-to-date building and adaptation information. Furthermore, the toolkit will facilitate local measures of resilience that can be used to inform adaptation planning. The RESCUE project will engage with two of Ireland’s Climate Action Regional Offices (CAROs) and their affiliated Local Authorities as part of the project to develop the proposed climate change adaptation toolkit and to ensure that the solutions developed successfully address end-user needs. Ultimately, the project will facilitate the development of resilience at local level to extreme weather events (e.g. flooding, overheating, periods of drought, windstorms, landslides) and ongoing climate change effects, such as sea level rise and coastal erosion.

Grant Approved

€659,026.03

Research Hub

Addressing Climate Change Evidence Needs

Research Theme

Understanding vulnerabilities, risks and adaptation measures at the local level

Start Date

31/03/2025

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2029