PREPARING FOR A CHANGING PROFESSION: A CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF PLANNERS IN FLORIDA (Invited Presentation)

Local and regional public sector planners are on the frontline of preparing their communities for climate change. Accurately assessing vulnerability and improving resiliency involves governance institutions and policies which are focused on diverse planning categories from land-use, water management to transportation and housing. Established with a grant from the National Science Foundation and led by the University of South Florida, the Coastal Areas Climate Change Education (CACCE) Partnership sought to conduct an education needs assessment of planners (as well as students and science teachers) and define a plan to improve education on climate change and its salient issues in coastal communities of Florida and the US Caribbean territories. Across over 1000 websites and online resources on climate change reviewed for this project, less than a dozen addressed climate change issues and impacts relevant to Florida and the US Caribbean Territories. In collaboration with the American Planning Association Florida Chapter, the CACCE Planner committee implemented an online survey of APA Florida members in February 2012. More than 25% of the 2700 members responded and approximately 70% indicated that they had not been involved in climate change adaptation planning in the last two years. The survey identified that professional education is needed in the following categories: 1) downscaled climate and scientific information defining local impacts; 2) adaptation strategies; 3) socio-economic analytical models to assess vulnerabilities and cost/benefits of adaptation strategies; 4) effective stakeholder communications strategies (community and elected officials; and 5) geo-spatial technology tools. Respondents at all professional levels rated webinars, internet-based courses, half-day workshops and 1-day stand alone workshops as their top preferred formats. CACCE Partners and APA-F seek to share the findings with universities, scientists and organizations to improve the understanding of planners’ needs regarding their continuing and professional education, encourage enhancements to and optimization of SLR/visualization tools, analytical models, interdisciplinary discussions and collaboration on development of downscaled climate projections for local and regional decision making.