How do we build collaborative science for better urban planning and climate change adaptation?

As climate change related risks to local communities grow, it becomes more and more important to create robust climate change adaptation and risk mitigation strategies that are based upon the best and most current science. Unfortunately, there is a wide chasm between the fields of climate science and urban planning. This paper summarizes the results and findings from a recent survey of more than 800 urban planners in the US. The survey results suggest that planners overwhelmingly want and need better access to climate data in order to inform important decisions with long term implications for local communities and regions. Nevertheless, a number of structural forces complicate the use of climate data in making local planning and policy decisions. In general, the survey suggests that planners are increasingly cognizant of the risks their communities face due to climate change and the urgency of action that is informed by the best science. But they face many challenges in addressing those risks including the political climate in many communities, which makes any attempt to address climate change a contentious topic. But access to useful climate science is also an important barrier, with planners lacking an understanding of how climate data are created and reported and how planters might access the data they need for various types of decisions. Based on the findings from this survey and follow up interviews with planning officials a number of takeaways for climate science are offered including ways to make climate data more useful for local planners and policy makers and how climate scientists might develop more useful tools and partnerships and collaborations with planners in their own communities.