Sustainable Bristol

How will city suburbs adapt to climate change?

Posted on 17 April 2010

The SNACC research project (Suburban Neighbourhood Adaption for a Changing Climate) seeks to answer the question: How can existing suburban neighbourhoods be best adapted to reduce further impacts of climate change and withstand ongoing changes?

Suburbs are the most common type of urban area in the UK, housing 84% of the population. The research focuses on adaptations to the built environment, through changes to individual homes and larger neighbourhood scale adaptations (urban re-design).

The project is seeking to identify successful adaptation and mitigation measures. These are classed as those that perform well technically (i.e. they protect people and property from climate change impacts and mitigate against further climate change) but are also those that are the most practical and acceptable for those who have to make them happen.

The project is using six neighbourhoods from three cities as case studies (Bristol, Oxford and Stockport). In these areas, key agents of change (e.g. home owners, elected members and planners) will help to determine successful adaptations.

The research team will use modelling tools (of climate change, house prices and adaptation outcomes, etc),  that allow the participants to visualise what ‘adapted’ neighbourhoods will look like, and deliberative methods from social sciences, to generate a portfolio of adaptation strategies that are feasible, and fully endorsed by stakeholders. The research design, methods and range of collaborators reflect both the technical and socio-economic aspects of adaptation.

“This important research project’s outcomes will contribute, practically, to securing a sustainable future for the UK’s city suburbs in the face of climate change,”

says Dr Paul Rainger, Head of Forum For The Future’s Sustainable Bristol City-Region Programme, and member of the SNACC Project Advisory Board.