Community Resilience to Climate Change : Summary for policy and practice

Abstract

The Scottish Borders Climate Resilient Communities Project (SBCRC)1 was a participatory action research project that sought to build community resilience to climate change through working in three communities with a history of flooding in the Scottish Borders. It aimed to:- Understand some of the critical factors that contribute to shaping community resilience in the context of climate disadvantage;- Understand how community resilience to climate change can be developed in different local contexts in practice by supporting and facilitating engagement between members of three local communities and other stakeholders in the Scottish Borders region, and evaluating outcomes;- Draw out lessons for policymakers and practitioners on how to support the development of community resilience in the context of climate change.The project was structured around nine workshops (three per community) that brought together different organisations (e.g. the Scottish Borders Council, local NGOs) to examine issues and develop actions to build community resilience in the context of climate change. A tenth workshop used the outcomes from the work within the communities to examine how a more integrated and synergistic national policy landscape in Scotland could be developed to enhance community resilience to climate change. An evaluation helped to inform project delivery and the overall findings