Surveying local planning directors ' actions for climate change

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how well local planners have recognized the issues surrounding climate change, the analysis that jurisdictions have conducted on climate change, and policies that have been implemented to address climate change.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a mail questionnaire survey for 214 counties ' planning directors in the USA and received 53 effective responses. This survey examined how well local planning directors have been prepared for climate change, including awareness, analysis scope, and implementation strategy.

Findings

The descriptive results indicate that the directors who responded to this survey had a relatively high (79.87 percent) level of awareness for climate change; but they had limited (34.94 percent) analysis scopes to assess the sources, impacts, and risk of climate change in their jurisdictions. These directors had partially but not fully (51.51 percent) developed local land use planning implementation strategies to mitigate or adapt climate change. The regression model indicates that the political commitment and planning personnel resources have significant influence on local planning directors ' actions for climate change.

Originality/value

This paper provides policy implications to improve local land use planning ability for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Citation

Tang, Z., Wei, T., Quinn, C. and Zhao, N. (2012), "Surveying local planning directors ' actions for climate change", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 81-103. https://doi.org/10.1108/17568691211200236