Climate Just #2 now live

The Climate Just project team at the University of Manchester is pleased to announce that a new version of the Climate Just website is now live at www.climatejust.org.uk, Climate Just #2.

Climate Just is a freely available and powerful online resource first launched in February 2015 that enables public service providers to identify who is most socially vulnerable to climate change and why, where socially vulnerable neighbourhoods are located and what can be done. The resource consists of a map tool which helps visualise which places are most disadvantaged, together with extensive written materials that explain the maps and provide evidence of the links between climate change, justice and vulnerability in the UK. The website is part of an extensive programme of independent research into climate change and communities conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Following several months of further development work the new version of the site features a number of improvements:

• New flood risk and social vulnerability data have been incorporated within the map tool, drawn from a new UK-wide assessment of ‘Present and future flood vulnerability, risk and disadvantage’ completed by Sayers and Partners LLP in 2017.
• The new data is finer grained, includes future flood risk up to the 2050s (under 2 and 4 degree C climate scenarios) and includes Scotland and Wales for the first time. This has involved a different methodology to the original flood disadvantage mapping so all the flood indicators, map layers, map legends, information sheets and user guides have also been updated to reflect the changes.
• New terms and concepts are included for the first time: Social Flood Risk Index and Neighbourhood Flood Vulnerability Index, which help to provide new insights into the levels and distribution of flood disadvantage across England, Scotland and Wales.
• The Home Page has been refreshed and new search filters have been added to the Resource and Case Study libraries.
• All the JRF Climate Change research findings (27 reports) have been added to the site to make them easier to find.
• Six recent ‘Applying Climate Just in practice’ case studies have been added resulting from an assessment carried out in 2016 (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Accelerator Account). The case studies are for: Hull City Council; Staffordshire County Council;  Greater Manchester Combined Authority;  Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust; Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service; and Plymouth Citizen’s Advice.

The new site has been trialled with users at a series of preview workshops across the country over recent months (Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Workington, Cardiff and London) and modified in the light of feedback. User engagement and training has been a feature of the project from the outset to help familiarise people with the resource and give them an opportunity to practice using it at the same time as other local stakeholders.

Over the three years of the Climate Just tool being in the public domain, there have been almost 45,000 sessions by over 33,000 users, viewing over 95,000 pages on the website.

Project team members have organised some 30 events over this same period, in association with local, regional and national partner organisations and provided engagement, preview and training opportunities to around 650 people from the public and voluntary sector.

Comments from participants at the workshop in Cardiff on 9^th February 2018, where Climate Just was introduced to a Welsh audience for the first time included:

‘Great tool – stimulates and provokes action to be taken’

‘Brilliant indicative tool’

‘The social vulnerability data is outstanding and makes the distinction clear for the non-flood specialist’

‘Tool provokes thought about future generations’

Please note that we are now asking users to register on the website but the site remains free. Further details of why we have taken this step is outlined on the registration page.

The project team members for this latest phase of development are University of Manchester academics Prof. Sarah Lindley (project lead) and Prof. Richard Kingston, together with consultants Katharine Knox, Rachel Walters and Mike Peverill. The team has worked closely with Paul Sayers, Sayers and Partners LLP to incorporate the data and methodology from the 2017 study ‘Present and future flood vulnerability, risk and disadvantage: a UK-wide assessment’.

For any questions about Climate Just #2, please contact:

Professor Sarah Lindley, University of Manchester sarah.lindley@manchester.ac.uk