D
Discussion Questions for Panelists

Guidance to Panel 1: Climate and Data Science for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience at the Local Level

• What climate data are available now (or will be shortly) that can be used to make decisions at the local level? What do local communities need to know to access and apply this information?
• How do the available data differ (detail, availability, uncertainty) across a range of climate-driven hazards (e.g., sea-level rise, tropical storms, precipitation, flooding, drought, wildfire)?
• What are the limits of downscaling and assessing data for local impacts? Where do things “start to break?”
• How can we best integrate climate and community data to understand impacts, especially in frontline communities?

Guidance to Panel 2: Translating Data for Motivating Local Resilience Action

• How do people digest climate-type information (short term versus long term, uncertainty, perception)?
• How do people and communities think about the future and future values based on conceptions of risk?
• How do beliefs and group affiliations (e.g., politics) affect interpretation and action on climate information?
• What are some useful frames for decision-makers to understand how the public perceives risk of climate threats, and for risk communications to effectively convey related challenges and opportunities?

Guidance to Panel 3: Environmental Justice and Impacts of Historical Inequities: Lessons for Climate Adaptation and Resilience

• How do discriminatory practices, such as redlining, inform current patterns of vulnerability across local geography and groups?
• What are available lessons from environmental and climate justice movements to inform climate adaptation that is just and equitable?
• How do climate science, research, and advocacy best interrelate?
• What lessons do the social and health disparities across affected groups have for environmental and climate justice?
• How can the economic/socio-economic impacts (e.g., housing) of historical disparities inform adaptation strategies, such as physical remediation and restoration, with respect to environmental hazards and the concept of financial reparations (broadly and specifically to environmental justice)?

Guidance to Panel 4: Reactive and Proactive Local Actions and Data Translation for Decision-Makers

• How can communities best balance short versus long term tradeoffs in decisions and investments and engage their communities in this work?
• How do groups and communities work together to make decisions for the climate challenges ahead? What partnerships and resources are available or needed (locally and beyond) to foster good decisions?
• How do communities put a value on the economic, social, and environmental costs and benefits (triple bottom line) of actions that address climate threats, and how do they use this to inform local decision-making?
• How do we invite more people to the table to inspire resilience action and involve more parts of the community (private sector, not-for-profit, government)? Within your own communities, why are people inspired to act and how do we leverage this action more successfully?
• What are we missing and/or what else do we need to know to assist local communities in this work?