Scenario Planning for Climate and Hazards

Climate change, and its associated disruptions to historical climate and weather patterns on the global, regional, and local scales, poses a particular challenge to prevailing methods of hazard-mitigation planning. Additionally, mitigation planning methods, formalized through a set of federal and state-level policies, legislative requirements, and regulations, are slow to adapt and integrate new and emerging tools and techniques. This learning lab demonstrates how planners and local practitioners can use exploratory scenario planning to navigate the inherent uncertainty underlying hazard mitigation in an era of climate disruption, both within and alongside the existing hazard-mitigation planning framework. Work through a process of tactically integrating scenario planning into hazard mitigation plans — using a variety of accessible and straightforward techniques — without the need for complex climate models, big budgets, or advanced planning software.