Climate Adaptation

There is no escaping the reality that Somerset’s climate is rapidly changing in our lifetimes. We are experiencing its predicted effects that impact our health, our day to day living, the prices we pay for food and wildlife populations around us. The county is vulnerable to rising sea levels and river flooding on low-lying land, while more unpredictable weather patterns will increase surface water flooding and wildfire risk across all areas, including higher ground. These changes affect us, our homes, our gardens and our spaces for wildlife.  

The good news is there are many simple and positive ways to be prepare for our more extreme weather that enable us to all be more resilient and adapt, while still doing what we can to reduce our carbon emissions (mitigate) and create more space for nature. Many are quick wins and involve changes that will often have far-reaching consequences benefitting our wellbeing, wildlife and the opportunity for carbon capture.

Many adaptation options are Nature-based Solutions (NbS): actions that harness the power of nature to help us adapt. At its simplest, a Nature-based Solution could be installing a rain garden to slow the flow of water into the drains, helping to reduce flash flooding. At the other end of the scale, public green spaces can be redesigned to capture storm water whilst still providing space for recreation and nature.

After extreme events like floods or heatwaves, very often the focus is on resilience; being able to bounce back after the damage is done. While learning from these events and building resilience is important, as the climate continues to change these events are happening more often and are becoming more extreme and unpredictable as well as inevitable.

Therefore, we also need to focus much more on being able to adapt, which will help us to limit or avoid the harms brought by our changing climate - and even to take advantage of any opportunities it brings. Adaptation is vital and can take place at difference scales, and it’s a conversation we need to bring much more into the mainstream conversations around climate change.

The climate will continue to shift for a long time to come, and we need to find a way to live with these changes. Taking adaptation actions can help limit or avoid the negative effects of climate change, and even maximise any positive opportunities it may present. The following projects are working with communities on the Somerset Levels to bring together and support communities living and working in this area to adapt to climate change.

A community will be better adapted to climate change by taking a range of actions. Find out what the following communities in Somerset have done in their areas.