Background
Climate change is arguably today’s single greatest threat to our society. Our survival and access to basic needs, such as food, water, and shelter, are being and will continue to be affected by the changing climate. Today, Nashville’s inhabitants are exposed to multiple climate stressors and shocks, including heat waves, severe storms, and flash flooding, and global impacts that reach our doorsteps include increased food insecurity, supply chain volatility and food price fluctuations, and displacement of populations from locations they have called home for decades. Recent climate events have pointed to the significant gaps between planning and real-time readiness in several U.S. cities, with the consequence being loss of life and significant damage to built infrastructure and the bases of economy.
Plan Objective
To prepare Nashville and Davidson County and ensure its citizens’ ability to thrive for years to come, the Mayor’s Office, in partnership with Metro Nashville departments and the Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Committee (SAC), have developed this Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan (CARP). The intent of the Plan is to guide future Metro investment and actions in both hard and soft infrastructure, and to improve the city’s resilience to climate-driven hazards in an equitable and transparent way. The CARP serves as a companion document to the 2021 Climate Action Plan (CAP), which focuses on the topic of climate mitigation, or those actions that can be taken by Nashville to prevent or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and associated climate impacts. Because we are already feeling the impacts of a changing climate, it is vitally important to prioritize our response.
Recognizing that social inequality is a persistent reality, the CARP places an emphasis on identifying and addressing the structural and institutional factors that have placed racial and ethnic minority groups on the front lines of climate change. It recognizes that climate change is a risk multiplier, and without careful and targeted intervention, climate change will continue to have disproportionate impacts on these communities.
Plan Contents
This document focuses on building climate adaptation capacity and resilience, actions that collectively can help the city adjust to actual or expected climate changes, and ensure that our infrastructure, systems, economy, and community are capable of anticipating, coping with, and bouncing back from expected and unexpected events. It begins with an assessment of Metro’s main climate hazards, considering available data and the historical record to gauge the probability and potential severity of climate-driven disruptions. It then conducts a high-level vulnerability assessment, mapping Nashville’s ecosystem into five main categories covering the built environment, natural environment, people and community, economic systems, and public services, and considering the direct and indirect impacts of climate hazards on those system components. It evaluates their adaptive capacity, and the availability of proactive and alternative strategies that can be employed to reduce vulnerability and lower risk. Finally, it sets forth a roadmap to guide implementation.
Adaptation Strategy Implementation Roadmap
All adaptation strategies included in the Roadmap are summarized in a graphic in the plan. Additionally, a detailed background on why these strategies were chosen and prioritized, their planning horizon and responsible parties, as well as references to best practices, are provided in the document available for download below.
Links and Resources
Climate Adaptation Resilience Plan
Climate Resilience in Metro Nashville
Metro Nashville/Davidson County Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan – Draft for Public Comment
Recording of October 18, 2023 Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan Public Information Session