Land Use and the Built Environment Adaptation Strategies
This tab includes strategies for how to avoid or reduce climate change impacts through policies that relate to land use and the built environment, including best practices and legal and policy analysis.
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October 31, 2025
Georgetown Climate Center studied local ordinance-centered approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identifying and reducing climate-driven flood risk in an October 2025 report, “Local Ordinances for Climate Adaptation & Mitigation. ” As part of that project, GCC’s research identified 11 ordinances from Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, and New Jersey that represent some of the best uses of local ordinances to advance climate adaptation and protect people and property.
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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January 2025
The Coastal Hazards Overlay Guidebook, published January 2025, by North Carolina State University provides a framework to help design and integrate a coastal hazards overlay district into existing local codes and standards in order to guide resilience efforts and requirements within geographically defined areas.
Related Organizations: North Carolina State University
Authors or Affiliated Users: Gavin Smith, Chitali Biswas
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Rhode Island’s Resilience Technical Assistance Program partners localities with the Division of Statewide Planning in facilitating consultant-led audits of local ordinances and regulations with the goal of increasing community resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Related Organizations: Rhode Island Division of State Planning
Resource Category: Funding
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June 16, 2022
This report is composed of 24 individual case studies developed by Georgetown Climate Center to support, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Regional Vision
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Authors or Affiliated Users: Katie Spidalieri , Suhasini Ghosh , Katherine McCormick , Jennifer Li
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
The Little River Adaptation Action Area (AAA) plan was released in January 2022 as part of the process to implement the Miami-Dade County Sea Level Rise Strategy. Adaptation Action Areas are locations that are especially prone to climate impacts like coastal flooding so that they can be prioritized for funding and planning purposes. The Little River AAA is made up of parts of the City of Miami, as well as the Village of El Portal and two unincorporated areas. Identified as one of the communities in that area most susceptible to climate impacts, Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience, in collaboration with Florida’s Department of the Department of Environmental Protection and private partners like Savino-Miller Design, developed the adaptation plan to address existing conditions across five sectors by offering distinct adaptation tools that can help mitigate the impacts of climate within each sector. From this plan, local policymakers and planners can take the generalized idea behind AAA — and the practice of making adaptation plans more specific to localities — as well as the specific projects and programs recommended within the document and implement them in their own communities. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) is a joint municipal–county stormwater utility that manages and maintains the regulated floodplains within Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, including the City of Charlotte. CMSWS has developed a system for assessing community flood risk through the Mecklenburg County Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction (RARR) Tool for comprehensive mapping, impact analysis, and county-wide floodplain management. This map-based application allows the agency to collect and analyze flood risk data to help identify and reduce flood risk at the parcel level and regionally. RARR is a data-driven framework and set of tools that dynamically assess, evaluate, and ultimately prioritize flood mitigation strategies. The flood risk analysis processes supported by the RARR tool, along with the resulting solutions that CMSWS offers as described in this case study and a companion report, can guide other local jurisdictions in flood resilience planning, and promote climate adaptive policies. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
In 2015, the City of New Orleans released its Resilient New Orleans strategy outlining the city’s vision and plan for building a more equitable, adaptable, and prosperous New Orleans. The strategy outlines various recommendations, which all go towards one of three main goals: adapting to thrive, connecting to opportunity, and transforming city systems. One project featured in Resilient New Orleans is the Mirabeau Water Gardens project. Informed by the design and stormwater management features outlined in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, the Mirabeau Water Gardens project, once completed, will serve as a recreational, environmentally friendly amenity for the community that also reduces flood risk. Specifically, a former convent will be converted into a public green space. This project is part of an overall plan to create the Gentilly Resilience District — a 12-project program designed to make a small neighborhood in New Orleans more resilient to the impacts of climate change and future disaster and flood events. Additional projects a part of the Gentilly Resilience District include the Pontilly Neighborhood Stormwater and the Blue and Green Corridors projects. Throughout the development of the plans and programs relating to the Gentilly Resilience District, local policymakers offered numerous opportunities for community input. Most of the projects not only increase community resilience, but also offer new spaces for the community to gather, educate residents on the benefits associated with green infrastructure, and incorporate safe walking and biking paths throughout the neighborhood. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
The City of North Miami, Florida Good Neighbor Stormwater Park is a public open space with the capacity for local flood prevention, doubling as a stormwater reservoir. A repurposed vacant lot within North Miami’s residential neighborhood of Sunny Acres, this adaptive stormwater green infrastructure is vegetated with an array of native trees and plants, while also acting as a communal space with walking paths and artistic structures that educate the public on flooding hazards. The project was funded in part through the Van Alen Institute’s Keeping Current: Repetitive Loss Properties Grant design competition, won by the City of North Miami, and the landscape architecture firm Dept. for implementation. The Stormwater Park was once considered a repetitive loss property by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), due to repetitive flooding from stormwater and sea-level rise — common across South Florida neighborhoods. As a part of the project, the landscape architects selected to design the park were also asked to put together a plan that could support the replication of this pilot project across the region in the most flood vulnerable communities. Dept. developed a Repetitive Loss Master Plan, which illustrates priority strategies for flood risk reduction and resilient design. Other local decisionmakers of flood-prone communities with vacant, abandoned, deteriorated, or repetitive loss lots can look to North Miami’s example for green infrastructure public space design planning that goes beyond capturing stormwater, and integrates the community’s well-being — such as access to green space — for greater long-term resilience. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
Houston has been battered by six federally declared flooding disasters in five years, including the record-setting Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A significant amount of Houston’s existing development is located in vulnerable floodplains. These land use patterns, combined with recurrent disasters, have served as the impetus for Houston to undertake several related efforts to increase local resilience. The city has thus begun to plan to increase its resilience against future storms. In 2018, the city responded by adding structural elevation requirements in the 500-year floodplain and increasing them for the 100-year floodplain. In addition, the city developed the Resilient Houston plan. If implemented, the proposed recommendations in Resilient Houston will promote affordable housing with access to job centers, improve community resilience through green space preservation, and enhance stormwater management through the promotion of green stormwater infrastructure. Other local governments facing similar threats from disaster events and pressures to develop in floodplains could evaluate and consider adopting some of Houston’s planning and land-use actions. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 16, 2022
St. John the Baptist Parish is one of Louisiana’s oldest settled areas. The parish is water-adjacent and predominantly rural. Over the last decade, significant weather events have highlighted the flooding and other risks that come with proximity to both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain, the latter of which borders the parish. The parish’s location in the path of New Orleans’s evacuation routes compounds the need to prepare for flooding and hurricane events. The parish has undertaken several initiatives to adopt development trends and patterns that will guide population growth in ways that make the parish and its communities more resilient to future rainfall and flooding risks. Namely, the parish developed a Comprehensive Land Use Plan in 2014 and a Coastal Zone Management Plan in 2016. Most recently in 2019, the parish partnered with the state and nonprofit philanthropy Foundation for Louisiana through the Louisiana Strategic Adaptations for Future Environments (LA SAFE) capital improvement process to create an Adaptation Strategy. Collectively, the plans offer a variety of principles, goals, and policies related to the parish’s growth and development. Those policies and development planning goals encompass prioritizing natural features, such as adopting green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) solutions and conserving open space, in addition to addressing the socioeconomic dynamics that come with planning for affordable housing. In general, the parish seeks to preserve low-density and conservation-oriented development trends across most of the parish, much of which is flood-prone. This approach will discourage floodplain and open space development by directing population growth and affordable housing investments toward drier, denser areas of the parish. These efforts are supported by public engagement, external partnerships, and federal and innovative funding sources. Other local policymakers working to address rural flood, population growth, and housing management issues can look to St. John the Baptist for their policies directing population growth toward denser, more urban areas. Those policies allow the parish to preserve rural and flood-prone areas and maintain parish character and reduce risk to homes and infrastructure. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond
Related Organizations: Georgetown Climate Center
Resource Category: Solutions
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