Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a Changing Climate (SNACC)

The launch of research into future options for our suburbs

Climate change may be expected to affect everyone in the UK in the future, but the scale and intensity of change will depend on a number of key spatial factors. These will include the physical and social effects of location and the resilience of both the built environment and communities involved. Strategic flood risk assessments and coastline management, for instance, are engaging planners and related professions in growing understanding at regional and city-wider scales. However, the understanding of neighbourhood vulnerabilities and options also needs to be urgently developed. In this context, Professor Katie Williams of the University of the West of England is leading new research into how existing suburban neighbourhoods can be adapted to reduce the impacts of climate change. Her team, bringing together researchers from UWE, Oxford Brookes and Heriot Watt Universities, White Design and ARUP, are interested in both potential changes to individual homes and urban re-design approaches, using case studies from Bristol, Oxford and Stockport.

This research focuses on the adaptation of suburban neighbourhoods as these are the most common type of urban area in the UK, housing 84% of the population. At a recent meeting with the advisory group in Bristol, Professor Williams emphasised the need to understand how to proactively adapt suburban neighbourhoods in order to ensure their viability and quality in the face of emerging scenarios for climate change and the escalating costs of energy and transport. Failure to do so could have significant human, environmental and economic consequences (such as fatalities from heat stress, ill health from reduced air quality, reluctance to use local outdoor environments, damage to homes and gardens and adverse impacts on property markets).

Its approach is based on the assertion that successful adaptation and mitigation measures will be those that not only perform well technically (i.e. they protect people and property from climate change impacts) but are also those that are the most practical and acceptable for those who have to make them happen (i.e. we have to be able to afford them and want to live with them). The research will test various adaptation 'packages' for their technical and socio-economic performance in different types of suburb defined not only in terms of the type of area (e.g. Victorian, post-war, 1980s) but also in terms of the capacity of communities in those areas to do something about climate change impacts.

The project places a high priority on engaging practitioners in both the shaping and use of the research. The case studies will work with home owners, elected members and planning authorities, using climate change, house price and adaptation modelling tools to allow participants to visualise what 'adapted' neighbourhoods might look like. It aims to generate a portfolio of adaptation strategies that are feasible, and fully endorsed by stakeholders. They will draw on international practice and the inputs of an advisory group from the Department of Communities and Local Government, CABE, RTPI, Homes and Communities Agency, Constructing Excellence SW, Forum for the Future, Environment Agency, Greenwich University, Modern Built Environment Network, Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and the Local Government Association.

About SNACC

The SNACC project, led by Professor Katie Williams of the University of West of England, aims to develop a portfolio of potential adaptation (and mitigation) strategies for suburbs (including autonomous and planned adaptations, for individual dwellings and neighbourhoods) and cluster these into testable adaptation 'packages'.

For more information on the SNACC project click here.

For further information on planning and climate change research, click here.

Photo of the SNACC Team