Geospatial Applications for Climate Adaptation Planning

Climate adaptation is a timely yet complex topic that does not fit squarely into any one disciplinary realm.

Geospatial Applications for Climate Adaptation Planning presents an overview of the range of strategies, tools, and techniques that must be used to assess myriad overlapping vulnerabilities and to formulate appropriate climate-relevant solutions at multiple scales and in varying contexts. Organized into four sections, the book includes 15 chapters. Each chapter is grounded in the literature and presents case studies designed by the authors, as well as many examples from a diverse international group of scholars and entities in the public and private sectors. Areas covered include:

• Climate Change and Climate Adaptation Planning: Context and Concepts
• Geospatial Technologies: Fundamentals and Terminology
• GIS and Climate Vulnerability Assessments
• Technical Approaches to Formulating Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

Geospatial Applications for Climate Adaptation Planning is aimed at advanced students, researchers, and entities in the public and private sectors. It also provides supplementary reading for courses in planning, public administration, policy studies, and disaster management.

Diana Mitsova is Associate Professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of the Visual Planning Technology Lab at Florida Atlantic University. Her research focuses on the use of geographic information systems in disaster planning, critical infrastructure protection, coastal resilience, and climate adaptation of urban systems. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, USGS, the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy, and the Florida Sea Grant. She holds a Master’s of Public Affairs from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University–urdue University, Indianapolis, and a Ph.D. in Regional Development Planning from the University of Cincinnati. She is also a recipient of a NATO Democratic Institutions Research Fellowship.

Ann-Margaret Esnard is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Public Management and Policy at Georgia State University. Her expertise encompasses urban planning, disaster planning, and hazard and vulnerability assessment. Esnard has been involved in a number of research initiatives, including NSF-funded projects on the topics of population displacement from catastrophic disasters, school recovery after disasters, long-term recovery, and community resilience. She holds degrees in Agricultural Engineering (B.Sc., University of the West Indies–Trinidad), Agronomy and Soils (M.S., University of Puerto Rico–Mayaguez), and Regional Planning (Ph.D., UMASS–Amherst). She also completed a two-year post-doc at UNC–Chapel Hill.