Building adaptive capacity of US Gulf Coast city practitioners to extreme weather events.
11 affiliations
- 1Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
- 2Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
- 3Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
- 4ByWater Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.
- 5International Resilience Lab in Arizona Institute for Resilience, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
- 6Headwaters Economics, Bozeman, MT 59715, USA.
- 7Adaptation International, Austin, TX 78704, USA.
- 8Earth and Environmental Sciences Area, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
- 9School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
- 10Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
- 11Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Abstract
Building city practitioners' capacity to prepare for and respond to climate change-driven events can increase coastal cities' resilience. We conducted a first-of-its-kind mixed methods research project from 2021 to 2023 with 46 US Gulf Coast small and midsize cities to measure the effectiveness of an adaptive capacity-building intervention: a stormwater planning tool called FloodWise Communities (FWC) deployed through the engagement between researchers and practitioners in each city. City practitioners were surveyed preintervention and postintervention between September 2021 and December 2022. Interviews were then conducted through July 2023. We found (i) FWC positively relates to perceptions of actionable knowledge and a change in adaptation intentions; (ii) city practitioners' adaptation-relevant roles and responsibilities positively related to their perceptions of actionable knowledge and adaptation intentions, with implications for their agency to build adaptive capacity; and (iii) anticipated and unanticipated uses of the FWC tool influenced city practitioners' perceptions of their adaptive capacity.
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BibTeX
@article{wongparodi2026building,
title = {{Building adaptive capacity of US Gulf Coast city practitioners to extreme weather events.}},
author = {Gabrielle Wong-Parodi and Natalie Herbert and Sarah J Fendrich and Alexander B Basaraba and Simone J Domingue and Erica A Goto and Patty Hernandez and Teal Harrison and Kripa Jagannathan and Jenna L Jorns and Anima Scott Kalafatis and Lisa Maillard and Alexander Petersen and Mark Shafer and Joshua J Wimhurst and Derek Van Berkel and Maria Carmen Lemos},
journal = {PNAS nexus},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag330},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42856986},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Building adaptive capacity of US Gulf Coast city practitioners to extreme weather events.
AU - Gabrielle Wong-Parodi
AU - Natalie Herbert
AU - Sarah J Fendrich
AU - Alexander B Basaraba
AU - Simone J Domingue
AU - Erica A Goto
AU - Patty Hernandez
AU - Teal Harrison
AU - Kripa Jagannathan
AU - Jenna L Jorns
AU - Anima Scott Kalafatis
AU - Lisa Maillard
AU - Alexander Petersen
AU - Mark Shafer
AU - Joshua J Wimhurst
AU - Derek Van Berkel
AU - Maria Carmen Lemos
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
JO - PNAS nexus
DO - 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag330
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42856986
AB - Building city practitioners' capacity to prepare for and respond to climate change-driven events can increase coastal cities' resilience. We conducted a first-of-its-kind mixed methods research project from 2021 to 2023 with 46 US Gulf Coast small and midsize cities to measure the effectiveness of an adaptive capacity-building intervention: a stormwater planning tool called FloodWise Communities (FWC) deployed through the engagement between researchers and practitioners in each city. City practitioners were surveyed preintervention and postintervention between September 2021 and December 2022. Interviews were then conducted through July 2023. We found (i) FWC positively relates to perceptions of actionable knowledge and a change in adaptation intentions; (ii) city practitioners' adaptation-relevant roles and responsibilities positively related to their perceptions of actionable knowledge and adaptation intentions, with implications for their agency to build adaptive capacity; and (iii) anticipated and unanticipated uses of the FWC tool influenced city practitioners' perceptions of their adaptive capacity.
SN - 2752-6542
ER -