The Met Office has launched an online tool to provide local authorities with easy access to tailored information on climate change.
It said the Local Authority Climate Service, developed with Esri UK, will support councils in planning for climate change at a local level.
The move reflects the need for local authorities to take the changing climate into account in their resilience planning. The service will enable them to visualise climate challenges, explore climate projections and communicate a climate story specific to their local areas.
Accessible and useful
Head of climate services at the Met Office, Professor Jason Lowe OBE, said: “Local authorities are key in building resilience to climate change in our communities across the UK. It is vital that our climate projections are available in a format that makes them most accessible and useful for local authorities to apply in assessing risks and starting to plan how to best adapt to our changing climate.
“By working with Esri UK we’ve embedded our data into a range of industry leading tools to ensure tailored climate information can be used by the people who need it, and with suitable guidance to help them apply it.
“We know our climate is changing so it’s important we adapt to the extremes we’re likely to see more of. This new tool is a step forward in assisting local authorities minimise the impacts of climate change for the communities they serve.”
The service uses Esri functionality to make it possible to view Met Office data geospatially, and ArcGIS to overlay climate data with other data.
It is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, following a commitment in the third National Adaptation Programme, the Government’s plan to reduce the costs from climate change impacts and make the economy and society more resilient.
Planning and response
Climate Adaptation Minister Emma Hardy said: “Local communities are already being impacted by more frequent and extreme weather, as well as overheating and droughts. These effects will vary in different parts of the country and this new service will support local authorities to more effectively plan and respond.”
The tool has been tested by some local authorities, including Milton Keynes City Council. Its cabinet member for sustainability, Cllr Shanika Mahendran, said: “Testing the new Local Authority Climate Service tool from the Met Office has provided Milton Keynes with a stronger evidence base to prepare the council’s services against future climate impacts.
“We are looking forward to continuing exploring and implementing this resource across all services.”
The launch builds on the existing provision of the Met Office Climate Data Portal, which enables businesses and government organisations to combine open climate data with their own data and reveal the future impact of extreme conditions on their operations, including heatwaves, floods or droughts.
