Local
Government, adaptation
and social media: Project
with the City of Birmingham
Laura Wilkes, Policy
Manager, LGiU
13 September 2011

Big Society and Adaptation
• LGiU completed a project to examine
new ways to deliver adaptation with
greater community involvement.
• A Big Society approach to adaptation
can be taken forward through:
decentralisation, transparency, finance
and philanthropy.
• Many opportunities for community
involvement in design and delivery of
adaptation initiatives – for
example, through use of social media
• Councils can’t do adaptation alone

Adaptation and Social Media:
where did the idea originate?
• ICLEI Resilient Cities
Conference, Bonn, 2011
• Discussions on social media
but no ideas on how to use
it strategically
• Convened a group to
discuss how to take a
project forward
• LinkedIn group: Social
Media and Adaptation

Project with Birmingham City
Council
• Project between Birmingham City Council
and LGiU to examine how social media
can be used in the city to develop
adaptation to climate change
• Mapped the elements of adaptation as a
starting point

Elements of Adaptation

Social media and Emergency Response: The UK
Riots

Learning: Use of social media and
community resilience in the
Birmingham riots
• Emergency response: Role of citizen journalists
in spreading information/countering misinformation,
hyper-local blogging,
• Local Leadership: councillor responses and calls
for calm
• Recovery: fundraising online to support looted shops,
Twitter used to coordinate #riotcleanup
• Prevention: reporting on measured taken to protect
shops

Anticipated outcomes:
• Toolkit – concentrating on each aspect of
the adaptation cycle
• Practical tools and technology to share
worldwide
Anticipated challenges:
• Capacity – within the community and local
authorities
• Funding
• Language and policy framing

Next Steps
• Join our discussion: LinkedIn
• Join the project
• Sources of funding
Laura.wilkes@lgiu.org.uk