1. A Revised National Climate
Impacts Profile for Wales
Clive Walmsley,
Natural Resources Wales
Simon Hartley, AECOM
Lucy Corfield, Welsh Government
Climate Week 2014
1
4. The National Climate
Impacts Profile approach
• No comprehensive compilation of recent
extreme weather events and associated impacts
for Wales
• Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) developed
by UKCIP for use by Local Authorities
• AECOM used a modified LCLIP approach for
Wales
• Identified on-line media reports of weather
events and their impacts over last 13 years
(2000-2012)
• Provides a preliminary assessment of the
diversity and significance of weather-related
impacts in Wales
5. The National Climate
Impacts Profile approach
• Around 128 standard UKCIP defined climate-
related search terms and an additional c. 10
local search terms per Local Authority
• Highbeam and Factiva search engines used to
search 60 online Welsh media archives
including BBC, Western Mail, Wales on Sunday,
South Wales Echo & Evening Post, Daily Post
and local newspaper sites
6. The National Climate
Impacts Profile approach
• Database provides searchable access to:
- weather events and impacts by location and
date
- which organisation/body/people affected
- consequences that occurred
- organisations required to make response
- qualitative assessment of significance of
impact based on extent, severity and duration
- details of source of report
• 1098 separate reported weather impacts over
the 13 years
16. Sectors affected by weather
responsible for impact
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
All
Business&
Tourism
Com
m
unities
HealthInfrastructureEnvironm
ent
Wind
Storm
Other
Low Temp
High Temp
Frost / snow / ice
Excessive rainfall
Drought
19. Conclusions
• Impacts within the database include most
identified by CCRA and Welsh scoping study
AND some impacts that it did not e.g. crime
increase in hot weather
• Media reporting of extreme weather and its
impacts is inconsistent and biased –
‘frost/ice/snow’ events produced more reports
than ‘drought’ or ‘high winds’
• Media reports are largely concerned with
immediate impacts on people so long-term
effects or effects on the environment are
rarely reported
• Evidence that greater media reporting of
weather events and impacts, as well as
greater frequency of impacts, over decade
21. Conclusions
• Approach provides quick and effective search
at relatively low cost to scope climate related
impacts
• But, it cannot provide a rigorous assessment
of spatial or temporal changes in impacts
• Considerable differences in spatial distribution
of reported weather events and impacts
across Local Authorities
• Provides a resource for all Local Authorities to
help consider adaptation but could be also
useful more widely
22. Media researchers:
Sandy Miles; Michael Green, Anne Lockett, Clare
Wallace; Mark Morant; Simon Hartley; Jess Hogg
Database validation, reporting and mapping:
Simon Hartley, Mark Morant
22
Acknowledgements
Editor's Notes
Want to cover:
Context for our work
What we do
Our role in mitigation and adaptation
How can we best use our Leadership role
Want to cover:
Context for our work
What we do
Our role in mitigation and adaptation
How can we best use our Leadership role