The Role of Environmental Justice in Oregon's Climate Change Adaptation Planning
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Malia T. Losordo for the degree of Master of Science in Water Resources Policy and Management presented on March 13, 2018. Title: The Role of Environmental Justice in Oregon's Climate Change Adaptation Planning Abstract approved: ______________________________________________________ Mary Santelmann Adell Amos Oregon has already experienced the impacts of climate change, and these impacts are expected to become increasingly severe and varied. In response, the State of Oregon has taken a number of actions to adapt to changing conditions, including coordinated planning approaches to climate change adaptation. However, climate change adaptation actions can exacerbate existing inequities when impacted communities do not participate or are not considered in the decision- making process. Oregon's Environmental Justice Law, ORS 182.535 et seq., was enacted to ensure that natural resource agencies integrate environmental justice principles—such as the equitable distribution of environmental burdens and benefits and meaningful involvement of impacted communities—into the decision-making process for every action, including climate change adaptation. This paper explores the experiences of some natural resource agencies' with applying Oregon's environmental justice law to climate change adaptation planning. Research questions addressed were (1) what role do environmental justice principles and environmental justice law play in and to what extent do they shape state-level adaptation efforts? and (2) what are potential barriers to integration of environmental justice into climate adaptation efforts? Document analysis and semi-structured interviews (n=19) were conducted to (1) describe the role that environmental justice principles and the environmental justice law played in three different state-level adaptation approaches and (2) identify perceived barriers to greater integration of environmental justice into these efforts. Two of the three efforts expressly sought to employ environmental justice principles, but took slightly different approaches. Barriers identified in each of the approaches, and for natural resource agencies in general, included lack of wide-spread understanding of the environmental justice law and environmental justice principles within some agencies; lack of community capacity to engage in decision-making; and lack of information about local and regional conditions. These findings indicate that the state may benefit from a comprehensive assessment of the challenges and barriers experienced by each of the natural resource agencies, as well as community-based assessments of both adaptation capacity and capacity to engage in natural resource agency decision-making processes. ©Copyright by Malia T. Losordo March 13, 2018 All Rights Reserved The Role of Environmental Justice in Oregon's Climate Change Adaptation Planning by Malia T. Losordo A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Presented March 13, 2018 Commencement June 2018 Master of Science thesis of Malia T. Losordo presented on March 13, 2018. APPROVED: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Co-Major Professor, representing Water Resource Policy and Management _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Co-Major Professor, representing Water Resource Policy and Management _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Director of the Water Resources Graduate Program _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Malia T. Losordo, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author expresses sincere appreciation to Dr. Mary Santelmann and Professor Adell Amos for their thoughtful guidance on this project. Special thanks are also due to Dr. Jenna Tilt, for her contributions to this project's design and guidance during data collection and analysis, and to Dr. Edward Weber and Professor Geoffrey Huntington for their feedback and support. Though they cannot be thanked by name, the author also expresses deepest appreciation to the individuals interviewed as part of this project, which would not have been possible without their support and thoughtful participation. Many friends and colleagues also contributed to this project by providing feedback, emotional support, and housing. They include Beth Andrews, Rianne BeCraft, Nicolette Canzoneri, Haley Carlson, Ryan Crumley, Kevin Flannery, Carolyn Gombert, Ingria Jones, Rachel Morris, Rob Predosa, Max Sage, Hannah Satein, Erica Tatoian, Sigvanna Topkok, and Ika Widiyasari. The author would like to thank her family – Maile Losordo, Amy Losordo, Tom Losordo, Gregg Levitt, Pat Levitt, Margi Bolstad, Madeline Belknap, and especially Gordon Levitt – for their patience and support throughout the research and writing process. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Context ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Climate Change and the Need for Adaptation .................................. 1 1.1.2 Oregon's Response to Climate Change ............................................. 3 1.1.3 Climate Justice and Climate Change Adaptation .............................. 5 1.1.4 Oregon's Environmental Justice Law ............................................. 11 1.2 Research Task and Scope ............................................................................... 16 1.3 Expected Findings .......................................................................................... 20 1.4 Plan of Development ...................................................................................... 22 2 Methods ......................................................................................................................... 24 2.1 Interviews ....................................................................................................... 24 2.2 Document Analysis ........................................................................................ 29 3 Findings ........................................................................................................................ 33 3.1 Common Barriers to Environmental Justice .................................................. 33 3.1.1 Understanding ................................................................................. 32 3.1.2 Community Capacity ...................................................................... 34 3.1.3 Information ..................................................................................... 35 3.1.4 Financial Resources ........................................................................ 36 3.2 Climate Change Adaptation Framework ....................................................... 37 3.2.1 The Climate Change Adaptation Framework ................................. 37 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page 3.2.2 The Regional Framework ............................................................... 42 3.3 Climate and Health Program .......................................................................... 44 3.3.1 Climate and Health Profile Report .................................................. 46 3.3.2 Climate and Health Vulnerability Assessment ............................... 49 3.3.3 Climate and Health Resilience Plan ................................................ 51 3.4 Integrated Water Resources Strategy ............................................................. 54 3.4.1 The 2012 Integrated Water Resources Strategy .............................. 55 3.4.2 Implementing the 2012 Strategy ..................................................... 57 3.4.3 2017 Strategy Update ...................................................................... 59 4 Discussion and Conclusion ........................................................................................... 60 4.1 Role of Environmental Justice ....................................................................... 61 4.2 Barriers to Implementing Oregon's Environmental Justice Law ................... 63 4.3 New Questions Raised by this Research ........................................................ 66 4.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 68 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 69 Appendices ....................................................................................................................... 74 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1.1 Key Climate Change Definitions ........................................................................................ 2 1.2 Timeline of State-Level Climate Change Bodies in Oregon .............................................. 4 1.3 Examples of State-Level Adaptation in Oregon ................................................................. 5 1.4 IPCC Model of Climate Change