Practitioners, priorities, plans, and policies: assessing climate change adaptation actions in a Canadian community

There is a paucity of research that evaluates climate change adaptation actions. Academics partnered with the City of Prince George, in Northern British Columbia, Canada, for over five years to explore and address adaptation. After an adaptation strategy was created, eight initiatives oriented towards implementation were pursued. These initiatives focused on incorporating adaptation into local plans, and in-depth explorations of impacts related to forests, river flooding and effects to transportation infrastructure. This article summarizes the initiatives pursued and assesses their effectiveness through semi-structured interviews with local planners, engineers, managers, community champions and politicians. The initiatives deemed to be most successful-and most likely to continue after the project has ended-focus on topics that: are of high public concern; have clear cost implications; incorporate adaptation into policy; and/or promote tangible outcomes. Results highlight both benefits and drawbacks associated with 'mainstreaming' adaptation into existing plans and strategies, and the importance of building and maintaining internal capacity.