Nature-Based Resilience For Vulnerable Communities

In 2020, BluePoint Planning began work with the County of Santa Clara to develop and manage their Climate Collaborative, and to establish a Resilience Strategy with a focus on Nature Based Solutions (NbS). 

Fast forward to today, and we are thrilled by the results of this work. BluePoint Planning facilitated and managed the first two years of the Collaborative and four years of the Flooding Working Group, building understanding and focus for what was important to the jurisdictions and countless stakeholders related to climate resilience. 

BluePoint helped pivot from printed handouts on NbS solutions and created an interactive website catalog, criteria, and process that is accessible to community leaders and decision makers. 

Building on this work, we helped the county win a second phase of the grant to launch the development of a watershed-wide mapping tool and engagement process to help jurisdictions and communities know where they should focus their efforts related to vulnerable communities and extreme heat, and/or flooding. The simple to use tool rises above the technical complexities we often see in mapping efforts to offer a truly accessible resilience tool for all. 

To test all of this out, BluePoint teamed with Climate Resilient Communities to create a pilot project in the City of Gilroy, utilizing a local CBO who helped the community understand where and how NbS can support their resilience. The process gave us deeper understand of how to engage with community members and solidified the tools we created. 

To use the tools, download the resources, and learn more, check out the website!

https://www.climatecollaborativescc.org/climate-resilience-new