The Met Office has launched a new climate data service, the Local Authority Climate Service tool, to help local authorities with construction planning
The Met Office has yesterday launched a climate data service aimed at local authorities to help them with planning, an upgrade on a previous portal.
The service provides climate change data for specific areas that will help determine measures that might need to be taken when planning.
The local authority climate service is funded by DEFRA
The service will allow local authorities to know what climate change adaptations they will need to implement when planning new construction projects.
The service is intended to make the necessary information easy to access and utilise to make these decisions.
Adaptations made may need to cater for factors such as more extreme heat and intense rainfall events, which could in turn lead to events like flooding.
Head of climate services at the Met Office, professor Jason Lowe OBE, said: “Local authorities are key in building resilience to climate change in our communities across the UK. It is vital that our climate projections are available in a format that makes them most accessible and useful for local authorities to apply in assessing risks and starting to plan how to best adapt to our changing climate.
“By working with Esri UK we’ve embedded our data into a range of industry leading geospatial tools to ensure tailored climate information can be used by the people who need it, and with suitable guidance to help them apply it. We know our climate is changing so it’s important we adapt to the extremes we’re likely to see more of. This new tool is a step forward in assisting local authorities minimise the impacts of climate change for the communities they serve.”
The service utilises geospatial technology
Using Esri technology, the service allows the Met Office’s climate data to be viewed geospatially, analysed on a map to overlay climate data for more detail.
Councillor Shanika Mahendran, cabinet member for sustainability at Milton Keynes City Council, said: “Testing the new Local Authority Climate Service tool from the Met Office has provided Milton Keynes with a stronger evidence base to prepare the council’s services against future climate impacts. We are looking forward to continuing exploring and implementing this resource across all services.”
