Report on the results of a questionnaire survey of participants in the "FY2020 Climate Change Adaptation Training (Middle Course)"

A questionnaire survey using Google form was conducted for 216 participants in the FY2020 Mid-Level Course, which was held on January 29, 2021, and 102 participants responded to the questionnaire. This section introduces some of the responses.

1. About the Training

Q. Did this training suit your purpose overall?

As a whole, the sum of "appropriate for the purpose" and "roughly suited for the purpose" was 85%, and it is thought that the middle-level training was roughly close to the assumption of the participant.
However, we received comments and requests such as "The content of the lecture was high and difficult to understand," "The technical terms were difficult," "It did not match the content of the implementation by the municipality to which the participants belonged," and "I would like you to provide specific examples of local government initiatives."
This suggested the need to improve materials and teaching materials to support the understanding of technical content, such as providing guidance on participation in existing primary-level training in accordance with participants' knowledge and understanding of climate change adaptation, as well as providing glossaries of terms and supplementary explanatory materials.

Q. Answers to questions about the difficulty of lectures and their effectiveness in future work (summary)

Regarding the degree of difficulty in the lectures, nearly half of the respondents answered "difficult" in the areas of climate change prediction in Lectures 1 and 2, heat in Lecture 4, and heavy rain disaster in Lecture 6.
Regarding the content of the lecture, about 40% or more of the participants responded that it is "useful for future work." In particular, more than half of the participants responded that it is "useful for future work" in the areas of climate change forecasting in Lectures 1 and 2, natural ecosystem in Lecture 5, and torrential rain disaster in Lecture 6. This suggests that there is a certain need for the content of this lecture in the work of local governments, which suggests that a reduction in the difficulty level of the lecture is not necessarily desired. This suggests the necessity of enhancing materials and teaching materials to support the understanding of technical content, including the provision of glossary and supplementary explanatory materials.

Q. If there are any topics you would like us to take up as intermediate level training in the future, please feel free to fill them out.

The following were the rough contents of the themes that we wanted to be taken up.

• How to use A-PLAT and Meteorological Agency
• Implementation method of impact assessment and exercises using actual data, etc.
• Explanation of individual fields (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, ecosystems, water resources, marine transportation, health, natural disasters, business, etc.), including reading and interpreting climate change impact assessment reports, etc.
• Themes that are widely related to climate change (climate change measures including mitigation measures, SDGs, biodiversity, etc.)
• Introduction of Specific Previous Cases Implemented by Local Governments

As Lecturer explained in their lectures, expertise is essential for learning how to conduct impact assessments and the appropriate interpretations of the results. We believe that we need to also examine the enhancement of materials and teaching materials that support participants' understanding.

Q. Please fill out any information that you think will be useful in promoting climate change adaptation by local governments in the form of training, distribution of materials, etc., regardless of the level in the future.

The following are roughly the contents of training and materials that are useful for promoting climate change adaptation by local governments.

• Basic knowledge on climate change, explanations and information on national materials and technical terms in various fields (brief description of IPCC assessment report, explanations of content of manuals for formulation of climate change adaptation plans to be revised in the future, glossaries and explanations of technical terms appearing during lectures, materials useful for raising public awareness and consensus among citizens and relevant departments of the Agency)
• Sharing of case studies of developed local governments (concrete procedures for formulation of regional adaptation plans, methods for obtaining data, case studies, etc.)
• Explanation of individual fields, provision of information, etc. (information on mitigation measures and adaptation measures by field, agriculture, tourism, and adaptation business fields, etc.)
• Implementation methods of impact assessment (analytical methods, handling of climate projection data, etc.)

The answer content was similar to the answer content of the desired theme in the future mid-level training, but it is suggested that there is a certain degree of need for information and knowledge provision other than training, such as provision of reference materials.

Q. Please feel free to comment on this training.

Many comments and impressions were received, such as "I learned a lot about the content of the lecture" and "I wanted to conduct more detailed lectures and exercises in individual fields," as well as "I wanted explanations and supplements on difficult technical terms" and "I could have studied if I had been able to distribute preliminary materials as soon as possible."

In addition, we received requests such as "Implementation and guidance of training tailored to the knowledge level of local government officials," "Please provide technical support for data collection and evaluation by municipality," and "Please periodically disseminate information on climate change impacts and events."

In addition, we received multiple requests regarding the maintenance of online training sessions, the duration of the sessions, and the innovation of future courses. This time, many local government officials from distant areas participate, and we believe that there is a certain need for online training, regardless of the effects of new coronavirus infections.

In this questionnaire survey, we received various requests and suggestions regarding training, information provision, technical support, etc. implemented by the Center for Climate Change Adaptation. The answers we received from you will be used to support the promotion of adaptation by local governments in the future, such as enhancing the next training session. Thank you very much for your cooperation.