Case Studies | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Communities, businesses, and individuals are taking action to document their vulnerabilities and build resilience to climate-related impacts. Click dots on the map to preview case studies, or browse stories below the map. Use the drop-down menus above to find stories of interest. To expand your results, click the Clear Filters link.

Photo of pararescueman Staff Sgt. Lopaka Mounts receiving a hug from a resident after Hurricane Ike, Sept. 13, 2008.

A Climate for Resilience

The City of Houston faces an array of climate vulnerabilities: flooding, drought, tropical cyclones, and extreme heat can all affect the city's population and industries. Government and non-profit agencies in the region combined their resources in a pilot project to plan for climate resilience.

Panorama of the Homer Spit in Homer, Alaska

A Town with a Plan: Community, Climate, and Conversations

Homer, Alaska, has been taking action to reduce climate change for almost a decade. As the ten-year anniversary of their first plan looms on the horizon, the community is engaging in conversations about adaptation.

Ice damage to a camp near Golovin, Alaska

Addressing Links Between Climate and Public Health in Alaska Native Villages

As the environment changes, a public health group helps people understand—and build resilience to—climate change impacts on community health.

An Inland City Prepares for a Changing Climate

When Blacksburg's new Sustainability Manager realized that climate change is more than just sea level rise, she lead her inland city toward climate resilience by developing a climate vulnerability assessment.

Standing man looking at a stand of trees in a forest

And the Trees Will Last Forever

In northern Wisconsin, tribal foresters from the Menominee Nation are working to speed regeneration of forest areas that have been treated for invasive diseases. Their efforts are also creating forests that are better adapted to future conditions.

Corn plants growing up through soybean stubble

Better Soil, Better Climate

The soil health management system an Ohio farmer practices increases crop productivity, reduces costs for fertilizer and pesticides, and sequesters carbon in the soil. Both locally and globally, he encourages other farmers to adopt his methods.

Boosting Ecosystem Resilience in the Southwest's Sky Islands

Conservation organizations teamed up to document the climate vulnerability of mountain springs that support unique ecosystems. Now, the Alliance they formed facilitates restoration work to enhance habitats and improve resiliency.

Skyline of Las Cruces, NM and the Organ Mountains

Catalyzing Investment and Building Capacity in Las Cruces

Planning with extreme weather thresholds catalyzes a $400,000 green infrastructure investment in a historically underserved neighborhood in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

A helicopter drops water on the Waldo Canyon fire in June, 2012

Charting Colorado’s Vulnerability to Climate Change

Responding to growing awareness of climate change impacts, the State of Colorado commissioned two of its universities to complete an initial study of the state's vulnerabilities.

Climate Data Inform Recovery Plan for Endangered Butterfly

After a butterfly species disappeared from a location where it had been found for many years, conservation professionals accessed climate projections to identify potential habitat for its recovery.

Skyline of highrise buildings and shipping cranes with mountains in the background

Creating a Model Climate Resilient City

The City of Long Beach, California, sees signs of climate change on land and in the ocean. After compiling the City's official climate assessment report, local stakeholders also produced a more accessible and user-friendly summary version and shared it broadly to stimulate informed discussion and decision making across the city.

Self-service collard patch near Carthage, North Carolina

Developing an Early Warning System to Prevent Heat Illness

Residents of the Carolinas are familiar with hot summers, but in some areas excessive heat events bring a higher risk for heat-related illness—and even death. A new tool can help local communities get ahead of heat events so they can reduce risk for their residents.

The Coleman Theater in downtown Miami, OK

Eighth Graders and Emergency Preparedness in Oklahoma

Educating local middle-schoolers about emergency preparedness allows the small city of Miami to build climate resilience in an accessible way—and broach the topic of climate change.

A worker bee returns to the colony with its load of pollen

Field, Farm, Forest, and City: Sustaining Pollinator Health to Build Ecosystem Resilience

Climate variability and change are among the many threats that pollinators such as bees, butterflies, bats, and other species face. Beekeepers and pollinator advocates are working to preserve pollinators and the ecosystem that depends upon them.

Residential trees and one of Chicago's elevated commuter trains

Fortifying Chicago's Urban Forest

Trees within a city can help reduce urban heat, control stormwater, and provide habitat to local wildlife. As climate conditions change, a Chicago group is working to enhance its urban forest so that the city can continue to receive these benefits.

How Vulnerable Are Salmon to a Changing Climate?

Researchers in Washington's South Fork Nooksack River are seeking to better understand the potential impacts of climate change on water quality and salmon recovery—a process they hope can be replicated and scaled in other watersheds across the country.

Increasing Transportation Resilience in the Gulf Coast

A federal study assessed vulnerabilities of transportation infrastructure to extreme events in Mobile, Alabama. The effort also resulted in tools and approaches that other transportation departments can use to assess and address their own vulnerabilities.

Colorado National Guardsmen respond to floods in Boulder County, Colorado, on September 12, 2013

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Extreme Weather Leads to Collaboration in Boulder

The city charts its path to resilience by focusing on extreme weather and interdepartmental collaboration.

Iñupiat Work to Preserve Food and Traditions on Alaska's North Slope

Residents of North Slope Borough, Alaska, look to solar-powered ice cellars and other strategies to preserve their traditional whaling lifestyle.

Luck Is Not a Policy We Can Count On: Boston Takes a Proactive Approach to Climate Adaptation

After witnessing what happened in New York City during Hurricane Sandy, Boston city leaders were determined to get ahead of their potential problems. To do so, they convened a diverse coalition of residents and worked to craft a comprehensive plan to adapt to climate change.

View of city skyscrapers with a blue and purple sky above.

Mapping Social Vulnerabilities to Enhance Resilience in Richmond

Differences in social vulnerability across Richmond meant that the city's resilience plan didn't work equally well for all neighborhoods. To enhance their plan, the city worked with partners to develop a novel tool—the Climate Equity Index—to document neighborhood vulnerability to climate impacts,

Mapping Wildland Values and Climate Change Vulnerability

Using climate change projections, conservationists can assess which of the wildest lands remaining in the contiguous United States are most vulnerable to the impacts of future climate change.

Mescalero Apache Tribe Adapts to a Warmer and Drier Climate

In the face of a changing climate, the Tribe is building capacity—and climate resilience—through forestry management, habitat protection, and an innovative approach to healthy eating.

Photo of Dr. Hiza Redsteer and students on dunes

Navajo Nation: Hotter, Drier Climate Puts Sand Dunes on the Move

Sand dunes cover roughly one-third of the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. Higher temperatures and lower precipitation totals projected for the region have researchers monitoring dune motion and considering solutions.

Our Spirits Remain Tied to This Land

The Puyallup Tribe conducted a climate change impact assessment for their ancestral lands along the Puyallup River and the coasts of Puget Sound—and improved tribal and regional adaptive capacity.

Planning for the Win! Using a Role Play Simulation to Plan for Climate Adaptation

Following a role play simulation on community planning for climate adaptation in Georgetown County, South Carolina, participants reported increased empathy for differing viewpoints and a high level of support for stakeholder engagement in planning processes.

Precise Soil, Climate, and Weather Data Help Dairy Optimize Water Use

For irrigated crops, knowing when and how much water to apply has long been a matter of experience and guesswork. In a changing climate, new technology can reduce this uncertainty, enabling farmers to make every drop of water count.

Protecting Fish to Save Coral Reefs

Coral reefs off the west coast of Maui are readily accessible and heavily used by visitors and locals alike. Managers needed a plan to boost the resilience of the reefs so they could continue providing critical habitat for marine species.

Photo of young men trying to mitigate erosion near Kivalina, Alaska

Relocating Kivalina

Rising seas and coastal erosion are eating away at the barrier island on which the Alaska Native Village of Kivalina rests. Residents and others are making concerted efforts to move the community to safety.

$Ice wedges thaw along fracture lines of a tundra surface and water accumulates in small thaw lakes.$

ShoreZone: A Tool for Coastal Resilience

Stunning photographs of Alaska's coasts aid planners, responders, and communities in ways that promote resilience.

Starting the Climate Conversation: Using Scenario Planning to Promote Resilience in Beef Production

Beef producers shared their collective experiences with past weather, and then considered the future. This engagement strategy increased producers' value for incorporating climate into their management strategies.

Homeland of the Suquamish Tribe taken from Port Madison Bay

Suquamish Build Resilience to Ocean Acidification Through Education

Changing ocean chemistry could have a disastrous impact on shellfish and fisheries in Puget Sound. The Suquamish Tribe is working with partners to inform the public about this problem while they elicit support for research and monitoring the issue.

Fond du Lac Resource Management and Tribal Court Building

The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Combine Mitigation with Capacity Building

This Minnesota tribal community—which subscribes to the Seven Generations philosophy—is taking action to reduce its contributions to greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously building community capacity to adapt.

Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa with fuel tanks in foreground.

The Pacific Islands Climate Storybook

To empower community climate adaptation in the Pacific Islands, a multi-island coalition expanded upon a 2015 comprehensive template for writing climate stories and the collection of case studies. The new Storybook is a roadmap to predict, prepare, and adapt, to a changing climate.

Image of drummers in a Salmon procession

Tulalip Tribes: Saving Their Sacred Salmon

People of the Salmon collaborate with farmers to ensure survival of their sacred fish.

Santa Ana winds carried a fire across Camp Pendleton's Las Pulgas area on September 28, 2005. The brush fire consumed 1,250 acres of the base's open land.

Watching for Wind: An Effort to Get the Upper Hand on Wildfire

After Santa Ana winds contributed to devastating wildfires in 2007, San Diego Gas & Electric worked with partners to monitor threats posed by the wind.

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