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.

A Community Works Together to Reduce Damages from Flooding

The Village of Walton, New York worked with their Soil and Water Conservation District to engage community members in decisions about flooding in their community. The Village eventually took action to restore portions of the floodplain to reduce flooding.

The dock at China Champ, San Rafael, California

A Road-Flooding Fix for a California State Park

Flooding from rain and extreme high tides often leaves the road to San Francisco's China Camp State Park inaccessible. So a diverse group of stakeholders, with support from NOAA’s Science Collaborative team, proposed raising the road.

group of people sitting at desks facing an instructor at the front of the classroom.

Amending Land Use Codes for Natural Infrastructure Planning

Learn how a Sea Grant agent is working with one community to audit and amend its existing land use codes and ordinances to be more inclusive of green infrastructure projects.

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.

Cover Crop Diversity Working Toward Improving Soil Health in North Dakota

Browser-Based Tools Show Current and Historical Crop Cover and Health

To manage their businesses successfully, farmers and food production companies need to know what crops are in the ground and how well they are growing. A pair of easy-to-use online mapping tools provides this information for growing seasons in the past and present.

City of Fayetteville’s Watershed Master Program Screenshot

City of Fayetteville’s Watershed Master Plan

In order to better assess the severity of city-wide floods and create flood mitigation solutions, Fayetteville, North Carolina’s city officials embarked on a $13 million Watershed Master Plan program in 2019.

Shoreline at Ebey State Park, Whidbey Island, WA

Coastal Readiness Project Increases Hazard Readiness

A four-year multi-partner project empower's Washington State's coastal communities to strengthen their resilience to sea level rise, storm surges, wave impacts, and shoreline erosion.

A view of the sea from the dock behind the dunes.

Community-Led Resilience Program Leads to Shovel-Ready Projects

Learn how the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management is helping communities build their resilience to coastal flood hazards through an incentive-based program that provides planning and funding for nature-based projects.

Developing the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Hazard Mitigation Plan

The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community developed their hazard mitigation plan with guidance from a framework for integrating Indigenous and traditional knowledge and practices into climate adaptation planning.

How New Battery Capacity Helped California Avoid Another Blackout

New battery capacity in the form of battery energy storage (BES) units was a key difference-maker that contributed, along with demand response, to preventing blackouts during California’s extreme heatwave in September 2022.

Linking the Boundary Chain

With a changing climate threatening assets in the Great Lakes, local experts formed a boundary organization to bridge the gap between scientists and decision makers.

Mandeville, Louisiana: A City that Stays Afloat by Promoting Elevations

The City of Mandeville, located in St. Tammany Parish, decided to commit to helping residents escape troublesome flood waters. Finally tiring of the constant issue of a repeated damage-repair cycle, city officials decided to act by adopting high regulatory standards for the elevation of homes and businesses.

Motivating the Agricultural Community to Build Climate Resilience

Climate change adaptation isn’t always welcome as a topic of conversation, even among those who could benefit from it. A recent study hints at a possible path forward.

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.

Healthy coral reef in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Pollution and Coral Health in the Virgin Islands

Coral communities are under pressure from land-based pollutants and sediments. Now, coastal managers now can access an effective tool to correlate human land-use activity with coral reef condition. Resource managers can use this information to increase resilience for corals—and the people who depend on them.

Promoting Ecotourism to Conserve a Watershed in Virginia

Realizing the Lower Chickahominy Watershed would one day be at risk of development for economic gain, the coastal planner with the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program decided to be proactive in exploring ideas for conserving this resource.

Restoring Natural Dunes to Enhance Coastal Protection

When Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, homes and businesses along developed portions of the shore sustained substantial damage. Just down the beach, neighborhoods located inland from beaches with natural dune systems fared much better.

Gulfport, MS, August 20, 2010. The new pier was completed with construction funds provided by FEMA to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Shopping Mall Exhibit Raises Awareness of Sea Level Rise

Residents along the U.S. Gulf Coast are familiar with the flooding hazards associated with storms, yet many are unaware of the risk of sea level rise. Shoppers at a local mall had a chance to explore the potential impacts of sea level rise on their communities.

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.