Online Training for Water Utilities | WUCA
This training course for water utility managers and consultants, developed by the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA), covers methods for including climate science in water supply planning processes.

Practical Considerations for Climate Analysis and Adaptation

The video is a recorded presentation delivered in May 2019 as part of a two-day technical training course held by the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) in Tampa, Florida. The course was attended by drinking water and wastewater utility managers and consultants from across the United States. 

Watch the whole video, or browse the content by section below. Click any section title to jump directly to that content in the video. All slide images were provided by the presenter.

Instructor: 
Laurna Kaatz
12:10 Minutes
PDF icon Kaatz_Practical_Considerations.pdf

About This Lesson

Unpredictable rainfall, stronger storms, and changes in historic weather patterns are just some of the observed effects of climate change. You can’t afford to be unprepared for emerging conditions and yet, on the other hand, you can’t be prepared for everything—and it’s not financially feasible to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Developing a plan to assess the vulnerability of your utility is essential for building resilience and ensuring that you, and your customers, are prepared for a changing future. This short module provides an overview to get you started on the right foot.

Key Points

As water resource practitioners and consultants, it’s important to remember that evaluating climate risk is a new part of your existing job. As you work through a climate vulnerability assessment, remember that models can inform that assessment. Understanding uncertainty in this realm—be it your own, that of models, or an inherent part of the science process—is everyone’s responsibility. Water managers can actively acknowledge uncertainties and discuss it with employees and customers.

The Climate Adaptation Conundrum
0:00:35
0:01:25
(1 Minute)

Adapting your water resources for climate change can be a challenge! Know, going into the process, that:

  • You can’t be prepared for everything.
  • It’s not financially feasible to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
  • You can’t afford to be unprepared.
  • WUCA has a four-step process to guide you through the process.
Adaptation Steps
0:01:32
0:03:08
(1 Minute)

How do you go about assessing water vulnerability and resilience in a time of climate change? WUCA suggests four steps to guide you:

  1. Understand: How will climate change affect systems? What are the capabilities and limitations of science? 
  2. Assess: How is the water system vulnerable to potential change?
  3. Plan: How should utilities incorporate climate uncertainty into water utility planning?
  4. Implement: What adaptation strategies can a utility implement?
Before Assessments
0:03:13
0:06:16
(3 Minutes)

The saying goes “Plan the work and work the plan.”  To develop a water vulnerability climate assessment, you’ll have to answer a number of questions, starting with: What is your endgame?

Identifying the specific question(s) you are trying to answer helps you determine the data and information you'll need to support your study and how much you need. To avoid “analysis paralysis,” use only the data that support your questions.  

Make sure your assessment is actually necessary and relevant to your operations and/or customers. How will you present the message of your study internally with employees and externally with customers?

DOs and DON’Ts of Water Management Decision Making
0:06:16
0:10:40
(4 Minutes)

After you have developed a plan assessing some aspect of your water resources operation, use these three “DOs” to guide implementation of your plan.

  1. DO: use the correct model and right scientific analyses to evaluate your question. 
  2. DO: be aware of multiple ways to evaluate future changes and select the one that best fits your question.
  3. DO: start by determining the level of detail that fits your needs and your resources.  This will help you sift through the abundance of tools to find the best for your plan.

These DOs are part of a longer list, that also includes some DON'Ts, from a multi-institutional article informing water resource planning and management.

Online Training for Water Utilities | WUCA

Submitted by jeff.bliss on Thu, 2021-05-27 10:57

Chapter 1: Introduction
Unpredictable rainfall, stronger storms, and changes in historic weather patterns are just some of the observed effects of climate change. You can’t afford to be unprepared for emerging conditions and, on the other hand, you can’t be prepared for everything—and it’s not financially feasible to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Developing a plan to assess the vulnerability of your utility is essential for building resilience and ensuring you, and your customers, are prepared for a changing future. This short module provides an overview to get you started on the right foot.

Practical Considerations for Climate Analysis and Adaptation

Instructor: 
Laurna Kaatz
4 Sections
12:10 Minutes
Developing a plan to assess the vulnerability of your utility is essential for building resilience and ensuring that you, and your customers, are prepared for a changing future. This module provides an overview to get you started on the right foot.
Chapter 2: Understand
You are ready to begin assessing the vulnerability of your water utility. The first steps involve an understanding of climate science, a look at projected future climate scenarios, and an overview of how climate data is collected and applied to your specific project. With these tools in your toolkit, you can move on, with confidence, to planning your assessment.

Climate Science for Water Professionals

Instructor: 
Joel Smith
9 Sections
50:53 Minutes
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.

Translating Climate Science into Hydrology

Instructor: 
Julie Vano, Ph.D
8 Sections
27:26 minutes
Global climate models represent climate data at a high resolution. Downscaling produces accurate global climate data at a resolution useful on a local scale.
Chapter 3: Plan
How do we make decisions in light of uncertainties, especially when those decisions will last a long time? The next two lessons will show you how to move into the future with confidence.

Water Utility Climate Adaptation and Resilience Planning: Some Guiding Principles

Instructor: 
Joel Smith
9 Sections
23:45 minutes

Decision-Making Under Deep Uncertainty (DMDU)

Instructor: 
Rob Lempert, PhD; & Michelle Miro, PhD
7 Sections
47:00 minutes
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.
Chapter 4: Implement

Florida Water and Climate Alliance: A Stakeholder-Scientist Network

Instructor: 
Wendy Graham, Ph.D.
6 Sections
27:30
Once you plan the work, it's time to work the plan! The two lessons in this chapter show real-life examples of implementation in southwest Florida.

Surface Water Supply on a Tidally Influenced River in Southwest Florida

Instructor: 
Chris Martinez, Ph.D, and Kevin Morris
8 Sections
16:20
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.
Chapter 5: Case Studies

Decision Framework for Infrastructure Sequencing at Tampa Bay Water

Instructor: 
Tirusew Asefa, Tampa Bay Water
7 Sections
20:00 minutes
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.

Water Resources Resilience in Broward County

Instructor: 
Ana Carolina Coelho Maran, Ph.D., P.E.
5 Sections
24:30 minutes
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.

Adaptation Decision-Making at Metropolitan Water District of South California

Instructor: 
Brandon Goshi
6 Sections
26:00 minutes
This course module reviews observed and projected climate change as well as many sources of uncertainty, particularly focusing on the southeastern United States.