Access a range of climate-related reports issued by government agencies and scientific organizations. Browse the reports listed below, or filter by scope, content, or focus in the boxes above. To expand your results, click the Clear Filters link.
This guide was designed to help U.S. state and territorial coastal managers develop and implement adaptation plans to reduce the impacts and consequences of climate change and climate variability. It was written in response to a request from state coastal managers for guidance from NOAA on adaptation planning in the coastal zone.
Guidance for federal and state agencies and coastal planners for conducting sea level change assessments and mapping. The report is intended to provide technical guidance to agencies, practitioners, and coastal decision-makers seeking to use and/or collect geospatial data to assist with sea level change assessments and mapping products.
This report presents the common trends in how 12 local governments across the country developed and implemented stormwater policies to support green infrastructure. The local policies examined include interagency cooperation, enforcement and management issues, and integration with state and federal regulations. While a strong motivation for these policies and programs is innovation in stormwater management, many communities are moving past the era of single objective spending and investing in runoff reduction and stormwater management strategies that have multiple benefits. Green infrastructure approaches have a range of benefits for the social, environmental, and economic conditions of a community. Not only do these case studies include success stories for building a comprehensive green infrastructure program, but they also provide insight into the barriers and failures these communities experienced while trying to create a stormwater management system that includes more green infrastructure approaches.
This report, by a federal working group led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, highlights 11 key categories of diseases and other health consequences that are occurring or will occur due to climate change. The report provides a starting point for coordination of federal research to better understand climate’s impact on human health. The recommendations of the working group include research to identify who will be most vulnerable, and what efforts will be most beneficial.
These reports for U.S. coastal regions summarize land cover status in 2010 and land cover changes over the previous decade and a half (from 1996 to 2010). They provide an overview of key findings using reader-friendly maps and graphics. All change information was produced as part of NOAA’s Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) land cover mapping efforts. Reports available: National Overview, Great Lakes, Gulf Coast, Northeast, Southeast, and West Coast.
The Alaska Climate Change Sub-Cabinet was established on September 14, 2007, to advise the state's governor on creating a comprehensive Alaska Climate Change Strategy. This document contains the recommendations of the Adaptation Advisory Group, which was charged with evaluating and developing options to adapt to climate change. The report also includes background about projected climate impacts on Alaska.
The workbook for practitioners uses strategic questions and activities to assess resilience in social-ecological systems. The approach involves constructing a conceptual model of a system that includes resources, stakeholders, and institutions, and identifies potential thresholds between alternative systems states in order to provide insight into factors that build or erode a system's resilience. A resilience assessment can help with developing strategies for coping with uncertainty and change.
This strategy provides initial guidance on actions Virginia’s conservation community can implement immediately to enhance the conservation of wildlife and habitats in the face of climate change, even as more comprehensive adaptation strategies are developed. Conservation strategies include specific actions for conserving species and habitats, developing new data and climate modeling resources, and implementing new outreach efforts related to climate change.
This document meets two distinct, but related, needs. First, it prepares Maine’s Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) to respond to the challenges presented in Maine's LD 460, Resolve to Evaluate Climate Change Adaptation Options for the State. Second, this document positions MaineDOT to receive support for its proactive approach from funding and policy agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration because it constitutes a commitment to action.
This report is the Second National Climate Assessment, summarizing the science and impacts of climate change on the United States. The report discusses climate-related impacts for various societal and environmental sectors and regions across the nation. It is an authoritative scientific report written in plain language, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels.
This report provides a detailed treatment of climate concerns in coastal areas, and proposes an approach for assessing vulnerability to climate change and climate variability, developing and implementing adaptation options, and integrating options into programs, development plans, and projects at the national and local levels. This is known as a vulnerability and adaptation, or V&A, approach.
A collection of case studies and information about how coastal communities can plan for and adapt to climate change. These resources represent a national guide for how coastal communities can plan and adapt. Case study issues range from coastal managers addressing sea level rise in Rhode Island to coral bleaching caused by rising sea temperatures in Florida.
This report is designed to help Oregon's local decision makers prepare adaptation plans and state agencies to coordinate their infrastructure plans with local adaptation initiatives.
This Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP), developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, examines potential effects of sea level rise from climate change during the twenty-first century, with a focus on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. Using scientific literature and policy-related documents, the SAP describes the physical environments; potential changes to coastal environments, wetlands, and vulnerable species; societal impacts and implications of sea level rise; decisions that may be sensitive to sea level rise; opportunities for adaptation; and institutional barriers to adaptation. This SAP discusses ways natural and social science research can improve understanding and prediction of potential impacts to aid planning and decision making.
A tutorial for the climate analysis and decision-making communities on current best practices in describing and analyzing uncertainty in climate-related problems. Uncertainty is ubiquitous. Of course, the presence of uncertainty does not mean that people cannot act.
An assessment of the potential for abrupt state changes or regime shifts in ecosystems in response to climate change. Better understanding of sudden changes to ecosystems, and the goods and services they provide, is extremely important if natural resource managers are to succeed in developing adaptation strategies.
This report presents the projected impacts of climate change on the Rogue River Basin of southwest Oregon.
Earth's climate varies naturally, and also changes in response to human activity. Our ability to adapt and respond to climate depends on our understanding of the system and how to incorporate this understanding into resource management decisions. This Synthesis and Assessment Product, developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, offers an evaluation of decision support experiments that have used seasonal-to-interannual climate forecasts and observational data in the context of water resource management.
An analysis of the economic value of commercial and recreational fisheries in the United States.
This plan contains 50 separate policy recommendations to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. The report estimates that if all its recommendations were implemented, the state would meet its emissions reduction targets, enjoy increased energy security, and see a net cost savings of more than $28 billion from 2009 to 2025.
This Synthesis and Assessment Product, developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, is an assessment of the effects of short-lived gases and particles in the atmosphere, which can significantly change regional surface temperatures. By the year 2100, short-lived gases and particles may account for as much as 40 percent of the warming over the continental U.S. in summertime.
Scientific information about Earth's climate, water, air, land, and other dynamic processes is essential for our understanding of humankind's relationship to our natural resources and our environment. This Synthesis and Assessment Product, developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, examines contributions of Earth science information in decision support activities and their relationship to climate change science.
This report offers recommendations to protect Maryland’s future economic well-being, environmental heritage, and public safety from the impacts of sea level rise.
Scientists use mathematical models of Earth's climate, run on the most powerful computers available, to examine hypotheses about past and present-day climates. This Synthesis and Assessment Product, developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, describes the models and their ability to simulate climate.
This Synthesis and Assessment Product, developed as part of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, offers a review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources in the United States. This report focuses on the following selected land management systems: National Forests, National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Wild and Scenic Rivers, National Estuaries, and Marine Protected Areas.
This Synthesis and Assessment Product from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program provides a synthesis of the then-current knowledge of North America's carbon budget and its context within the global carbon cycle. The report provides scientific information for decision support focused on key issues for carbon management and policy.
This report summarizes findings from a review of coastal hazards associated with sea level rise, hurricanes, nor'easters, and reduced sediment supply. The study also evaluates existing policies and potential knowledge gaps, and develops potential adaptation policies.
This document identifies goals and actions to conserve and restore Oregon’s species, habitats, and ecosystems. The report addresses climate change as a key conservation issue, and many of the recommendations provided consider adaptation measures to address species and habitat conservation needs. The 10-year revision of the Strategy and its Nearshore Component is currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and will be posted at the provided URL once approved.
This booklet describes how natural processes affect the coast, including changes in lake levels, storms and storm surges, waves and wave climate, transport of sediment, ice on the shore, shoreline erosion, lakebed erosion, and movement of water on the land. It also describes how to protect coastal investments by adapting to natural processes, restoring a natural shoreline, moderating coastal erosion, armoring the shore, stabilizing bluffs and banks, controlling surface water and groundwater, building environmentally friendly shore protection structures, and working with engineers and contractors. The final section covers risk management and the economics of protecting a coastal investment, including shoreline property features and value, government regulations to protect a coastal investment, costs of shore protection, and accounting for climate change. There is also a list of resources for more information and a glossary of coastal engineering terms.
This document, known as the COEMAP, provides a framework for community discussion and assessment of coastal erosion and beach loss in Hawai'i. The objective of COEMAP, and the public dialogue it seeks to foster, is to outline socioeconomic and technical mechanisms for conserving and restoring Hawai'i’s beaches in a framework of mitigating erosion impacts and reducing exposure to coastal hazards for future generations.
