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.
Climate change adds uncertainty to already complex global water challenges. Though no standard method has been adopted yet by the World Bank, common practice uses downscaled precipitation and temperature projections from Global Climate Models (GCMs) as input to hydrologic models. While this has been useful in some applications, they often give too wide a dispersion of readings to provide useful guidance for site-specific water resources management and infrastructure planning and design. Rather than design for an uncertain situation selected a priori, the so-called “bottom-up” approaches explore the sensitivity of a chosen project to the effects of uncertainties caused by climate change. Supported by the Water Partnership Program, this book summarizes alternatives explored by a group of organizations that belong to the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA), to provide practitioners with the tools to adapt to the realities of climate change by following a decision-making process that incorporates bottom-up thinking.
This Synthesis Report summarizes the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This report distills, synthesizes, and integrates the key findings of the three IPCC Working Group contributions—The Physical Science Basis; Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability; and Mitigation of Climate Change—to the AR5 for the benefit of decision makers in government, the private sector, and the general public. The report also includes findings from two Special Reports released in 2011: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation and Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. The Synthesis Report confirms that climate change caused by human activities is having impacts on ecosystems and human well-being across the U.S. and around the world.
This report links climate change projections with their associated health outcomes, and identifies populations and locations most vulnerable to these health outcomes in San Francisco. The goal of the Climate and Health Profile is to support local public health climate adaptation efforts, and advance urban health and environmental justice in the climate and health field.
This report documents how rapid innovation and new investment in infrastructure are making it possible to tackle climate change and improve economic performance. Countries at all income levels have the opportunity to build lasting economic growth at the same time as they reduce the immense risk of climate change.
In this Priority Agenda, the Council on Climate Preparedness and Resilience outlined four strategies to help make our natural resources more resilient to climate change. The agenda represented a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive commitment across the federal government to support resilience of our natural resources, documenting progress and providing roadmaps for action. The actions outlined in the agenda focus on protecting important landscapes and developing new science, planning, and tools to foster climate-resilient lands and waters; enhancing U.S. carbon sinks such as forests, grasslands, wetlands, and coastal areas; promoting innovative 21st century infrastructure that integrates natural systems into community development, including green storm water infrastructure; and modernizing federal programs, investments, and services to build resilience and enhance carbon storage.
A five-year effort by the California Department of Water Resources, this report presents the status and trends of California's water-dependent natural resources, water supplies, and agricultural, urban, and environmental water demands for a range of plausible future scenarios. Update 2013, as it is known, is designed to work in tandem and help implement the Governor’s Water Action Plan. At more than 3,500 pages, Update 2013 covers a variety of information, from detailed descriptions of current and potential regional and statewide water conditions to a “Roadmap For Action” intended to achieve desired benefits and outcomes.
This study investigates how climate change will impact the telecommunications and data center services sector. The report looks not only at the headline-grabbing impacts of extreme weather events, such as those incurred by Hurricane Sandy, but also the risks brought on by slow-onset, gradual changes to the base climate.
Colorado experienced extensive flooding and landslides in September 2013. During the recovery effort, several important economic recovery issues emerged—among them was a desire to learn from the disaster and integrate resilience into the economic sector. To that end, the Economic Development Administration conducted a study to establish a baseline of current economic resilience planning efforts in the area, identify trends and current resiliency practices, and develop recommendations to assist communities, state and regional economic development organizations, and federal agencies in stimulating resilience planning. This document provides an overview of resilience in the context of economic development and its application to a tool for evaluating resilience in economic development plans.
Without significant changes, existing water systems will soon no longer be able to provide the services that citizens have come to expect. After six years of research, The Johnson Foundation presents a resource intended to examine challenges associated with quality, availability, and resilience of U.S. freshwater resources due to climate change, aging infrastructure, and extreme events. The report contains a set of principles to help guide the efforts of leaders in various sectors as they act upon the recommendations offered.
This report outlines 100 recommendations to help improve federal programs and their ability to prepare for climate change, drawing from a series of workshops with leading federal, state, and local officials and building upon lessons learned post-disaster in New Orleans (following Hurricane Katrina), New York (following Hurricane Sandy), and Vermont (after Hurricane Irene). The report identifies more than 30 federal programs, initiatives, and laws that can be used to prepare for extreme events such as storms, floods, and heat waves as well as rising seas. This report informed the White House's State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.
NJADAPT is a collaborative effort consisting of scientists and data managers in academia, government, the private sector, and the NGO community who have developed a strategic plan for a New Jersey platform to host and apply climate science and impacts data. This effort has been supported by the New Jersey Recovery Fund, the New Jersey Coastal Management Program, and NOAA.
This plan—an update to the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy—augments previously identified strategies in light of advances in climate science and risk management options.
This report documents the effort to develop an understanding of possible impacts of climate change and potential future responses by the Towns of Acushnet and Fairhaven and the City of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It focuses specific attention on sea level rise, precipitation, and frequency or intensity of storms that may affect public infrastructure related to water quality and habitat protection.
This plan summarizes the U.S. General Service Administration's approach, accomplishments, plans, actions, and coordination activities to evaluate the agency’s climate change risks and vulnerabilities to manage both the short and long-term effects of climate change on the agency’s mission and operations.
The City of Norfolk is using an integrative process of planning, preparing, mitigating, and communicating to reduce the impacts of flooding. Working with international and regional experts and residents, Norfolk is creating planning models to predict future shoreline conditions. The models will predict how local rates of sea level rise affect the construction of public buildings, shipyards, naval facilities, homes, and other private development.
This plan evaluates the risks that different hazards pose to Berkeley and engages the community in dialogue to identify the most important steps that the city and its partners should pursue to reduce these risks. The plan updates the city's plan initially adopted in 2004. To develop the 2004 Disaster Mitigation Plan, the city conducted detailed research on four major natural and two major “man-made” hazards present in Berkeley: earthquake, wildland-urban interface fire, landslide, flood, hazardous materials release, and terrorism. Since that time, new maps and data depicting the extent and possible impacts from tsunami and climate change have become available. In 2011, the city added these hazards to the list and they are incorporated into this plan..
This report looks at how climate change is affecting the nation’s wildlife and habitats, and addresses how natural resource managers need to prepare for and adapt to these unprecedented changes.
The National Climate Assessment assesses the science of climate change and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century. It documents climate change-related impacts and responses for various sectors and regions, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels.
The assessment draws from a large body of scientific peer-reviewed research, technical input reports, and other publicly available sources; all sources meet the standards of the Information Quality Act. The report was extensively reviewed by the public and experts, including a panel of the National Academy of Sciences, the 13 federal agencies of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and the Federal Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Sustainability.
In April 2014, the National Park Service (NPS) convened a select group of leaders in the fields of planning, architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, archeology, science, and park and cultural resource management to participate in a planning session entitled Preserving Coastal Heritage. This summary report provides the recommendations and feedback that emerged over the course of the two-day work session, along with highlights from the presentations and remarks. Case studies include four sites in New York and New Jersey. The Preserving Coastal Heritage work session was part of an NPS effort to develop a cultural resources climate change response strategy.
This report summarizes the impact of climate change on Navajo Nation lands and discusses factors that affect people’s vulnerabilities to climate impacts, outlining a way for the region's residents to plan for ongoing environmental change.
As the climate changes, critical challenges face water managers, farmers, public agencies, and conservationists in the Colorado River Basin. This report by Carpe Diem West, in partnership with the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, documents the concerns of some Colorado River thought leaders and their ideas about potential solutions and paths ahead.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II's contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) relates to climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. A Summary for Policymakers and the underlying scientific and technical assessment are also available.
In anticipation of rising sea levels, a team worked to to gauge the impact of rising tides on local communities and infrastructure. This report describes the process and outcomes of efforts to protect at-risk assets through proactive planning and early identification of adaptation measures.
This report was designed to Identify how beachgoers perceive the risk of dangerous currents and waves in the Great Lakes; evaluate existing messages and delivery mechanisms (such as National Weather Service Surf Zone Forecasts); translate complex beach conditions into understandable, actionable messages for specific beachgoer audiences; and identify effective delivery mechanisms for specific audiences.
As with the rest of the world and the Caribbean region in particular, the coastal and marine communities of the US Virgin Islands (USVI) are susceptible to the effects of climate change. Hazards include increasingly hazardous coastal conditions and loss of life-sustaining marine, coastal, and island resources. Climate change is anticipated to add to the stresses of the coastal environment by altering temperature and precipitation patterns, increasing the likelihood of extreme precipitation events, and accelerating rates of sea level rise.
Responding and adapting to such changes requires an understanding of the risks; weighing options for adapting to changing conditions; and instituting a suite of strategies to implement, measure, and fund response actions having the most benefits to the ecosystems and communities that depend on those services. With support from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program, The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Caribbean Program directed a project with the objective of developing decision-support tools and conservation strategies that will advance the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation (EBA) to climate change within the USVI.
This report describes a community-driven project built on efforts by Shaktoolik and other at-risk, mainly Alaska Native villages on the Bering Sea coast to adapt to potentially devastating effects of climate change. The project involved a multi-party approach to assist the community of Shaktoolik to make a decision whether to relocate or stay at the current location. The result is a well-defined process that may be replicated by other at-risk communities in the region. The final report documents lessons learned, adaptation methods for Shaktoolik, potential funding sources, and a step-by-step action plan to implement the community's decision.
This report examines climate change impacts in Hawai'i and also assesses the adaptive capacity of the Pacific Island communities.
This report, the first of its kind for the City of Grand Rapids, outlines the condition of the city's climate resiliency and offers recommendations for how it can both impact and adapt to climate change. The report's goal is to both spur a larger community conversation around processes that will enable Grand Rapids to become a more climate-resilient city and to spur many specific short- and near-term projects, policies, programs, and plans to mitigate the effects of climate change. The report documents projected local climate changes, their potential negative impact to low-income families, and outlines small near-term solutions that the city can make to curb or adapt to climate change. Recommendations include investing in green space and improving the city's tree canopy, improving the city's energy autonomy, and implementing green street infrastructure materials and maintenance techniques.
California’s Climate Action Team developed this document to provide California agencies with guidance for incorporating extreme heat projections and best practices for adapting to heat-related climate change impacts into planning and decision making.
In 2013, the Baltimore City Department of Planning and Office of Sustainability created the Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project (DP3) as an effort to address existing hazards while simultaneously preparing for predicted hazards due to climate change. This project develops an integrated All Hazards Mitigation Plan, floodplain mapping, and Climate Adaptation Plan program that links research, outreach, and actions to assure implementation of a comprehensive and new risk-preparedness system for addressing existing and future impacts. Integrating hazard mitigation planning, which focuses on past events, with climate adaptation planning, which focuses on what will likely happen in the future, offers a positive, win-win solution for Baltimore City.
This report provides a risk-based approach to achieve resilient water security in a changing climate, documents key trends, and highlights best practice from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Survey of Policies on Water and Climate Change Adaptation. The report examines options to improve the flexibility of water governance, policy, and financing approaches.
This guidance report helps local health departments leverage existing resources on climate change and public health indicators to make plans and decisions at the local level.
This plan looks at strategies for incorporating climate change resilience throughout New York's entire transportation system.
Coastal areas are especially vulnerable to hazards, now and in the future, posed by waves and surges associated with sea level change and coastal storms. Coastal risk reduction can be achieved through a variety of approaches, including natural or nature-based features (e.g., wetlands and dunes), nonstructural interventions (e.g., policies, building codes, and emergency response such as early warning and evacuation plans), and structural interventions (e.g., seawalls and breakwaters). This report discusses the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' capabilities to help reduce risks to coastal areas and improve resilience to coastal hazards through an integrated planning approach.
This plan was developed to provide an effective and systematic means for the State of Colorado to reduce the impacts of water shortages over the short and long term.
This report offers an evaluation of the projected impacts of climate change on Connecticut agriculture, infrastructure, natural resources, and public health, and recommends strategies to mitigate those impacts.
