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.

Cover of the Developing Climate Change Environmental Public Health Indicators report
Published
September 2013

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.

Cover of The Delta Plan
Published
September 2013

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the grand confluence of California’s waters, the place where the state’s largest rivers merge in a web of channels—and in a maze of controversy. In 2009, seeking an end to decades of conflict over water, the California Legislature established the Delta Stewardship Council with a mandate to resolve long-standing issues. The first step toward that resolution is the Delta Plan—a comprehensive management plan for California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, developed to guide state and local agencies to help achieve the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the delta's ecosystem.

Report Cover
Published
September 2013

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.

Report cover, depicting a winter landscape on the coast of Lake Superior
Published
September 2013

The City of Marquette is the largest city in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and one of the most economically diverse in the state. The city is especially vulnerable to environmental, economic, and social impacts of climate change, largely because it borders Lake Superior. A team of Michigan State University Extension specialists and educators received funding from the Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center (GLISA) to collaborate with GLISA researchers, relevant decision makers, and stakeholders in Marquette to increase community resilience through incorporating climate variability and change adaption strategies into local land use master plans and policies. Key stakeholders in the agriculture, forestry, natural resources, health, planning, and tourism fields participated in the development of climate change concerns and strategies. Overwhelmingly, residents and local leaders wanted to protect the natural environment that makes Marquette such a desirable place to live. This report details the process and results of this community-driven process, and also contains specific, detailed GIS maps of the region that reflect the climate vulnerabilities and concerns of the residents and leaders in the Marquette region.

Report Cover
Published
August 2013

This report—known as the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 201, Second Edition—provides communities with guidance for conducting a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA). The First Edition of this Guide, published in April 2012, presented the basic steps of the THIRA process. This Second Edition expands the THIRA process to include estimation of resources needed to meet the capability targets, and also reflects other changes to the THIRA process based on stakeholder feedback.

Cover of the Climate Sensitivity of the National Estuarine Research Reserve Network report
Published
July 2013

The United States' 28 National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERR) are experiencing negative effects of human and climate-related stressors, according to this report. This is the first national-scale climate sensitivity analysis of estuaries to help coastal managers protect the health of estuaries.

Cover of the U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather report
Published
July 2013

This report examines current and potential future impacts of climate trends on the U.S. energy sector.

Cover of the Stronger, More Resilient New York report
Published
June 2013

PlaNYC is a long-term sustainability plan based on the latest climate science. This report includes ideas on how to rebuild the communities in New York City affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and how to increase resilience and infrastructure of buildings city-wide in order to protect against future extreme events.

Cover of the Southwest Assessment report
Published
May 2013

A contribution to the 2013 National Climate Assessment, this report is a summary and synthesis of the past, present, and projected future of the Southwest region’s climate. It emphasizes new information and understandings since publication of the previous national assessment in 2009.

Report Cover
Published
April 2013

The Resilience Measurement Index (RMI) was formulated to capture the fundamental aspects of resilience for critical infrastructure with respect to all hazards. The RMI methodology supports decision making related to risk management, disaster response, and maintenance of business continuity. It complements other indices that have been developed―the Protective Measures Index and the Consequences Measurement Index―and thus, in combination with other tools, allows critical infrastructure to be compared in terms of resilience, vulnerability, consequences, and ultimately risk.

Cover of report
Published
December 2012

This report assesses the state of climate knowledge, impacts, and adaptive capacity of Hawai‘i and the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). Federal, state, and local government agencies, non-government organizations, businesses, and community groups worked together to produce the report. Its aim is to inform people about climate and help them prioritize their activities in the face of a changing climate.

Report Cover
Published
December 2012

This brochure shares some of the lessons learned from climate-ready estuary projects in New England from 2008 to 2012.

Cover of the Mainstreaming Gender report
Published
November 2012

This guide is targeted towards program managers who work in climate change and health adaptation, and provides them with practical information and concrete guidance to mainstream gender throughout all four phases of the project cycle: identification, formulation and design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Cover of the ODOT Climate Change Adaptation Strategy Report
Published
April 2012

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has developed this adaptation strategy, which is inclusive of an impact assessment for its infrastructure and operations. The purpose of the strategy is to provide a preliminary assessment of the climate change impacts to ODOT’s assets and systems operations, underline the need for a vulnerability and risk assessment, and identify current areas of adaptive capacity and potential long- and short-term actions to be taken by ODOT. 

Report cover
Published
March 2012

Oxfam America, in their work to shed light on the vulnerability of the geography and people of the U.S. Southeast, commissioned two reports from the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina. The first one covers the entire 13-state region, while the second one contains much more detail about Louisiana and Mississippi. This document provides a brief overview of the findings, the concepts, and the methodology. The aim of these materials is to be useful tools to people in coastal communities, and to decision makers shaping policies in the region.

Cover of the Climate Change and Infrastructure, Urban Systems, and Vulnerabilities report
Published
February 2012

This Technical Input to the Third National Climate Assessment examines vulnerabilities of infrastructures and urban systems to extreme weather and other events associated with climate change.

Washington State DOT Climate Impacts Vulnerability Assessment
Published
November 2011

The Washington State Department of Transportation prepared this report in fulfillment of a grant from the Federal Highway Administration to test its conceptual climate risk assessment model developed for transportation infrastructure. WSDOT applied the model using scenario planning in a series of statewide workshops, using local experts, to create a qualitative assessment of climate vulnerability on its assets in each region and mode across Washington.

Cover of the Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters report
Published
November 2011

Extreme weather and climate events, interacting with exposed and vulnerable human and natural systems, can lead to disasters. This Special Report explores the challenge of understanding and managing the risks of climate extremes to advance climate change adaptation. Some types of extreme weather and climate events have increased in frequency or magnitude, but populations and assets at risk have also increased, with consequences for disaster risk. Opportunities for managing risks of weather- and climate-related disasters exist or can be developed at any scale, local to international.

report cover
Published
October 2011

This report was prepared for the New York State Department of Transportation to help them identify the vulnerabilities of the state’s transportation system, as well as opportunities to adapt the system and mainstream adaptation into the transportation decision-making process.

report cover
Published
September 2011

The report provides a comprehensive overview of observed and predicted changes to Massachusetts’ climate and the anticipated impacts. It also describes potential adaptation strategies the state may take to prepare for climate change.

Cover of report
Published
May 2011

This report, the final in a series from the National Academies, makes the case that the environmental, economic, and humanitarian risks posed by climate change indicate a pressing need for substantial action to limit the magnitude of climate change and to prepare for adapting to its impacts. The report advocates for an iterative risk management approach to climate change and using strong federal climate policies to support and enhance existing local, state, and private-sector efforts.

Report cover
Published
April 2011

The purpose of this guide—an addendum to regional socioeconomic monitoring guidelines produced by the Global Socioeconomic Monitoring Initiative for Coastal Management (SocMon) and its Pacific counterpart, SEM‐Pasifika—is to provide a minimum set of socioeconomic indicators related to climate change. The aim of these programs is to improve site management of coastal and marine areas by providing simple, user‐friendly guidelines on how to conduct a socioeconomic assessment, which helps coastal managers incorporate community views into adaptive management of marine resources.

Cover of the Scanning the Conservation Horizon report
Published
January 2011

This guide for conservationists and resource managers aims to help practitioners understand and assess the impact of climate change on species and ecosystems, including fisheries.

Plan Cover
Published
January 2011

This plan identifies Ohio's mitigation strategy, which helps guide local mitigation planning and project efforts. The State of Ohio Standard Hazard Mitigation Plan was first approved by FEMA in 2005. This 2011 plan revision details Ohio’s highest priority hazards: river/stream flooding, tornadoes, winter storms, landslides, dam/levee failure, wildfire, coastal flooding, earthquakes, coastal erosion, drought, severe summer storms, invasive species, and land subsidence hazards. The plan also integrates and introduces the State Hazard Analysis, Resource and Planning Portal (SHARPP), a web-based system that captures and disseminates state and local hazard mitigation planning and project information.

Cover of the Adapting to Climate Change planning guide
Published
September 2010

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.

Cover of the Coastal Land Cover Change Summary Report
Published
January 2010

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.

Report Cover
Published
January 2010

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.

Cover of the report
Published
August 2009

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. 

Report Cover
Published
May 2009

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.

Report cover
Published
March 2009

Historically, studies about climate hazards and social vulnerability have been conducted in separate silos. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI) is the first study of its kind to examine both the potential impact of natural hazards and which populations are most likely to be negatively affected. This research, commissioned by Oxfam America, includes a series of layered maps that depict social and climate change-related hazard vulnerability. The maps assist in identifying hotspots in the U.S. Southeast, which are at significant risk in the face of four particular climate change-related hazards: drought, flooding, hurricane force winds, and sea level rise. The specific region of focus is the 13-state region of the US Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Roughly 80 percent of all U.S. counties that experience persistent poverty (defined as a county in which at least 20 percent of the population experiences poverty for three decades or more) lie in this region.

Cover of the Climate Ready Communities report
Published
January 2009

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.

Cover of the Oregon Conservation Strategy
Published
February 2006

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.

Pages