Climate Change: Adaptation Tools and Guides
Designing Climate Change Adaptation Initiatives: a UNDP Toolkit for Practitioners
Learning to Adapt to Climate Change
Getting Ready for a Changing Climate: Supporting Councilors’ Leadership Role in Adaptation
Adapting to climate change means adapting the way we do things – in all areas of our lives – to respond to the changing circumstances. Councillors (elected members) play a key role in championing adaptation and the local level. Their awareness of the risks of business as usual and their passion for community wellbeing puts them in the best position to develop public awareness of, and the political will, for taking action on adaptation. This paper identifies councillors' leadership role in the adaptation agenda and presents five recommendations to increase councillor efficacy.
Preparing for the Impacts of Climate Change on Stormwater and Floodplain Management – A Preview of Adaptation Plans and Practices
This study aims to summarize what has been done to date in adapting stormwater and floodplain management practices to prepare for the impacts of climate change, both in Canada and elsewhere. The specific focus of this review was on identifying adaptative approaches to the planning and design of stormwater management and drainage infrastructure, as well as changes in land use and floodplain management practices to account for the potential impact of climate change on drainage infrastructure and flood vulnerable areas.
Canadian Communities’ Guidebook for Adaptation to Climate Change
This Guidebook is intended to help those who are looking for ways to reduce the impacts of climate change (increasing heat waves, water shortages, intense storms and sea-level rise) while decreasing GHG emissions and ensuring sustainable development for their communities. Recognition of the need to integrate climate risks into development priorities and decision making has driven the integration of adaptation and mitigation in the context of sustainable development. This Guidebook provides one method to achieve such integration.
Identifying Adaptation Options
This guidance note is aimed atsupporting decision and policymakers who are faced with identifying and appraising the effectiveness of adaptation measures that address identified climate risks. It should be considered as a companion piece to other UKCIP tools such as the Adaptation Wizard; Risk, Uncertainty and Decision-making framework, Business Areas Climate Impacts Assessment Tool (BACLIAT), Adaptation Actions database and the guidelines on costing the impacts of climate change.
Green Pipeline to Fuel Water Reclamation Facility
Date of publication unknown
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has built a pipeline that brings natural gas produced by a landfill to its water treatment plant. This infrastructure helps both reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the energy check for the water treatment plant. When the plant doesn't run to its full capacity (in dry weather for example), the electricity generated is sold to the power company.
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National Compendium of Water Adaptation Knowledge
Date of publication unknown
The National Compendium of Water Adaptation Knowledge is an online tool that provides access to information from a variety of sources about climate change adaptation and water. The goal of the compendium to “provide relevant information to users to help overcome knowledge barriers related to climate change adaptation and water”. The target audience consists of a broad range of groups and individuals including municipalities, rural communities, watershed organizations, private sector groups, advocacy groups, and provincial and territorial agencies.
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Pileus Project – Climate Science for Decision Makers
Date of publication unknown
The overarching purpose of the Pileus Project is to provide useful climate information to assist decision makers. The current focus is on two leading industries in the Great Lakes region: agriculture and tourism.
The benefits of the Pileus Project include:
- Provide a better understanding of historical climate trends, variability, and their past impacts on people and industry
- Evaluate how future climate trends and variability may impact people and industry, using newly developed, climate-related models
- Create an economic framework, which explicitly incorporates climate into the decision making process
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Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT)
Date of publication unknown
Developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) is a software tool to assist drinking water and wastewater utility owners and operators in understanding potential climate change threats and in assessing the related risks at their individual utilities. CREAT allows users to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on their utility and to evaluate adaptation options to address these impacts using both traditional risk assessment and scenario-based decision making.
CREAT provides libraries of drinking water and wastewater utility assets (e.g., water resources, treatment plants, pump stations) that could be impacted by climate change, possible climate change-related threats (e.g., flooding, drought, water quality), and adaptive measures that can be implemented to reduce the impacts of climate change.
The tool guides users through identifying threats based on regional differences in climate change projections and designing adaptation plans based on the types of threats being considered. Following assessment, CREAT provides a series of risk reduction and cost reports that will allow the user to evaluate various adaptation options as part of long-term planning.
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