In 1994, the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJIWG) was established by Execut... more In 1994, the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJIWG) was established by Executive Order 12898 to advance environmental justice principles. In 2011 the EJIWG identified climate change as an important area of focus for increased reporting and for joint development of programs with impacted communities. To achieve these goals, a working group came together to develop a framework that articulates the intersection of EJ and climate change, provides a basis for using common terminology to support federal actions, supports the engagement of communities often left out of climate change conversations, and identifies needs and gaps to inform targeted education, communication, and implementation actions. A list of key terms was compiled from across the climate change science and climate justice research and community based work, as well as from community planning. Key questions that guided the development of the framework were: who is most vulnerable to climate change, and how? How does climate change interact with existing environmental justice disparities? How can disparities arising from the added effects of climate change be reduced, and how can opportunities arising from actions to mitigation and adapt to climate change be leveraged to reduce vulnerability? The framework draws on long-and well-established federal environmental justice programs that seek to reduce disparities in environmental impacts, and integrates more recent actions to address the impacts of climate change. It serves the goals of the EJIWG by illustrating how climate change and environmental justice issues interact to contribute to vulnerability, and how adverse outcomes can be minimized and beneficial outcomes maximized. Meaningful involvement of affected communities is a key factor in leading to these desired outcomes through maximizing co-benefits and utilizing equitable development.
About the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee The Scientific and Technical Advisory Commi... more About the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) provides scientific and technical guidance to the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) on measures to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. Since its creation in December 1984, STAC has worked to enhance scientific communication and outreach throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and beyond. STAC provides scientific and technical advice in various ways, including (1) technical reports and papers, (2) discussion groups, (3) assistance in organizing merit reviews of CBP programs and projects, (4) technical workshops, and (5) interaction between STAC members and the CBP. Through professional and academic contacts and organizational networks of its members, STAC ensures close cooperation among and between the various research institutions and management agencies represented in the Watershed. For additional information about STAC, please visit the STAC website at http://www.chesapeake.org/stac.
Stream water temperature imposes metabolic constraints on the health of cold-water fish like salm... more Stream water temperature imposes metabolic constraints on the health of cold-water fish like salmonids. Timber harvesting can reduce stream shading leading to higher water temperatures, while also altering stream hydrology. In the Pacific Northwest, riparian buffer requirements are designed to mitigate these impacts; however, anticipated future changes in air temperature and precipitation could reduce the efficacy of these practices in protecting aquatic ecosystems. Using a combined modeling approach (Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Shade, and QUAL2K), this study examines the effectiveness of riparian buffers in reducing impacts of timber harvest on stream water temperature in Lookout Creek, Oregon across a range of potential future climates. Simulations assess changes in riparian management alone, climate alone, and combined effects. Results suggest that maximum stream water temperatures during thermal stress events are projected to increase by 3.3-7.4 C due to hydroclimatic change alone by the end of this century. Riparian management is effective in reducing stream temperature increases from timber harvesting alone but cannot fully counteract the additional effects of a warming climate. Overall, our findings suggest that the protection of sensitive aquatic species will likely require additional adaptation strategies, such as the protection or provisioning of cool water refugia, to enhance survival during maximum thermal stress events.
Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) reduce non-point source pollution from cropland. Go... more Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) reduce non-point source pollution from cropland. Goals for BMP adoption and expected pollutant load reductions are often specified in water quality management plans to protect and restore waterbodies; however, estimates of needed load reductions and pollutant removal performance of BMPs are generally based on historic climate. Increasing air temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns and intensity are anticipated throughout the U.S. over the 21st century. The effects of such changes on agricultural pollutant loads have been addressed by several authors, but how these changes will affect the performance of widely promoted BMPs has received limited attention. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to investigate potential changes in the effectiveness of conservation tillage, no-till, vegetated filter strips, grassed waterways, nutrient management, winter cover crops, and drainage water management practices under potential future temperature and precipitation patterns. We simulate two agricultural watersheds in the Minnesota Corn Belt and the Georgia Coastal Plain with different hydro-climatic settings, under recent conditions (1950–2005) and multiple potential future mid-century (2030–2059) and late-century (2070–2099) climate scenarios. Results suggest future increases in agricultural source loads of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous. Most BMPs continue to reduce loads, but removal efficiencies generally decline due to more intense runoff events, biological responses to changes in soil moisture and temperature, and exacerbated upland loading. The coupled effects of higher upland loading and reduced BMP efficiencies suggest that wider adoption, resizing, and/or combining practices may be needed in the future to meet water quality goals for agricultural lands.
Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, 2000
Advances in the scientific literature have focused attention on the need to develop adaptation st... more Advances in the scientific literature have focused attention on the need to develop adaptation strategies to reduce the risks, and take advantage of the opportunities, posed by climate change and climate variability. Adaptation needs to be considered as part of any response plan. But appropriate adaptive responses will vary across different geographic regions since the potential consequences of climate change and variability for human and natural systems will vary regionally in scope and severity. The assessment of consequences and selection of appropriate adaptation strategies is a complex challenge for regional and local decision makers. To aid in these assessments, the U.S. EPA developed a decision support software system called the Tool for Environmental Assessment and Management (TEAM) that employs a multi-criteria approach for evaluating actions to address climate change impacts. Applications of TEAM have revealed some strengths of this tool: (1) transparency of the methodology used in TEAM is important, particularly to international audiences; (2) the structure encourages users to consider strategies and attributes from an array of disciplines, which leads to more effective outcomes; (3) the ability to consider and understand tradeoffs of noncomparable attributes is essential to good decision making; and (4) TEAM fosters communication and consensus among participants in the decision making process, in particular through the use of visual display features and sensitivity analyses.
Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) help mitigate the adverse effects of urban developmen... more Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) help mitigate the adverse effects of urban development on stream hydrology and water quality, and are widely specified in development requirements and watershed management plans. However, design of stormwater BMPs largely relies on experience with historic climate, which may not be a reliable guide to the future. To inform BMP design that is robust to future conditions, it is important to examine how potential changes in precipitation, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration will affect the performance of BMPs. We use continuous simulation modeling to examine BMP performance under current and potential future climatic conditions, and determine the changes needed in site configuration to address future impacts. We perform modeling for five development types in five different regions of the United States and explore both conventional (“gray”) and green infrastructure (GI) stormwater management approaches. If stormwater designs are adapted to address potential future climate conditions, this study suggests that the most cost-effective approaches may use both gray and green BMPs. If the magnitude of extreme weather events increases dramatically, then gray practices that provide detention storage may have better cost effectiveness. Incorporating risk of future climate impacts into stormwater design may help communities become more resilient.
Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and... more Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and objectives that were established under an implicit assumption of stable climatic conditions. However, projected climatic changes render this assumption invalid. Here, we summarize general principles for management adaptations that have emerged from a major literature review. These general principles cover many topics including: (1) how to assess climate impacts to ecosystem processes that are key to management goals; (2) using management practices to support ecosystem resilience; (3) converting barriers that may inhibit management responses into opportunities for successful implementation; and (4) promoting flexible decision making that takes into account challenges of scale and thresholds. To date, the literature on management adaptations to climate change has mostly focused on strategies for bolstering the resilience of ecosystems to persist in their current states. Yet in the longer term, it is anticipated that climate change will push certain ecosystems and species beyond their capacity to recover. When managing to support resilience becomes infeasible, adaptation may require more than simply changing management practices-it may require changing management goals and managing transitions to new ecosystem states. After transitions have occurred, management will again support resilience-this time for a new ecosystem state. Thus, successful management of natural resources in the context of climate change will require recognition on the part of managers and decisions makers of the need to cycle between ''managing for resilience'' and ''managing for change.'' Keywords Climate change Á Adaptation Á Resource management Á Ecosystems Á Resilience Á Uncertainty Á Triage Á Thresholds The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent official policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Coastal urban infrastructure and water management programs are vulnerable to the impacts of long-... more Coastal urban infrastructure and water management programs are vulnerable to the impacts of long-term hydroclimatic changes and to the flooding and physical destruction of disruptive hurricanes and storm surge. Water resilience or, inversely, vulnerability depends on design specifications of the storm and inundation, against which water infrastructure and environmental assets are planned and operated. These design attributes are commonly derived from statistical modeling of historical measurements. Here we argue for the need to carefully examine the approach and associated design vulnerability in coastal areas because of the future hydroclimatic changes and large variability at local coastal watersheds. This study first shows significant spatiotemporal variations of design storm in the Chesapeake Bay of the eastern U.S. Atlantic coast, where the low-frequency highintensity precipitations vary differently to the tropical cyclones and local orographic effects. Average and gust wind speed exhibited much greater spatial but far less temporal variability than the precipitation. It is noteworthy that these local variabilities are not fully described by the regional gridded precipitation used in CMIP5 climate downscaling and by NOAA's regional design guide Atlas-14. Up to 46.4% error in the gridded precipitation for the calibration period 1950-1999 is further exacerbated in the future design values by the ensemble of 132 CMIP5 projections. The total model projection error (δ M) up to À 61.8% primarily comes from the precipitation regionalization (δ 1), climate downscaling (δ 2), and a fraction from empirical data modeling (δ E). Thus, a post-bias correction technique is necessary. The bias-corrected design wind speed for 10-yr to 30-yr storms has small changes <20% by the year 2100, but contains large spatial variations even for stations of close proximity. Bias-corrected design precipitations are characteristic of large spatial variability and a notable increase of 2-5 year precipitation in the future along western shores of the Lower and Middle Chesapeake Bay. All these accounts point to the potential vulnerability of water infrastructure and water program in coastal areas, when the hydrological design basis using regional values fails to account for significant spatiotemporal precipitation variations in local coastal watersheds.
Scientists and managers of natural resources have recognized an urgent need for improved methods ... more Scientists and managers of natural resources have recognized an urgent need for improved methods and tools to enable effective adaptation of management measures in the face of climate change. This paper presents an Adaptation Design Tool that uses a structured approach to break down an otherwise overwhelming and complex process into tractable steps. The tool contains worksheets that guide users through a series of design considerations for adapting their planned management actions to be more climate-smart given changing environmental stressors. Also provided with other worksheets is a framework for brainstorming new adaptation options in response to climate threats not yet addressed in the current plan. Developed and tested in collaboration with practitioners in Hawai'i and Puerto Rico using coral reefs as a pilot ecosystem, the tool and associated reference materials consist of worksheets, instructions and lessons-learned from real-world examples. On the basis of stakeholder feedback from expert consultations during tool development, we present insights and recommendations regarding how to maximize tool efficiency, gain the greatest value from the thought process, and deal with issues of scale and uncertainty. We conclude by reflecting on how the tool advances the theory and practice of assessment and decision-making science, informs higher level strategic planning, and serves as a platform for a systematic, transparent and inclusive process to tackle the practical implications of climate change for management of natural resources.
We would also like to thank Catriona Rogers who helped develop the Ecosystems Focus Area aquatic ... more We would also like to thank Catriona Rogers who helped develop the Ecosystems Focus Area aquatic research, and who contributed to the vision and direction of the watershed assessments discussed in this report. Dr. Rogers also managed the case study conducted by the University of Maryland. A number of internal reviewers earned our appreciation for identifying improvements and corrections that had escaped us. Their suggestions as well as their challenging questions helped us to prepare a report that will be useful to a larger audience of readers. They are Naomi Detenbeck (EPA ORD/NHEERL), Bruce Herbold (EPA Region 9), Chris Weaver (AAAS at EPA), and Kate Schofield (EPA ORD/NCEA).
Water quality practices are commonly implemented to reduce human impacts on land and water resour... more Water quality practices are commonly implemented to reduce human impacts on land and water resources. In series or parallel in a landscape, systems of practices can reduce local and downstream pollution delivery. Many practices function via physical, chemical, and biological processes that are dependent on weather and climate. Climate change will alter the function of many such systems, though effects will vary in different hydroclimatic and watershed settings. Reducing the risk of impacts will require risk-based, adaptive planning. Here, we review the literature addressing climate change effects on practices commonly used to mitigate the water quality impacts of urban stormwater, agriculture, and forestry. Information from the general literature review is used to make qualitative inferences about the resilience of different types of practices. We discuss resilience in the context of two factors: the sensitivity of practice function to changes in climatic drivers, and the adaptability, or relative ease with which a practice can be modified as change occurs. While only a first step in addressing a complex topic, our aim is to help communities incorporate consideration of resilience to climate change as an additional factor in decisions about water quality practices to meet long-term goals.
A number of options are available for adapting ecosystem management to improve resilience in the ... more A number of options are available for adapting ecosystem management to improve resilience in the face of climatic changes. However, uncertainty exists as to the effectiveness of these options. A report prepared for the US Climate Change Science Program reviewed adaptation options for a range of federally managed systems in the United States. The report included a qualitative uncertainty analysis of conceptual approaches to adaptation derived from the review. The approaches included reducing anthropogenic stressors, protecting key ecosystem features, maintaining representation, replicating, restoring, identifying refugia and relocating organisms. The results showed that the expert teams had the greatest scientific confidence in adaptation options that reduce anthropogenic stresses. Confidence in other approaches was lower because of gaps in understanding of ecosystem function, climate change impacts on ecosystems, and management effectiveness. This letter discusses insights gained from the confidence exercise and proposes strategies for improving future assessments of confidence for management adaptations to climate change.
Impacts on Urban Quality of Life The opportunities and resources in urban areas are critically im... more Impacts on Urban Quality of Life The opportunities and resources in urban areas are critically important to the health and well-being of people who work, live, and visit there. Climate change can exacerbate existing challenges to urban quality of life, including social inequality, aging and deteriorating infrastructure, and stressed ecosystems. Many cities are engaging in creative problem solving to improve quality of life while simultaneously addressing climate change impacts.
In 1994, the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJIWG) was established by Execut... more In 1994, the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJIWG) was established by Executive Order 12898 to advance environmental justice principles. In 2011 the EJIWG identified climate change as an important area of focus for increased reporting and for joint development of programs with impacted communities. To achieve these goals, a working group came together to develop a framework that articulates the intersection of EJ and climate change, provides a basis for using common terminology to support federal actions, supports the engagement of communities often left out of climate change conversations, and identifies needs and gaps to inform targeted education, communication, and implementation actions. A list of key terms was compiled from across the climate change science and climate justice research and community based work, as well as from community planning. Key questions that guided the development of the framework were: who is most vulnerable to climate change, and how? How does climate change interact with existing environmental justice disparities? How can disparities arising from the added effects of climate change be reduced, and how can opportunities arising from actions to mitigation and adapt to climate change be leveraged to reduce vulnerability? The framework draws on long-and well-established federal environmental justice programs that seek to reduce disparities in environmental impacts, and integrates more recent actions to address the impacts of climate change. It serves the goals of the EJIWG by illustrating how climate change and environmental justice issues interact to contribute to vulnerability, and how adverse outcomes can be minimized and beneficial outcomes maximized. Meaningful involvement of affected communities is a key factor in leading to these desired outcomes through maximizing co-benefits and utilizing equitable development.
About the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee The Scientific and Technical Advisory Commi... more About the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) provides scientific and technical guidance to the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) on measures to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. Since its creation in December 1984, STAC has worked to enhance scientific communication and outreach throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and beyond. STAC provides scientific and technical advice in various ways, including (1) technical reports and papers, (2) discussion groups, (3) assistance in organizing merit reviews of CBP programs and projects, (4) technical workshops, and (5) interaction between STAC members and the CBP. Through professional and academic contacts and organizational networks of its members, STAC ensures close cooperation among and between the various research institutions and management agencies represented in the Watershed. For additional information about STAC, please visit the STAC website at http://www.chesapeake.org/stac.
Stream water temperature imposes metabolic constraints on the health of cold-water fish like salm... more Stream water temperature imposes metabolic constraints on the health of cold-water fish like salmonids. Timber harvesting can reduce stream shading leading to higher water temperatures, while also altering stream hydrology. In the Pacific Northwest, riparian buffer requirements are designed to mitigate these impacts; however, anticipated future changes in air temperature and precipitation could reduce the efficacy of these practices in protecting aquatic ecosystems. Using a combined modeling approach (Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), Shade, and QUAL2K), this study examines the effectiveness of riparian buffers in reducing impacts of timber harvest on stream water temperature in Lookout Creek, Oregon across a range of potential future climates. Simulations assess changes in riparian management alone, climate alone, and combined effects. Results suggest that maximum stream water temperatures during thermal stress events are projected to increase by 3.3-7.4 C due to hydroclimatic change alone by the end of this century. Riparian management is effective in reducing stream temperature increases from timber harvesting alone but cannot fully counteract the additional effects of a warming climate. Overall, our findings suggest that the protection of sensitive aquatic species will likely require additional adaptation strategies, such as the protection or provisioning of cool water refugia, to enhance survival during maximum thermal stress events.
Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) reduce non-point source pollution from cropland. Go... more Agricultural best management practices (BMPs) reduce non-point source pollution from cropland. Goals for BMP adoption and expected pollutant load reductions are often specified in water quality management plans to protect and restore waterbodies; however, estimates of needed load reductions and pollutant removal performance of BMPs are generally based on historic climate. Increasing air temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns and intensity are anticipated throughout the U.S. over the 21st century. The effects of such changes on agricultural pollutant loads have been addressed by several authors, but how these changes will affect the performance of widely promoted BMPs has received limited attention. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to investigate potential changes in the effectiveness of conservation tillage, no-till, vegetated filter strips, grassed waterways, nutrient management, winter cover crops, and drainage water management practices under potential future temperature and precipitation patterns. We simulate two agricultural watersheds in the Minnesota Corn Belt and the Georgia Coastal Plain with different hydro-climatic settings, under recent conditions (1950–2005) and multiple potential future mid-century (2030–2059) and late-century (2070–2099) climate scenarios. Results suggest future increases in agricultural source loads of sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous. Most BMPs continue to reduce loads, but removal efficiencies generally decline due to more intense runoff events, biological responses to changes in soil moisture and temperature, and exacerbated upland loading. The coupled effects of higher upland loading and reduced BMP efficiencies suggest that wider adoption, resizing, and/or combining practices may be needed in the future to meet water quality goals for agricultural lands.
Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, 2000
Advances in the scientific literature have focused attention on the need to develop adaptation st... more Advances in the scientific literature have focused attention on the need to develop adaptation strategies to reduce the risks, and take advantage of the opportunities, posed by climate change and climate variability. Adaptation needs to be considered as part of any response plan. But appropriate adaptive responses will vary across different geographic regions since the potential consequences of climate change and variability for human and natural systems will vary regionally in scope and severity. The assessment of consequences and selection of appropriate adaptation strategies is a complex challenge for regional and local decision makers. To aid in these assessments, the U.S. EPA developed a decision support software system called the Tool for Environmental Assessment and Management (TEAM) that employs a multi-criteria approach for evaluating actions to address climate change impacts. Applications of TEAM have revealed some strengths of this tool: (1) transparency of the methodology used in TEAM is important, particularly to international audiences; (2) the structure encourages users to consider strategies and attributes from an array of disciplines, which leads to more effective outcomes; (3) the ability to consider and understand tradeoffs of noncomparable attributes is essential to good decision making; and (4) TEAM fosters communication and consensus among participants in the decision making process, in particular through the use of visual display features and sensitivity analyses.
Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) help mitigate the adverse effects of urban developmen... more Stormwater best management practices (BMPs) help mitigate the adverse effects of urban development on stream hydrology and water quality, and are widely specified in development requirements and watershed management plans. However, design of stormwater BMPs largely relies on experience with historic climate, which may not be a reliable guide to the future. To inform BMP design that is robust to future conditions, it is important to examine how potential changes in precipitation, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration will affect the performance of BMPs. We use continuous simulation modeling to examine BMP performance under current and potential future climatic conditions, and determine the changes needed in site configuration to address future impacts. We perform modeling for five development types in five different regions of the United States and explore both conventional (“gray”) and green infrastructure (GI) stormwater management approaches. If stormwater designs are adapted to address potential future climate conditions, this study suggests that the most cost-effective approaches may use both gray and green BMPs. If the magnitude of extreme weather events increases dramatically, then gray practices that provide detention storage may have better cost effectiveness. Incorporating risk of future climate impacts into stormwater design may help communities become more resilient.
Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and... more Public lands and waters in the United States traditionally have been managed using frameworks and objectives that were established under an implicit assumption of stable climatic conditions. However, projected climatic changes render this assumption invalid. Here, we summarize general principles for management adaptations that have emerged from a major literature review. These general principles cover many topics including: (1) how to assess climate impacts to ecosystem processes that are key to management goals; (2) using management practices to support ecosystem resilience; (3) converting barriers that may inhibit management responses into opportunities for successful implementation; and (4) promoting flexible decision making that takes into account challenges of scale and thresholds. To date, the literature on management adaptations to climate change has mostly focused on strategies for bolstering the resilience of ecosystems to persist in their current states. Yet in the longer term, it is anticipated that climate change will push certain ecosystems and species beyond their capacity to recover. When managing to support resilience becomes infeasible, adaptation may require more than simply changing management practices-it may require changing management goals and managing transitions to new ecosystem states. After transitions have occurred, management will again support resilience-this time for a new ecosystem state. Thus, successful management of natural resources in the context of climate change will require recognition on the part of managers and decisions makers of the need to cycle between ''managing for resilience'' and ''managing for change.'' Keywords Climate change Á Adaptation Á Resource management Á Ecosystems Á Resilience Á Uncertainty Á Triage Á Thresholds The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent official policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Coastal urban infrastructure and water management programs are vulnerable to the impacts of long-... more Coastal urban infrastructure and water management programs are vulnerable to the impacts of long-term hydroclimatic changes and to the flooding and physical destruction of disruptive hurricanes and storm surge. Water resilience or, inversely, vulnerability depends on design specifications of the storm and inundation, against which water infrastructure and environmental assets are planned and operated. These design attributes are commonly derived from statistical modeling of historical measurements. Here we argue for the need to carefully examine the approach and associated design vulnerability in coastal areas because of the future hydroclimatic changes and large variability at local coastal watersheds. This study first shows significant spatiotemporal variations of design storm in the Chesapeake Bay of the eastern U.S. Atlantic coast, where the low-frequency highintensity precipitations vary differently to the tropical cyclones and local orographic effects. Average and gust wind speed exhibited much greater spatial but far less temporal variability than the precipitation. It is noteworthy that these local variabilities are not fully described by the regional gridded precipitation used in CMIP5 climate downscaling and by NOAA's regional design guide Atlas-14. Up to 46.4% error in the gridded precipitation for the calibration period 1950-1999 is further exacerbated in the future design values by the ensemble of 132 CMIP5 projections. The total model projection error (δ M) up to À 61.8% primarily comes from the precipitation regionalization (δ 1), climate downscaling (δ 2), and a fraction from empirical data modeling (δ E). Thus, a post-bias correction technique is necessary. The bias-corrected design wind speed for 10-yr to 30-yr storms has small changes <20% by the year 2100, but contains large spatial variations even for stations of close proximity. Bias-corrected design precipitations are characteristic of large spatial variability and a notable increase of 2-5 year precipitation in the future along western shores of the Lower and Middle Chesapeake Bay. All these accounts point to the potential vulnerability of water infrastructure and water program in coastal areas, when the hydrological design basis using regional values fails to account for significant spatiotemporal precipitation variations in local coastal watersheds.
Scientists and managers of natural resources have recognized an urgent need for improved methods ... more Scientists and managers of natural resources have recognized an urgent need for improved methods and tools to enable effective adaptation of management measures in the face of climate change. This paper presents an Adaptation Design Tool that uses a structured approach to break down an otherwise overwhelming and complex process into tractable steps. The tool contains worksheets that guide users through a series of design considerations for adapting their planned management actions to be more climate-smart given changing environmental stressors. Also provided with other worksheets is a framework for brainstorming new adaptation options in response to climate threats not yet addressed in the current plan. Developed and tested in collaboration with practitioners in Hawai'i and Puerto Rico using coral reefs as a pilot ecosystem, the tool and associated reference materials consist of worksheets, instructions and lessons-learned from real-world examples. On the basis of stakeholder feedback from expert consultations during tool development, we present insights and recommendations regarding how to maximize tool efficiency, gain the greatest value from the thought process, and deal with issues of scale and uncertainty. We conclude by reflecting on how the tool advances the theory and practice of assessment and decision-making science, informs higher level strategic planning, and serves as a platform for a systematic, transparent and inclusive process to tackle the practical implications of climate change for management of natural resources.
We would also like to thank Catriona Rogers who helped develop the Ecosystems Focus Area aquatic ... more We would also like to thank Catriona Rogers who helped develop the Ecosystems Focus Area aquatic research, and who contributed to the vision and direction of the watershed assessments discussed in this report. Dr. Rogers also managed the case study conducted by the University of Maryland. A number of internal reviewers earned our appreciation for identifying improvements and corrections that had escaped us. Their suggestions as well as their challenging questions helped us to prepare a report that will be useful to a larger audience of readers. They are Naomi Detenbeck (EPA ORD/NHEERL), Bruce Herbold (EPA Region 9), Chris Weaver (AAAS at EPA), and Kate Schofield (EPA ORD/NCEA).
Water quality practices are commonly implemented to reduce human impacts on land and water resour... more Water quality practices are commonly implemented to reduce human impacts on land and water resources. In series or parallel in a landscape, systems of practices can reduce local and downstream pollution delivery. Many practices function via physical, chemical, and biological processes that are dependent on weather and climate. Climate change will alter the function of many such systems, though effects will vary in different hydroclimatic and watershed settings. Reducing the risk of impacts will require risk-based, adaptive planning. Here, we review the literature addressing climate change effects on practices commonly used to mitigate the water quality impacts of urban stormwater, agriculture, and forestry. Information from the general literature review is used to make qualitative inferences about the resilience of different types of practices. We discuss resilience in the context of two factors: the sensitivity of practice function to changes in climatic drivers, and the adaptability, or relative ease with which a practice can be modified as change occurs. While only a first step in addressing a complex topic, our aim is to help communities incorporate consideration of resilience to climate change as an additional factor in decisions about water quality practices to meet long-term goals.
A number of options are available for adapting ecosystem management to improve resilience in the ... more A number of options are available for adapting ecosystem management to improve resilience in the face of climatic changes. However, uncertainty exists as to the effectiveness of these options. A report prepared for the US Climate Change Science Program reviewed adaptation options for a range of federally managed systems in the United States. The report included a qualitative uncertainty analysis of conceptual approaches to adaptation derived from the review. The approaches included reducing anthropogenic stressors, protecting key ecosystem features, maintaining representation, replicating, restoring, identifying refugia and relocating organisms. The results showed that the expert teams had the greatest scientific confidence in adaptation options that reduce anthropogenic stresses. Confidence in other approaches was lower because of gaps in understanding of ecosystem function, climate change impacts on ecosystems, and management effectiveness. This letter discusses insights gained from the confidence exercise and proposes strategies for improving future assessments of confidence for management adaptations to climate change.
Impacts on Urban Quality of Life The opportunities and resources in urban areas are critically im... more Impacts on Urban Quality of Life The opportunities and resources in urban areas are critically important to the health and well-being of people who work, live, and visit there. Climate change can exacerbate existing challenges to urban quality of life, including social inequality, aging and deteriorating infrastructure, and stressed ecosystems. Many cities are engaging in creative problem solving to improve quality of life while simultaneously addressing climate change impacts.
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