Drinking Water Mapping Application to Protect Source Waters (DWMAPS)
This user-friendly tool from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can help communities and individuals find answers to questions like:
Prioritize & Plan
National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy
The original National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy was published in 2012. Though the website that accompanied the guide is no longer accessible, an update titled Advancing the National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy into a New Decade was published in January 2021.
Adaptation Tool Kit: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use
The Adaptation Tool Kit is designed to help policymakers manage the complexity of adaptation by identifying and organizing adaptation tools. For each tool, the Tool Kit describes the tool, how it can be used to facilitate adaptation, sources that have proposed use of the tool for adaptation purposes, and examples of programs that have implemented the tool.
Being Prepared for Climate Change: A Workbook for Developing Risk-Based Adaptation Plans
The workbook from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presents a step-by-step application of a risk management methodology to climate change adaptation. By taking a risk-based approach to assessing vulnerability, users have a formal way to choose among adaptation actions. Selected actions are not simply beneficial—they rise to the top because they will be best for reducing risk.
Exploring Adaptation Options for Water Infrastructure at Sea Level
Climate stressors and impacts
The town of Manchester-by-the-Sea is a community of just under 6,000 residents located on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, approximately 20 miles northeast of Boston. This coastal community—originally gifted by land grant to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629—is now known for its picturesque harbor, beautiful beaches, and restored sea captain’s homes.
Addressing Short- and Long-Term Risks to Water Supply
Threats to Fredericktown's drinking water
The city of Fredericktown, Missouri, is nestled in the foothills of the St. Francois Mountains, surrounded on three sides by the Mark Twain National Forest. Roughly 90 miles south of St. Louis, the community of just over 4,000 residents relies on Fredericktown City Lake as its primary source of water. City Lake is fed by the Little St. Francis River, which receives the majority of its water from precipitation and melted snow. To serve its customers, the city's drinking water plant treats approximately 500,000 gallons per day.
Adaptation Workbook
The Adaptation Workbook, created by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, is a structured process that helps land management professionals and land owners consider the potential effects of climate change on forests, urban forests, and agricultural lands. This approach enables users to design management, stewardship, and conservation actions to prepare for changing conditions while also meeting their goals and objectives. The flexible process accommodates a wide variety of geographic locations, ownership types, ecosystems and land uses, management goals, and project sizes.
Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)
The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) was founded by the non-profit organizations EcoAdapt and Island Press in July 2010, and is managed by EcoAdapt. CAKE aims to build a shared knowledge base for managing natural and built systems in the face of rapid climate change and is intended to help build an innovative community of practice. It helps users go beyond time limitations and the unwieldy thicket of books, papers, and articles by:
Data Basin
Data Basin is a science-based mapping and analysis platform that supports learning, research, and sustainable environmental stewardship. The platform is used by interested citizens, students and educators, natural resource practitioners, and scientists from diverse sectors and geographies.
The core of Data Basin is free and provides open access to thousands of scientifically-grounded, biological, physical, and socioeconomic datasets. This user-friendly platform enables people with varying levels of technical expertise to:
Relocating Kivalina
Climate stressors and impacts
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at more than twice the rate of the global average.