Adaptation International

Climate change adaptation planning requires decision-makers to envision the future of their communities, and make well-grounded assumptions about economic, demographic, and cultural trends that are likely to affect that vision. However, many communities lack the technical resources to compile and analyze climate data and research findings, thus making the information essentially inaccessible to them. This project addresses the lack of access to appropriate climate change information by producing climate profiles for communities to support their adaptation planning efforts.

Many communities are already vulnerable to extreme events, and many of these vulnerabilities will increase with climate change. Identifying and better understanding critical thresholds for extreme events is key to developing effective community responses to climate change. In this project, researchers will test a methodology for using a participatory process to define critical thresholds for extreme events and use these thresholds to customize climate projections to community-­‐specific needs. This project brings together Adaptation International, CLIMAS and SCIPP, two of NOAA’s RISA programs, ATMOS Research, and ISET International to address this critical need.