Tools | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

Tools are available to help you manage your climate-related risks and opportunities, and to help guide you in building resilience to extreme events. Browse the list below, or filter by topic and/or tool functionality in the boxes above. To expand your results, click the Clear Filters link.

A Guide to Assessing Green Infrastructure Costs and Benefits for Flood Reduction

Communities can use this six-step process as a framework—and to spark discussion—when assessing the costs and benefits of green infrastructure projects.

Circular diagram showing past and present environmental conditions in Interior Alaska. Source: Community Partnerships for Self-Reliance program

Adapt Alaska

Decision-makers and educators in Alaska can use these resources as a starting point in climate adaptation, mitigation, and monitoring. Find case studies, information on specific regions in Alaska, a planning guide for adaptation, and more.

Screen capture from the Adaptation Tool Kit

Adaptation Tool Kit: Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Land Use

This toolkit presents information on 18 different land-use tools (generally used legal devices) that could be used to preemptively respond to threats that sea level rise poses to public and private coastal development and infrastructure.

Adaptation Workbook

Land managers, natural resource professionals, and motivated landowners can use this structured process to consider the effects of climate change on forests, urban forests, and agricultural properties.

Adapting Stormwater Management for Coastal Floods

Community members can explore how past and future flooding can affect their stormwater systems and generate a report to inform planning efforts.

AdaptMap Jamaica Bay

This online mapping tool for New York's Jamaica Bay allows users to compare and contrast historical, present day, and potential future landscapes against an array of sea level and storm tide scenarios.

Screen capture from the AdaptWest website

AdaptWest Climate Adaptation Planning Database

Planners can access data and detailed information for much of North America to compare conservation approaches and inform planning.

AgBiz Logic

Farmers, ranchers, and land managers can use this suite of digital tools to aid in economic, financial, and environmental decision making.

Screen capture from the database website

Aquatic Connectivity Assessment and Prioritization Tool

Users in the North Atlantic—from Maine to West Virginia—can access this database and these tools to help identify bridges and culverts that impede aquatic connectivity.

Arctic Adaptation Exchange

Share or access information about climate adaptation across the Arctic region. Explore an interactive map by theme and browse circumpolar adaptation information resources

Atlas of Community-Based Monitoring and Traditional Knowledge in a Changing Arctic

Access information on community-based monitoring initiatives of environmental and social factors across the Arctic region.

Screen capture from Being Prepared for Climate Change

Being Prepared for Climate Change: A Workbook for Developing Risk-Based Adaptation Plans

Organizations that manage environmental resources can use this guide to prepare a broad, risk-based adaptation plan.

Building Resilience

Visit this website from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to learn about building project and community resilience.

Three views of coral health declining over time

Caribbean Marine Maps

Interactive maps including satellite imagery, airborne imagery, and data from drones and divers are available to help advance ocean conservation and climate adaptation.

Chucktown Floods: Adapting to Flooding in Charleston

Local resources to help people monitor and adapt to flooding in the Lowcountry of Charleston County, South Carolina.

Screenshot from the Cities Impacts & Adaptation Tool

Cities Impacts & Adaptation Tool (CIAT)

Decision makers in the Great Lakes Region who are developing climate adaptation plans can use this tool to find a range of support and information.

Climate Adaptation For DoD Natural Resource Managers

This guide and the accompanying documents and spreadsheets can help Department of Defense installation managers incorporate climate considerations into integrated natural resource management plans.

Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)

Access adaptation case studies, virtual library resources, a directory of adaptation practitioners, and a database of relevant tools on this comprehensive website. Users can also participate in community forums or contribute resources.

Underwater Photo of Kelp - Camille Pagniello, CA Sea Grant

Climate Adaptation Toolkit for Marine and Coastal Protected Areas

Marine Protected Area managers can use this collection of tools to evaluate the vulnerability of their sites to climate change, identify appropriate adaptation strategies, and learn about those strategies through case studies, reports, and other resources.

Climate Change Adaptation Planning Manual for Coastal Alaskans and Marine-Dependent Communities

Planners in coastal Alaska can use this guide to help with local adaptation efforts.

Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center (ARC-X)

Create an integrated package of climate change adaptation information tailored specifically to your geographic location and/or area of interest.

High Falls, Baptism River, Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Climate Change Field Guide for Northern Minnesota Forests

Use this field guide as a quick climate change reference during field visits or forest planning in Minnesota.

Colored drawing of different tree species

Climate Change Field Guide for Northern Wisconsin Forests

Use this field guide as a quick climate change reference during field visits or forest planning in Wisconsin.

Climate Change Preparedness and Resiliency Checklist

The City of Boston requires new construction and redevelopment projects to consider present and future climate conditions. This checklist helps decision makers consider the range of issues building and their inhabitants may face.

Climate Change Resilience Roadmap

Federal, state, and local entities can follow this roadmap to develop regional climate change and national security action plans. The tool offers guidance for regions to convene multi-jurisdictional working groups and work collaboratively toward tangible outputs.

Climate Change Resource Center

Natural resource planners, land managers, and other decision makers can find usable science as well as approaches to adaptation and mitigation from the U.S. Forest Service to help them address climate change impacts.

Climate Change Response Framework

This collaborative, cross-boundary approach among scientists, managers, and landowners incorporates climate change considerations into natural resource management.

Beaver pond, by NOAA Fisheries West Coast

Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Tool for Coastal Habitats (CCVATCH)

Land and marine managers can use this guidance document and spreadsheet tool to calculate numerical vulnerability scores for habitats. Scores indicate the degree to which various habitats may be vulnerable to current and future climate stressors.

Image of the California coastline from the Cal-Adapt website.

Climate Commons

California land and resource managers can find information, maps, tools, and data to support climate-smart conservation in their regions. The California Landscape Conservation Cooperative offers resources for getting started and going deeper with adaptation plans.

Climate Registry for the Assessment of Vulnerability (CRAVe)

Find existing vulnerability assessments by geographic area, assessment target, sponsoring agency, and other factors. Registered users can also enter basic information about a vulnerability assessment, enabling colleagues, partners, and others to learn and benefit from their work.

Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT)

Owners and operators of drinking water and wastewater utilities can use this web-based tool to assess potential climate change threats and evaluate adaption options at their sites.

Climate Resilience in Alaskan Communities: Catalog of Federal Programs

Communities in Alaska that face challenges associated with coastal erosion, flooding, and other climate-related risks can use this catalog to find information, technical assistance programs, and potential funding resources.

Climate Service Providers Database | NOAA Western Region

This "match-making app for the climate world" connects users of climate information with the wide array of information and services available in NOAA's Western Region.

Screen capture from the Climate-Smart Conservation guide

Climate-Smart Conservation: Putting Adaptation Principles into Practice

Natural resource managers and conservation professionals can use this guide to help them incorporate climate considerations into their work.

Climate4Cities

This project by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln supported municipal climate adaptation in the Missouri River Basin. The project website hosts climate reports for 11 Midwestern cities and and an online data explorer for 10 states across middle America.

Climigration

Resources on this site encourage people to have conversations about managed retreat as one option for dealing with rising sea levels.

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