Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...

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Adaptation and Mitigation 99a broad range of adaptation initiatives are being pursued across a range of geopoliticalscales. This interest in adaptation has emerged from an increased awareness that climateimpacts are unavoidable (Wetherland et al., 2001); a growing availability of knowledge,data, and tools for the assessment of climate risk; and the interest of government agencies,businesses, and communities in increasing their resilience to both current climatevariability as well as future climate change. However, adaptation strategies are notgenerally mainstreamed into the policy apparatus of governments or the developmentplans of the private sector; in other words, adaptation strategies supplement existingplanning efforts but often involve an effort on their own rather than being integratedinto existing management and policy regimes. Also, although adaptation planning hasan increasingly rich portfolio of case studies contributing to shared learning (Gregg etal., 2011), the implementation of adaptation plans has proceeded at a much slower pace.Background on Adaptation PlanningCoastal adaptation planning will generally identify vulnerable coastal resources andlikely impacts to these resources; define goals and specific adaptation actions based onthe best available information; outline an implementation strategy; and create a plan forevaluating and monitoring results. Elements commonly found in adaptation plans areincluded below (see Box 5-1; Hansen & Hoffman, 2011; Heller & Zavaleta, 2009).Inventory of Adaptation PlanningAdaptation-planning processes vary across spatial and jurisdictional scales. Because impactsfrom climate change will cross jurisdictional and sectoral boundaries, both planningand implementation will generally require coordination at all levels of governmentincluding state, local, regional, and national and among a range of public and privateentities. Planning processes typically involve coordination both vertically across local,state, and federal offices and horizontally across agencies and between counties, municipalities,or states.All major levels of government have an important role to play in facilitating adaptation.At the federal level, agencies develop climate science and models, initiate pilotefforts with hundreds of local governments to plan for sea-level rise (Titus & Hudgens,2010), and provide important technical support, data, and mapping that policymakersneed for planning. As detailed in examples below, the federal government also allocatesbillions of dollars in public funds to pay for critical projects and services necessary foradaptation throughout the coastal zone such as hazard preparedness, disaster response,infrastructure development, and conservation projects. Similarly, state agencies distributestate funds and provide oversight and technical support for adaptation planning; oftenmanage state-owned coastal lands and can acquire vulnerable properties; and haveregulatory authority in all or parts of the state’s coastal zone. However, most adaptationwill occur at the local level; local governments are the primary actors charged with makingthe basic land-use and public investment decisions that will be critical, along withworking with community stakeholder groups, to implementing adaptive measures onthe ground. The private sector also has a role; corporations, insurance companies, landtrusts, and private individuals will have to make changes in how they manage assets
100 Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and VulnerabilitiesBox 5-1Elements Commonly Found in Adaptation PlansAdaptation plans employ several formats and includea variety of elements depending on the needand context in which they are undertaken. Elementsor outcomes that often characterize planninginclude:Assessing Vulnerability• The vulnerability of a system is the degree towhich it is susceptible to or unable to copewith climate-change effects (See definitions onpage xviii of this report).• Vulnerability assessments often focus on exposureand sensitivity to impacts as well as capacityto adapt. Demand for this is increasedin policy-relevant formats.Monitoring and Indicators:• Environmental indicators measure the effectsof natural and manmade stressors on a systemand convey scientific information on the currentstatus of conditions as well as changes andtrends in these conditions over time (EPA ClimateReady Estuaries Progress Report, 2010).• Indicators can measure progress of implementationof process-based adaptation measuresor the effectiveness of the outcome-basedadaptive policies and activities.• Research, observations, and modeling willcontinue to improve forecasts of regional- andlocal-scale climate impacts and inform adaptationefforts.Regulatory and Programmatic Changes• Laws, regulations, and programmatic changescan promote or remove barriers to adaptation;however, regulations and policies must be responsiveas the science and understanding ofclimate change evolves, which is often a difficulttask.• Governments can adopt new policies such asan Executive Order or use existing authorityby amending state regulations to account forclimate change.Implementation Strategies• Including elements for implementation is criticalin moving a plan forward.Sector-by-Sector Approach• A sector-by-sector approach allows for thebreakdown of complex problems with plansanalyzing vulnerability and needs within sectorsmost important to the state or region.• Common sectors include: Public Health, Habitat/NaturalResource Management, WaterManagement, Agriculture, Forestry, Transportationand Energy Infrastructure, and CoastalCommunities.• A sector-by-sector approach can also miss importantbetween-sector linkages, resulting inless effective actions or cross-purpose actionsbetween sectors.Capacity Building, Education, andOutreach• The engagement of diverse stakeholdersthroughout the process increases access to expertknowledge, technical skills, and financialresources and helps build public support foran adaptation plan.
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National Climate Assessment Regiona
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© 2012 The National Oceanic and At
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Coastal Impacts, Adaptation,and Vul
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Chapter 3Lead Author: Carlton H. He
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ContentsKey TermsAcronymsCommunicat
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4.4 Human Health Impacts and Implic
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Key TermsxixExposure 3 - The nature
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Executive Summaryxxvffffffffffffffo
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Executive SummaryxxixAdaptation and
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Introduction and Context 3irrigatio
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Physical Climate Forces 13Figure 2-
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Physical Climate Forces 15Sea-level
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