Local governments need to “adapt” or make changes to prepare for and negate the effects of climate change, thereby reducing the vulnerability of communities and ecosystems. By adapting to cope with the effects of climate change, communities, enterprises and institutions can build up their climate change resilience. The resources in this section can help local agencies in their planning.

ICARP Adaptation Clearing House

The Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP) Adaptation Clearinghouse serves as a centralized source of information that provides the resources necessary to guide decision makers at the state, regional, and local levels when planning for and implementing climate adaptation projects to promote resiliency to climate change in California.

Georgetown Climate Center: Adaptation

The Georgetown Climate Center provides states and local governments with best-practice models, legal analysis, policy work, and legislative tracking.   Access their Adaptation Clearinghouse, full of resources and examples of adaptation plans.

NACo Resilient Counties Initiative

NACo works to strengthen county resiliency by building leadership capacity to identify and manage risk, and allow counties to become more flexible and responsive. Through the use of sustainable practices and infrastructure, counties will be better prepared to address these issues in a manner that can minimize the impact on local residents and businesses, while helping counties save money.

Cal-Adapt

Cal-adapt is a web-based climate adaptation planning tool. Cal-adapt allows the user to identify potential climate change risks in specific geographic areas throughout the state. Users can either query by location, or click on an interactive map to explore what climate impacts are projected to occur in their area of interest.

Climate Adaption Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)

The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) offers case stories, recommended tools, a virtual library of resources, a directory of organizations and individuals working on climate adaptation and community forums.  CAKE is a joint project of Island Press and EcoAdapt.