Decision Support Tools for Climate Change Planning Written by Caryn Ernst and Kathy Blaha

CLIMATE-SMART CITIES™

Decision support tools for climate change planning Written by Caryn Ernst And Kathy Blaha

Produced under a grant from The Macarthur Foundation

For The Trust For Public Land’s Climate-Smart Cities program Decision support tools For climate change planning

Executive Report December 2015

tpl.org Table of contents

I. Purpose of report...... 7

II. Background: green infrastructure and its relationship to climate...... 8

mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and climate justice

III. Research methodology...... 10

IV. Challenges in planning green infrastructure for climate change...... 12

1. Insufficient staffing, funding and authority...... 13

2. Lack of data on costs and benefits...... 14

V. The disconnect between regional science/data...... 16

development and local planning and implementation

VI. Data gaps and availability...... 18

1. Currently available data and gaps...... 18

2. Potential data sources to fill gaps...... 19

3. International data sources...... 20

VII. State of existing on-line decision support tools...... 22

1. Web-based decision support tools...... 22

2. Decision support tool software...... 23

3. Custom decision support tools for cities or regions...... 23

decision support tools for climate change planning 3 VIII. Findings: creating tools that support...... 24

effective climate change planning

1. Meet the needs of different types of users...... 24

2. Integrate diverse priorities...... 25

3. Visualize and compare a variety of scenarios...... 26

4. Support collaborative, as well as independent, action...... 27

IX. Conclusion...... 28

Appendix A: Interviewee list...... 30

Appendix B: Decision support tool list...... 32

Appendix C: Representative web-based decision support tools...... 35

Appendix D: Representative decision support tool software...... 41

Appendix E: Representative custom decision support tools...... 47

Appendix F: Cities using green infrastructure...... 54

as a primary stormwater management strategy

Appendix G: Data inventory spreadsheet (separate)...... 57

4 decision support tools for climate change planning decision support tools for climate change planning 5

I. Purpose of report

THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND’S Climate-Smart the development of more effective spatial Cities program is founded on the principle decision support tools for climate change that to respond to climate change, cities planning. must restore natural functions of the land by weaving green elements into the built The term Decision Support Tool (DST) refers environment. The Climate-Smart Cities to a wide range of computer-based tools program helps cities meet the climate chal- developed to support decision analysis and lenge through conservation and design—from participatory processes. Spatial decision creating waterfront parks and restoring support tools use GIS and differ from static wetlands to creating green alleys and “water maps in that they allow users to interact with smart” playgrounds. the data, combining and overlaying data in dynamic ways to answer different questions or A flagship service of the Climate-Smart Cities display different scenarios. This combination program is the development of spatial deci- of flexibility and user control enables users sion support tools to translate goals from a to effectively customize their analysis to their city’s strategic climate planning into priority specific decisions and related criteria. sites for green infrastructure development through the use of Geographic Information In order for The Trust for Public Land and Systems (GIS) technology. The Trust for Public other public and private actors to continue Land believes that delivering effective spatial enhancing the effectiveness of decision decision support to municipal governments support tools for cities, we must under- and their partners will enable cities to turn stand the current state of decision support Climate Action Plans and other climate strate- for climate response, and the needs and gies into action. Translating written strategies interests of potential users. Important into place-based priorities will enable cities to questions include: efficiently develop needed policies and apply • What spatial decision-support tools are on-the-ground investment for mitigation, resil- cities currently using for climate planning, ience, and climate justice objectives. particularly for green infrastructure? • Who is using them and for what purposes? The purpose of this report is to research the • What DST functionality best supports local tools and data currently available to cities climate planning and implementation? for climate change decision support, and to • What are the current data gaps and avail- understand the interests, needs and capacity ability specific to climate planning? of potential users within municipal government and among partner organizations. This inquiry is intended to help inform

decision support tools for climate change planning 7 II. Background

Green infrastructure and its For this study, green infrastructure (GI) is relationship to climate mitigation, defined as any strategy that uses ecosystem adaptation and resilience, and services to address climate mitigation, adap- climate justice tation and resilience, and climate justice. Green infrastructure encompasses a wide Climate mitigation involves reducing emissions range of urban greening strategies. The Trust of greenhouse gases in order to prevent the for Public Land’s Climate-Smart Cities program most extreme climate impacts from occur- categorizes these strategies under the climate ring—avoiding the unmanageable. Mitigation objectives of connecting, cooling, absorbing, strategies are broadly divided into two catego- and protecting: ries: (1) reducing greenhouse gas emissions at their source and (2) offsetting the effects 1. connect Linking walk-bike corridors at of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon the city scale to create carbon-free trans- sequestration. portation options for all residents. 2. cool Planting shade trees, transforming Climate adaptation involves addressing the grey infrastructure (asphalt and cement) climate impacts that can’t be avoided— to green infrastructure, and creating new managing the unavoidable. Climate resilience parks to lessen the urban “heat island takes adaptation a step further by creating effect” that drives increased summer environmental, economic and social systems energy use and worsens heat waves. that are resilient to, or can bounce back from, 3. absorb Creating “water smart” parks and the impacts of climate change. In contrast to green alleys that manage storm water natu- mitigation, adaptation and resilience strate- rally to reduce flooding, save energy used gies don’t necessarily address the underlying for water treatment, and recharge drinking causes of climate change. water supplies. Climate justice is about addressing the 4. protect Establishing waterfront parks, potential for climate change to exacerbate wetlands, and other green shorelines to longstanding inequities in cities relating buffer low-lying cities from sea level rise, to quality of life, risk and opportunity. For coastal storm surges, and other flood risks. example, climate change will increase urban air temperatures and heat risk in cities. This Green infrastructure strategies have the will have a greater impact on low income benefit of reducing bothhuman and envi- neighborhoods with low tree cover and there- ronmental vulnerability to climate change fore stronger heat islands, increased health impacts, particularly from flooding, storm- risks across the population, and less prevalent water, extreme heat and drought, and are air conditioning in people’s homes. therefore important to improving climate

8 decision support tools for climate change planning resilience. Connect, cool, absorb and protect are green infrastructure strategies that also have the potential to mitigate climate change by reducing energy use and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and offsetting the effects of emissions through natural carbon sequestration. Addressing climate justice requires application of these green infrastructure strategies in communities where human needs and vulnerabilities are higher than the norm.

decision support tools for climate change planning 9 III. Research methodology

IN ORDER TO BETTER UNDERSTAND the current interviewed senior leaders from federal agen- state of decision support tools being used cies and academic institutions engaged in for climate change planning, The Trust for developing decision-support tools and data for Public Land undertook this current conditions climate change planning, and from national analysis to determine tool availability and and international nonprofits actively engaged function, the readiness of cities for tool use, in supporting local climate planning and their capacity and capabilities, the availability decision-making. The full list of interviewees of data for planning and their experience in is included in Appendix A. some cases of translating results to action. The effort included research, interviews, surveying For our online research, we explored spatial and analysis of findings. This work was made decision support tools for climate planning, possible through the generous support of the with a particular focus on tools to support MacArthur Foundation. green infrastructure for mitigation and resilience planning. The types of tools we Specifically, research for this report included: researched ranged from simple online interactive maps that show one type of data, such 1. Documenting 50 online spatial tools for as sea level rise and storm surge, to complex, climate planning, custom decision-support tools created for 2. Conducting 40 interviews and surveys individual jurisdictions or multi-jurisdictional with potential tool users and decision- regions that allow users to overlay multiple makers, and data layers and run custom scenarios. We 3. Compiling an inventory of over 75 different also researched “off-the-shelf” software and types and sources of national data for modeling tools available for city agencies and climate planning. their consultants to upload local data and run analyses, such as I-Tree, HAZUS and InVEST. The interviews included 30 local government For each tool, we documented its functions, staff and 10 senior leaders from federal agen- the types of planning it could support, and cies, national and international nonprofits the data used. Representative decision support and academic institutions. We selected cities tools are included in Appendices C, D, and E, for our interviews from diverse geographies, with a description, list of key functions and of various sizes, from different climates and web addresses. The full list of tools researched with differing levels of engagement on climate for this project can be found in Appendix B. change issues. The interviews included senior staff from a variety of city departments, The data inventory was created by searching including Office of the Mayor, Sustainability, online for national datasets from federal, Planning, Environment, General Services, private, nonprofit and academic sources that Information Technology and GIS. We also support adaptation and resilience planning.

10 decision support tools for climate change planning The inventory is organized by data that supports Climate-Smart Cities’ planning objectives to connect, cool, absorb and protect through green infrastructure. For each dataset, we have documented the source, download link, and a brief description, including data resolution where possible. The full inventory of over 75 datasets see Appendix G.

decision support tools for climate change planning 11 IV. Challenges in planning green infrastructure for climate change

ALMOST ALL OF THE CITIES WE INTERVIEWED departments and agencies, often as opportu- have experienced extreme weather in recent nities arise (streetscape improvements, park years and have had to plan for and respond to upgrades) and in many cities with minimal threats from flooding, wildfires, storm surges, planning or coordination at the city scale. drought and extreme heat. As a result, most of their sustainability and climate resilience plan- The green infrastructure currently being ning has focused on vulnerability assessments, implemented by most cities is almost entirely emergency management planning and coor- focused on meeting Clean Water Act require- dination between agencies. Extreme weather ments for stormwater management (“absorb”). has mobilized cities to begin addressing Although there is a growing number of cities climate change, even those for whom the term using GI as a primary stormwater manage- “climate change” does not resonate. ment strategy, they struggle with how to do this effectively as the quantity of stormwater Green infrastructure is one of many strategies runoff can easily surpass the amount of land cities are implementing to build resilience to available to store the water while it infiltrates. extreme weather and lead climate mitigation. Cities and water agencies are experimenting This can involve any and all city agencies, with a wide-range of creative strategies for depending on the specific threats and oppor- stormwater storage and more efficient infiltra- tunities. The actions taken by these agencies tion, particularly strategies that can enhance might include strategies as diverse as planning public spaces and uses while simultaneously new transportation routes, relocating core meeting stormwater management goals. TPL is infrastructure, improving emergency response releasing a report in March, 2016, “City Parks, systems, planting trees, creating composting Clean Water: Making Great Places Using Green services, improving energy efficiency, devel- Infrastructure,” which delves into the many oping clean energy sources, creating new challenges of urban GI, as well as the creative parks and greenways, or greening roofs solutions cities are successfully employing and alleys. to meet these competing demands. (For a list of cities using green infrastructure as a Of the cities we interviewed, 83% said they primary stormwater management strategy, see are currently implementing some form of Appendix F). green infrastructure or ecosystem services for climate mitigation and resilience, and an Some cities expand the green infrastructure additional 14% said that they plan to explore definition to also include protecting shorelines green infrastructure (GI) strategies in the and wetlands to mitigate flooding (“protect”) future. However, for most of the cities, green and some include planting trees, green roofs infrastructure is a very small portion of and eliminating hardscapes for heat mitiga- the resilience and mitigation work they are tion (“cool”). None of the cities we spoke with doing. GI is being implemented by multiple include trails and connectivity as part of their

12 decision support tools for climate change planning green infrastructure planning for climate resil- Sustainability or Resiliency to lead the inter- ience. Helping municipal agencies visualize agency planning and coordination necessary and implement a multiple-benefit approach to address the wide-ranging and inter- would represent a paradigm shift in how this connected challenges of climate resilience; work is being done in most cities. however, we found that they often lack the budget or authority to implement compre- City staff identified two primary barriers to hensive cross-departmental and cross-sector greater planning and implementation of green resilience efforts. infrastructure: (1) insufficient staff capacity, expertise and funding, and (2) insufficient data For example, five years after the creation of a on the value, or costs and benefits of green Sustainability Office within the Mayor’s Office, infrastructure. elected officials in the District of Columbia are proposing the additional step of creating 1. Insufficient staffing, funding a Commission on Climate Change and Resil- and authority iency to address the need for improved Green infrastructure is a comprehensive cross sector action on climate. “Because resilience strategy that necessarily crosses climate change cannot be addressed piece- departmental boundaries. Most of the cities meal, bringing all the related agencies and we interviewed had created an Office of industries together ensures mitigation and

decision support tools for climate change planning 13 adaptation are priorities as the District moves 50% of the cities we spoke with have contracts forward when planning and designing poli- with consultants to analyze what types of cies, programs, and projects.” tools they need to be using, gather data, conduct the technical analyses and/or facili- Over 80% of the cities we interviewed are tate the process. actively engaged in some form of sustainability or climate resilience planning on a The Office of Sustainability or Resilience department by department basis and have within a city is the most likely driver of more invested significant time in collecting data comprehensive and coordinated climate and conducting analyses that relate to sustain- change planning, but these departments are ability, vulnerability and/or climate resilience. lightly staffed and don’t have in-house GIS In most cities, however, this planning work is capability. Most of the sustainability and being done within individual departments and resilience officers we talked to are supporting is not coordinated across silos. the sustainability and resilience planning of each agency and trying to build connections City departments and agencies are taking between departments wherever possible. advantage of tools available from the federal However, they rarely have the funds or government and national nonprofits to help mandate to develop comprehensive spatial them analyze and plan for resilience; however, analyses or invest in custom decision-support these tools are not necessarily designed tools. Water and wastewater agencies with to integrate with or relate to one another, regulatory mandates for CSO controls and and as stand-alone tools they do not neces- stormwater management are much more sarily meet the diverse climate resilience likely to have the funds and the impetus to needs of cities. Most of the tools currently conduct spatial planning for green infrastruc- available are designed to meet the needs of ture. However, their primary focus is meeting specific departments or answer a specific their EPA-mandated stormwater requirements, set of questions—such as STAR for sustain- so they are unlikely to play an inter-agency ability assessments, VAST for transportation coordination role and will be interested in vulnerability assessment, CREAT for water inter-agency planning only to the degree that system vulnerability, ClearPath for Green- it can support CSO or stormwater mitigation. house Gas Inventories and CMIP for climate change modeling. 2. Lack of data on costs and benefits Implementation of most of these planning Most cities have GHG reduction targets tools requires multiple years of data collec- and mitigation goals. However, since green tion, planning, and substantial investments infrastructure reduces GHG emissions indi- of time by city and nonprofit staff. As a result rectly, rather than directly, some of the climate of limited staff capacity and expertise, over

14 decision support tools for climate change planning mitigation benefits, such as reduced energy and coordinated response capabilities after a for water treatment, are harder to measure record wildfire that was extremely costly to and monetize. There is limited measurable the town, the Los Alamos National Lab and data on the mitigation or resilience benefits surrounding communities. Because of their of green infrastructure in its most traditional proactive investments, the impacts to the frame of water management, particularly town and the Laboratory were greatly reduced since effectiveness is somewhat dependent when the next (and even larger) wildfire hit on long-term management and maintenance, several years later. and the resilience benefits may not be fully realized until after an extreme weather event. One green infrastructure strategy for which The costs of green infrastructure are perceived there is readily available data on costs and as high and the lack of comprehensive data benefits is tree planting. US Forest Service’s on many GI strategies makes it difficult to I-Tree and EcoSmart Landscapes Tools have counter that perception. Without data on costs made it relatively easy to assess the costs and and benefits, it can be challenging for cities to climate mitigation and resilience benefits make the case for investments in green infra- of trees and to plan strategic tree planting structure when it is competing with other programs at the parcel, city or regional level. mitigation and resilience strategies. Tree planting programs are proliferating in cities across the country and, along with Of the cities that are comprehensively plan- green infrastructure for stormwater and ning and implementing green infrastructure, CSO management, are the most common they are almost all motivated by regulatory green infrastructure strategy reported by stormwater and combined sewer overflow interviewees. The relatively low cost of tree (CSO) requirements or a recent and costly planting, combined with the myriad climate history of flooding or wildfires. For cities that mitigation benefits of trees, and the avail- have CSO requirements, they have a regula- ability of tools to measure these costs and tory incentive to pursue green infrastructure benefits, has contributed to the proliferation as well as a financial incentive, as green infra- of tree planting programs both nationally and structure has been shown to be less expensive internationally. than grey infrastructure (tunnels and pipes).

Flooding and wildfire events have likely stimu- lated investments in GI because cities are able to compare the costs of action directly to the recent costs of inaction. Los Alamos, NM, for example, made significant investments in improving the region’s climate resilience

decision support tools for climate change planning 15 V. The disconnect between regional science/data development and local planning and implementation

CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE RESULTING CHANGES TO WEATHER PATTERNS, is being realized at an eco-regional level. Most climate change scientific research, predictive modeling and data development is being done at the regional or national level, such NOAA’s Regional Inte- grated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) teams. However, most of the climate planning and implementation is being done by individual jurisdictions.

Only 25% of the cities we interviewed are currently engaged in regional climate resilience planning, another 21% are engaging in limited coordination with neighboring to lead, and even when they do, they may jurisdictions, while 54% are not engaged in face political resistance from elected officials any regional planning or coordination around in jurisdictions that are not yet embracing climate change. climate change as a priority. With climate science and data being devel- The Trust for Public Land and the Metro- oped at the regional or national level, but politan Area Planning Council are engaged in mitigation and adaptation being planned one such regional effort working with the City and implemented at the local level, there is of Boston and the Metro Mayors’ Coalition a disconnect between climate planning and covering 13 adjacent municipalities. There implementation and the availability of rele- are a few other NGOs that support regional vant tools and data. climate planning, such as the Institute for Although climate mitigation and resilience Sustainable Communities. However, most of strategies will likely continue to be imple- these entities lack the technical capacity to mented at the jurisdictional level, most of develop the GIS tools to support regional plan- our interviewees agreed that there is a need ning that links down to local decision support. for more inter-jurisdictional climate change And many of the NGOs that are engaging with planning and coordination. Some metro- cities around climate planning, such as C40, politan councils of government are starting ICLEI and 100 Resilient Cities, are working to engage with local jurisdictions on this, but with individual cities, not at a regional level. many don’t have the resources or expertise

16 decision support tools for climate change planning Climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, particularly those that use ecosystem services, will be most effective in addressing regional climate change issues, like heat and flooding, if planned at the eco- regional level, even if they are implemented at the local level through smaller scale interventions.

Many interviewees said that an on-line spatial decision support tool developed by an NGO would be the ideal forum for regional climate resilience planning, particularly if the NGO or its partners supported the outreach and engagement needed to facilitate inter-jurisdictional planning. This work would need to be done in collaboration with metropolitan or regional planning agencies, but not necessarily led by them.

decision support tools for climate change planning 17 VI. Data gaps and availability

MUCH OF THE DATA CURRENTLY AVAILABLE Local jurisdictions need the following types of FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE PLANNING is at the data to support resilience planning: national scale. In a number of regions that have experienced devastating impacts from • Down-scaled climate models extreme weather, such as New York/New • Data on existing green infrastructure Jersey and the Gulf Coast, there has been a assets, both natural and built concerted effort to develop regional datasets, • Downscaled models that show the cumula- some of which are high resolution and can tive impact of sea level rise and storm surge support local planning. • High resolution data on ambient air temperature to identify hot spots 1. Currently available within cities data and gaps • Economic data and models that predict The types of data available at the national the local economic impact of severe level include (See Appendix G for full Data weather events Inventory): • More detailed data on local infrastructure, including cultural and historic buildings • Sea level rise, storm surge, coastal flooding and sites and shoreline change • Demographic and public health data at the • Streamflow and river flooding neighborhood level • Changes in vegetation and crop health • Capital and maintenance costs of various • Critical infrastructure, such as highways, resilience strategies, particularly green bridges, tunnels, rail networks, utilities, infrastructure hospitals, schools, police stations, and • Predictive models that can estimate the emergency operation centers potential benefits of various resilience • Climate change, precipitation, temperature strategies designed to mitigate GHG emis- and extreme weather sions, cool urban areas, prevent flooding • CO2 emissions from facilities and carbon and absorb stormwater, particularly green sources and sinks infrastructure • Wind power, solar power and biofuels • Connectivity planning information, availability data including the ability to project carbon savings from increased mode shift associ- With climate science, data and tool develop- ated with improved access ment happening at the regional or national level, there is still a gap in the availability of consistent, high resolution, locally relevant data available to jurisdictions for climate resilience planning.

18 decision support tools for climate change planning 2. Potential data sources example, insurance companies keep data on to fill gaps frequently flooded properties that could help Although datasets, such as climate and cities identify areas where green infrastruc- health, are often not available at the city ture could alleviate flooding; however, they scale, there are modeling tools that enable either don’t make the data available or sell the down-scaling of national or regional data the data at a prohibitively high cost. Private to be used in climate modeling at the city or sector companies often have “cost” data that neighborhood scale. For example, TPL has could be used to create cost impact models created models that downscale regional data and support cost-benefit scenario analyses of to use as proxy datasets at the local level potential resilience strategies. For example, with a high degree of confidence in many some companies have data on the actual planning scenarios. replacement cost of civil infrastructure, such as bridges that can get damaged or washed Data being generated through crowd-sourcing out during a flooding event, as well as data on applications can also be used to help inform non-tangible costs to the city like diverting modeling efforts where local data currently traffic and providing emergency services. doesn’t exist. For example, trail and walk/bike route usage data is not collected at a local level There is currently no comprehensive, acces- and not connected to specific trails; however, sible, national data base for trails and Strava is an application that crowd-sources connectivity. Rails to Trails has compiled users’ walking and biking activity. By over- a national GIS database that is the most laying Strava usage data in a geospatial format comprehensive multi-use trails database in the over existing trail networks, TPL can identify country; however, the raw data is not acces- usage on individual trails. In order to estimate sible, because Rails to Trails doesn’t receive reductions in CO2 emissions and increases funding to serve as a GIS data clearinghouse. in personal health from new and improved Rails to Trails is developing a GIS portal that trails and walk/bike routes, TPL extrapolates planners will be able to access on Railstotrails. increases in walking and biking if trails were org for planning purposes in 2016, but this created or improved. portal won’t allow users to download raw data. Despite the lack of a comprehensive Another potential source of high resolu- and accessible national trails database, there tion local data is private sector companies, is extensive connectivity planning for active who collect and “own” some of the data that transit ongoing in virtually every city in could support local resilience planning. In America. The primary challenge to integrate some cases the data is considered proprietary “connect” strategies into green infrastructure and is not shared. In other cases it can be planning is to integrate this wealth of local purchased, but the cost can be prohibitive. For

decision support tools for climate change planning 19 connectivity data and planning with data institutions will continue to play an important focused on other more traditional climate and perhaps increasing role in filling these objectives. This integration has been a major critical data gaps. focus of The Trust for Public Land‘s Climate- Smart Cities DST. 3. International data sources There are a number of international efforts Some cities are exploring innovative strategies to collect climate change and resilience data. to collect needed data for Climate Resilience. Most of these data are not spatial and are not For example, New York City is exploring designed to support spatial planning, but the whether they can add temperature gauges to databases are important for benchmarking old telephone booths as they are converted to cities and countries and to support cities’ free wifi stations. These temperature gauges efforts to measure their progress towards would allow the city to track data on ambient specific goals. air temperature, which can help monitor and target urban heat mitigation efforts. • ICLEI’s ClearPath GHG Protocols are designed for local-scale accounting of Academic institutions have played a large emissions that contribute to climate role in developing these types of locally change. Their US Community Protocol relevant datasets, as well as applied models, for Accounting and Reporting of Green- often working in partnership with cities and house Gas Emissions is designed to enable national nonprofits. For example, TPL uses accounting of emissions from businesses, academic research findings as metrics or residents and transportation and is widely equations that can be fed directly into GIS used by US Cities. analyses showing the potential mitigation • The City Biodiversity Index, developed benefits of specific strategies for a particular by Singapore and currently supported by location. When these types of metrics are ICLEI and the international Convention on incorporated into decision support tools it Biodiversity, is the only biodiversity index enables local leaders to make more informed designed specifically for monitoring and decisions about the potential impact of evaluating biodiversity in cities. various scenarios. • World Council on City Data is implementing ISO 37120 Sustainable Devel- These best practices need to be shared across opment of Communities: Indicators for City jurisdictions so local governments benefit Services and Quality of Life, the new inter- from lessons learned and don’t have to national standard. The WCCD Open City reinvent the wheel. Given the urgent need Data Portal allows users to explore, track, for more data, particularly for determining monitor and compare member cities on costs and benefits, academic and research up to 100 service performance and quality

20 decision support tools for climate change planning of life indicators. The indicators collected by WCCD are similar to the indicators collected by the US-based STAR program, which modified the ISO 37120 indicators to include more US specific indicators and eliminated indicators not applicable to most US Cities.

The World Council on City Data enables benchmarking between cities around the world on a wide range of sustainability measures. This is a comparison of environmental data from Boston, Los Angeles and Rotterdam.

decision support tools for climate change planning 21 VII. State of existing on-line decision support tools

TO ASSESS THE RANGE, content and function- green infrastructure. Almost all of them ality of existing spatial decision support tools are free and readily available to city staff, for green infrastructure, we researched over nonprofits and the general public. Only about 50 tools for climate change planning. Of 30% of them required a log-in. those, 58% were designed primarily to inform and engage, 38% enabled scenario planning, 1. Web-based decision while just 26% supported decision analysis— support tools comparing, analyzing and ranking decision We found a large number of simple interac- alternatives. (These functions were not mutu- tive maps designed to visualize climate change ally exclusive.) impacts on one or two variables, such as storm surge, sea level rise, heat, habitat, forestry Decision support tools are primarily being or agriculture. Almost half of them focused created by federal government agencies and on flooding and resilience. Many of the tools their regional partners, such as NOAA’s RISA, allow users to display impacts based on two national nonprofits, such as The Trust for or three different climate change assump- Public Land, The Nature Conservancy and tions, such as three feet vs five feet of sea RAND, and academic and research institu- level rise or heat predictions with or without tions, such as Harvard’s Climate Interactive mitigation. Very few of the tools allow users to and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Private overlay diverse variables, such as habitat and consulting firms, such as AECOM, have created sea level rise or forestry and agriculture. The some tools, but private sector work in this few that do overlay multiple variables, don’t area is focused more on supporting project model how those variables interact with each identification, i.e. decision support tools for other, for example the compounding effect of locating solar arrays. sea level rise and storm surge.

The decision support tools we researched Almost 70% of the tools we researched were generally fell into three categories: available for free online, with no login required. However, only 35% of our inter- 1. Web-based decision support tools viewees said that they have explored online (Appendix C) decision support tools. Those who had 2. Decision-support software (Appendix D) explored the sites said that the resolution of 3. Custom decision support tools designed the data used was too low and the models specifically for and in cooperation with weren’t sufficiently downscaled to support individual cities or multiple jurisdictions local planning and decision-making. As a within a region (Appendix E). result, they weren’t taking advantage of some of the sites’ features, like data download, We limited our research to spatial decision which they might otherwise have used. They support tools that supported some form of

22 decision support tools for climate change planning available data at the local, state and federal level and of integrating the types of modeling and functionality that best supports the decisions that need to be made in that jurisdiction primarily used the sites for visuals that could or across that region. A range of scenarios, support outreach and engagement. costs and benefits can be modeled that are locally relevant. This is the approach of The 2. Decision support tool software Trust for Public Land’s Climate-Smart Cities There are a number of free, decision support DST, which it has constructed for a diverse software tools for green infrastructure and range of cities, including New York City, ecosystem services planning that are avail- New Orleans, and Chattanooga, to conduct able for download. These are mostly designed multiple-benefit green infrastructure planning for technical users, but the results can linked to priority populations. Milwaukee has support local decision-making and potentially a tool that incorporates not only stormwater be incorporated into more accessible and management, but also water quality improve- comprehensive spatial planning tools. These ments, jobs, air quality improvements and software tools are designed to integrate local energy savings. data with regional and national data, and to conduct comprehensive analyses of a limited Custom decision support tools tend to be more number of issues or strategies. For example, expensive and time consuming to build, and HAZUS is designed to assess the vulnerability since they are designed to support the city’s of critical infrastructure, EcoSmart Land- ability to conduct independent scenario anal- scapes is designed to do cost/benefit analysis yses and data upgrades, they are most often for tree planting and urban greening, and being developed by nonprofits, academic and InVEST is a suite of free, open-source software research institutions with foundation support. models used to map and value ecosystem The custom decision support tools being services and is an effective tool for measuring developed by private sector companies are and balancing environmental and economic more often designed for use by specific city objectives. departments and are more focused on project identification for those agencies. There are a 3. Custom decision support tools few notable exceptions, such as the California for cities or regions Urban Footprint tool developed by AECOM for There are a number of nonprofit, academic the Southern California Association of Govern- and research institutions creating custom ments. Urban Footprint, enables both regional decision support tools for individual cities and local scenario development that incorpo- and multiple cities in a region. These tools rate fiscal, environmental, transportation, and have the advantage of building on the best public health impacts of plans and policies.

decision support tools for climate change planning 23 VIII. Findings: creating tools that support effective climate change planning

THE PRIMARY ADVANTAGE OF A WEB-BASED DECI- with the data, can share more complex data SION SUPPORT TOOL is its ability to promote and build a deeper understanding of potential coordination and collaboration across city change and threats. Tools for the public must departments, organizations, sectors, juris- be able to make a compelling case that will dictions, regions and countries. More than build understanding and interest in an audi- anything, effectively mitigating and adapting ence that may not be otherwise be engaged. to the global impacts of climate change will The type of web-based tool functionality the require sharing information and collabo- public needs includes: rating on solutions at every level. Web-based decision support tools, therefore, should be • Interactive map viewer that allows non- designed to: technical users to easily explore and overlay multiple datasets, query, zoom, pan 1. Meet the needs of different types of users and print maps online, 2. Integrate diverse priorities • Canned scenarios that allow users to 3. Visualize and compare a variety of quickly and easily compare potential scenarios scenarios that show the impact of various 4. Support collaborative, as well as indepen- policy decisions or investments, and dent, action • Visuals that tell a story and make the case.

1. Meet the needs of different One issue we explored with city staff was types of users whether community interaction tools should As part of our research, we explored the be built into a web-based decision support functionality of existing tools and asked our tool. Although they all emphasized how crit- interviewees what tool functionality would ical community engagement is in building an best support their work. We identified three understanding of the threats and support for primary types of users of web-based decision resilience strategies, they were not in agree- support tools—decision-makers, public and ment as to whether an on-line platform for technical staff—and assessed the type of func- engagement and discussion would be effective. tionality that would best meet their needs. Proponents felt that it could offer unique ways to engage an increasingly tech-savvy public in public (general, specific community, climate change issues and to gauge reactions interested stakeholders) to potential strategies. Opponents felt that Half of the tools we researched were designed online engagement might be too unwieldy to enable general audiences to visualize and time-consuming, and without proper climate change data and threats. Spatial tools monitoring, could be a negative distraction. can convey risks in a way that nontechnical All agreed that low-income and vulnerable users can relate, and by enabling interaction populations would undoubtedly be left out of

24 decision support tools for climate change planning online dialogue, which would lead to further data and analyses that can enhance their own disenfranchisement of those most at risk. work. The tool functionality needed by technical staff includes: decision-makers (elected officials, agency leaders) • integrative—allows for easy compatibility Creating effective decision support tools for with other in-house tools and datasets, decision-makers is challenging, which is likely including the ability to download the why 65% of our interviewees were not using results of analyses and overlay them with online tools. The data and analysis must be data and planning results from other city technically and scientifically sound, but acces- departments. sible to non-technical users; and the results • data upload and download—allows must be accessible at a high level and support advanced GIS and other technical users to “making the case”, while also allowing for upload high resolution data and incorpo- detailed, site-specific comparative analysis. rate into online maps and analyses, and While decision-makers need all the same easy download regional and national data for and accessible functionality required by a use with in-house GIS systems. public audience, they also need: 2. Integrate diverse priorities • High resolution data and downscaled anal- Climate change planning, mitigation yses that can support investment decisions, and adaptation strategies are by nature • Project profiling features that allow comprehensive and wide-ranging. Local and uploading or tracing proposed project departmental climate planning is critical to boundaries and receiving a property on-the-ground implementation; however, that specific “profile report”, and work needs to be integrated and coordinated • Executive storytelling, which supports the across departmental and jurisdictional bound- creation of information-rich presentation aries in order to be effective, to identify and tools and visuals to enable executives to take advantage of co-benefits and to magnify “make the case.” potential impacts.

Web-based decision support tools offer a technical staff (scientific, academic and agency) potential platform for coordination and collaboration by enabling different types of Technical staff often have access to data and spatial data and analyses to be uploaded and in-house analytical tools. Web-based tools can integrated into scenarios. In turn, enabling the serve as a platform for sharing high resolution data and analyses from a web-based tool to be data with other partners and key audiences, downloaded to in-house GIS systems allows enabling their data to be integrated into agencies to align their internal planning with applied solutions, and as a source of related

decision support tools for climate change planning 25 TNC Coastal Resilience Mapping Portal image of Long Island, New York with selected data overlays. other resilience objectives. The Nature Conser- multiple vulnerabilities, mitigation opportu- vancy’s Coastal Resilience Mapping Portal does nities, and priority populations—and then to this effectively by enabling the integration of plan strategies accordingly. It also allows them analyses conducted with different software to see where they have co-benefits, such as tools, such as HAZUS for hazard mitigation stormwater and habitat protection, enabling and SOVI for social vulnerability, and allowing them to take advantage of resources available them to be overlaid with other data and for one strategy (combined sewer overflows) to analyses, such as the Habitat Priority Planner. address a related but separate problem (river TNC’s mapping portal includes these comple- restoration). mentary analyses in select regions where they are most engaged, such as NY/NJ and 3. Visualize and compare Gulf Coast. a variety of scenarios Many interviewees emphasized that the The Trust for Public Land’s Climate-Smart politics and process of climate adaptation Cities DST is built on a “Connect, Cool, planning were as important, or more impor- Absorb, Protect” data framework that enables tant, than the technical analysis. They face users to easily integrate these planning consid- skepticism about climate change and about erations by combining data and modeling to what a city can do in the face of it and have see where these opportunities “stack” on the difficulty conveying a sense of urgency or landscape. Each DST also includes additional immediacy. The data is speculative and data and modeling on social and demographic includes wildly diverse scenarios, (i.e. poten- variables, and cross-reference data such as tax tial 1' to 5' sea level rise), that extend into the parcels, vacancy status for properties, and soils distant future, and no one knows the cost information. of inaction.

This type of integration can enable staff Politicians and agency directors are having to and decision-makers to see where they have make decisions with little comparative data on

26 decision support tools for climate change planning The Trust for Public Land’s Climate-Smart Cities: Green Infrastructure for a Low-Carbon, Resilient Boston showing results of a priority parcel query. the costs or benefits and end up following the 4. Support collaborative, as well as money (i.e. grey infrastructure), being reactive independent, action to political pressure, or taking the cheapest The flexibility and accessibility of a web-based path with the least resistance. Low-income and decision support tool would enable individual vulnerable populations are often neglected in jurisdictions to do local climate resilience the process. planning with an eye toward regional (or ecosystem-wide) integration and coordina- Scenario planning can help cities analyze tion. A regional web-based decision support alternative approaches and select those with tool would take advantage of science and the greatest combined benefits at the least data being developed at the regional level, cost; thus enabling thoughtful, proactive as well as new local data. It could reinforce approaches to climate action. However, it is commonalities among jurisdictions, bring in expensive and difficult for cities to do on their regional agencies, like water and sewer, while own in a comprehensive way. A web-based tool supporting more informed local decision- that enables cities to visualize and compare making. The tool functionality that supports various scenarios and share them with integration and collaboration among city constituents can help decision-makers weigh departments—data upload and download, the costs and benefits and justify investments. ability to run different queries and overlap Even with limited data on costs, being able to varied priorities to identify co-benefits—is the Identify potential co-benefits through scenario same functionality that would enable regional planning can help guide more strategic invest- planning with local implementation. ments and build public support.

decision support tools for climate change planning 27 IX. Conclusion

THIS STUDY HAS HIGHLIGHTED A NUMBER OF planning and action are most often focused OPPORTUNITIES, as well as a few important on protecting communities from sea level barriers to local climate mitigation and rise and storm surges, and absorbing and resilience planning, particularly for green managing stormwater. Few cities are focused infrastructure: on connectivity as a greenhouse gas reduction strategy and, although they recognize 1. While data availability and quality is urban heat as an issue, don’t have the data improving rapidly, there is still a need for to support targeted mitigation efforts. In high resolution, locally relevant data. In many cities green infrastructure strategies particular, there is a need for downscaled are still in demonstration mode and remain climate models, as well as data and analysis a small percentage of public infrastructure around the costs and benefits of various investments. resilience strategies, particularly for green infrastructure. The cities that are furthest along with their 2. Web-based custom decision support climate planning have a robust resilience or tools can support interdepartmental and sustainability office within the city’s leader- interjurisdictional planning and can be ship structure and/or the support of consulting a critical tool for comprehensive climate contracts or partnerships with research planning, particularly when employed in institutions or national nonprofits, such the concert with tools for targeted vulnerability Trust for Public Land, RAND, Climate Interac- analyses. tive, or Institute for Sustainable Communities. 3. Although data and tools are important to These national and regional organizations are climate planning, the process of coordi- playing an important role in the transfer and nating between departments within cities successful replication of technology and inno- and between jurisdictions, and building vation between jurisdictions, and are helping support for climate action, are just as to scale up local capacity to mitigate and adapt important. to climate change.

This study highlighted that there is a large Academic and research institutions, federal disparity in climate planning and readi- agencies and private sector firms are playing ness between cities. While some cities like an important role in the development of New York, Boston and Santa Clara are very high resolution, locally relevant data, and advanced in their climate planning, others are need to continue this work, with a focus on struggling to do basic coordination between downscaled climate models and cost benefit departments, and still others are not yet data. Federal agencies, research institutions looking at climate change as a priority. The and national nonprofits have developed a cities that are most advanced in their climate wide-range of tools to support education and

28 decision support tools for climate change planning outreach, scenario analysis and local decision- making. This work needs to continue with a focus on creating decision-support tools that can be customized locally with a wide range of vulnerability analyses, high resolution, locally relevant climate data, and that support the ability to plan across city departments and across jurisdictions.

Although, the data and tools are critical to guiding effective climate mitigation and adaptation, our interviews taught us that this work is about much more than a tool; it’s a process of identifying risk then assessing solutions, assisting with implementation, and finally, measuring and monitoring. It is also about integrating green infrastructure work into broader climate change planning, and facilitating and supporting partnerships between city departments, outside agencies and jurisdictions.

decision support tools for climate change planning 29 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEWEE LIST

First name Last Name Title Organization City, State

Brendan Shane Regional Director for C40 North America

Steve Adams Director of Strategic Institute for Initiatives Sustainable Communities

Sarah Wu Deputy Director Office of Philadelphia, Sustainability, City of PA Philadelphia

Kevin Bush Resilience Team Lead HUD, National Disaster Recovery Competition

Marc Coudert Environmental Austin Austin, TX Program Coordinator, Office of Sustainability

Jerry Tinianow Sustainability Director City of Denver Denver, CO

Jenita McGowan Chief of Sustainability City of Cleveland Cleveland, OH

Kevin Martin Tech Services City of Portland Portland, OR Manager, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability

David Lessinger Director for Planning New Orleans New Orleans, and Strategy LA

Sam Adams Director of US Climate World Resources Initiative Institute

Ted Weber Strategic Conservation Conservation Fund Science Manager

Lauren Marshall National Program USFS Washington, Manager, Urban and DC Community Forestry

Sarah Murdock Senior Policy Advisor, TNC Boston, MA US Climate Change Adaptation Policy

30 decision support tools for climate change planning First name Last Name Title Organization City, State

Lori Carey- Operations Manager NOAA Office of Charleston, SC Kothera for Science and Coastal Management Geospatial Solutions

Anne Hunt Environmental Policy City of St. Paul St. Paul, MN Director

Brian Stone Associate Professor Georgia Tech, Dept Atlanta, GA of City and Regional Planning

Eliza Wallace GIS Analyst Metropolitan Area Boston, MA Planning Council for Boston area

Leah Bamberger Sustainability Director City of Providence Providence, RI

Cody Hooven Sustainability Director City of San Diego San Diego, CA

Erin Gill Director, Office of City of Knoxville Knoxville, TN Sustainability

Tracy Morgenstern Office of City of Seattle San Diego, CA Sustainability, Policy Advisor, Climate Protection Program Manager

Amanda Campbell, Environmental Planner Metropolitan DC COG Washington, CPM II, Managing Climate DC and Energy Program

Bradley Roback Coordinator City of Chicago Chicago, IL of Economic Planning Dept, Development Sustainable Development Division

Bart Crawford Executive Director Impact Loop

decision support tools for climate change planning 31 APPENDIX B: DECISION SUPPORT TOOL LIST

Application Name, Host/Contributor Website

ADAPT, ICLEI http://icleiusa.org/tools/adapt/

AgroClimate, USDA and Southeast Climate http://agroclimate.org/tools.php Consortium

Beach-fx, US Army Corp of Engineers http://hera.pmcl.com/beachfx/software.aspx

Biofuels Atlas, National Renewable Energy https://maps.nrel.gov/biofuels-atlas/ Laboratory

California Urban Footprint, Southern California http://sp.scag.ca.gov/Lists/Videos/ Association of Governments DispForm.aspx?ID=1

CanVis, NOAA Digital Coast http://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/canvis

Carbon Storage in Forests, EPA http://cfpub.epa.gov/roe/indicator.cfm?i=86#3

Climate Change Explorer Tool, White House http://toolkit.climate.gov/

Climate Wizard, The Nature Conservancy http://climatewizard.org/

ClimateSmart - NYC, TPL http://206.169.56.66/NYC_ClimateSmartCities/

Coastal Change Analysis Program, NOAA http://coast.noaa.gov/ccapatlas/

Coastal Change Hazards Portal, http://marine.usgs.gov/ U.S. Geological Survey coastalchangehazardsportal/

Coastal County Snapshots, NOAA, http://www.coast.noaa.gov/snapshots/ Digital Coast

Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper, NOAA http://www.coast.noaa.gov/ floodexposure/#/select

Coastal Resilience Mapping Portal, TNC http://maps.coastalresilience.org/network/

COLE, USFS http://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/tools/ cole-carbon-online-estimator

CropScape, National Agricultural http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/ Statistics Services

EcoSmart Landscapes, USFS and UC Davis http://www.ecosmartlandscapes.org/

EPA Facility Level Information on GHG Tool http://ghgdata.epa.gov/ (FLIGHT), EPA

32 decision support tools for climate change planning Application Name, Host/Contributor Website

Economic and Human Impact of Natural http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/koshland/ Hazards, HVRI, University of South Carolina index.html

Forests to Faucents, USFS http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/ viewer.html

Habitat Priority Planner, http://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/hpp NOAA Coastal Services Center

HAZUS, FEMA http://www.fema.gov/hazus

Healthy Connected Chattanooga, TPL http://tplgis.org/Healthy_Connected_ Chattanooga/

I-Heat Evaluation and Assessment Tool, http://www.biomedware.com/I-Heat/ BioMedware, Inc. and Univ. of Michigan IHeatViewer.html

Integrated Hazards Assessment Tool (IHAT), http://webra.cas.sc.edu/hvri/ihat/index.html# University of South Carolina

Interactive precipitation map, Natural http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ Resources Conservation Service webmap/index.html

InVEST, Natural Capital Project http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/invest/

i-Tree Canopy, US Forest Service http://www.itreetools.org/canopy/

Jamaica Bay Decision Support Tool, Science Pending and Resilience Institute of Jamaica Bay, RAND

Louisville Urban Tree Canopy Assessment, https://www.cartotronics.com/ City of Louisville UTC_Viewer_Louisville/

Milwaukee Green Infrastructure DST, http://maps.milwaukee.gov/ Metropolitan Sewerage District, Climate SilverlightViewer_1_7/Viewer.html Interactive

Minneapolis Resilience Map, http://cityoflakes.maps.arcgis.com/apps/ City of Minneapolis MapTour/index.html

MOTF Hurricane Sandy Impact Analysis, FEMA http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/ viewer.html

Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer, NOAA http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/

OPAL, Natural Capitol Project http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/ tools/#opal

decision support tools for climate change planning 33 APPENDIX B: DECISION SUPPORT TOOL LIST

Application Name, Host/Contributor Website

Resilient Communities, ESRI http://www.esri.com/industries/government/ resilient-communities

RIOS, Natural Capital Project http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/ tools/#opal

Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic https://www.snap.uaf.edu/sites/all/modules/ Planning, International Arctic Research Center snap_map_tool/maps.html

Sea Change Boston, Sasaki http://seachange.sasaki.com/map

Silicon Valley 2.0, Santa Clara County https://www.sccgov.org/sites/osp/ Pages/sv2.aspx

SLAMM - Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model, http://www.slammview.org/ US Fish and Wildlife Services

Surging Seas: Sea level rise analysis by Climate http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/ Central, Climate Central

Urban Adaptation Support Tool, European http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/ Commission, EU, Covenant of Mayors tools/map-viewer

Urban Climate Adaptation Tool (CAT), https://udi.ornl.gov/content/ Oak Ridge National Laboratory urban-climate-adaptation-tool-urban-cat

VegScape - Vegetation Condition Explorer, http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/VegScape/ USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Survey

Water Supply Stress Index Ecosystem Services http://www.forestthreats.org/research/ Model, USFS tools/WaSSI

34 decision support tools for climate change planning APPENDIX C: REPRESENTATIVE WEB-BASED DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS

Coastal Resilience Mapping Portal • Custom models, analyses and unique data HOST: The Nature Conservancy can be uploaded and integrated into the site, such as results from decision support WEBSITE: http://maps.coastalresilience.org/ software tools like InVEST and HAZUS, network/ described below. • Ability to run a variety of scenarios; LOGIN: No • Ability to download data and results SUPPORTS: Informing and Engaging, Scenario • Access to background information and Planning, Decision Analysis related research • Community interaction tools DATA: National, Regional and Local

LIMITATIONS: DESCRIPTION: The Coastal Resilience Mapping Portal appears to be the most robust national • The tool appears to be most effective where online decision support tool for climate regional partners are engaged in uploading resilience planning. In select coastal regions, and building out the site for their region. such as New York/New Jersey, the Gulf Coast • The local decision-makers and staff who and the Puget Sound, the site has been built would be most interested in using the site out with extensive data and analyses from don’t have the technical training to engage regional partners. In these geographies, it with it effectively. offers a robust, accessible tool for climate • Some of the data required for resilience change planning. It allows cities and regions planning is highly sensitive, as it highlights to customize climate resilience planning. key infrastructure vulnerabilities; therefore, cities don’t want to upload it onto a FUNCTIONALITY: The Climate Resilience public site. Mapping Portal demonstrates the capa- • The high resolution parcel level data that bilities of a unified, national spatial decision cities need to identify site-specific strate- support tool. gies isn’t available on the site and cities • Includes local, regional and/or national data might be reluctant to upload that data into on sea level rise, flooding, storm surge and a public portal. stormwater, habitat and wildlife resources, • The portal may be more suited for national forestry, buildings and community assets and regional nonprofits and planning orga- and economic data; nizations than individual cities. • Data can be viewed and overlapped in a variety of ways;

decision support tools for climate change planning 35 Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: NOAA • Allows users to select a location and WEBSITE: http://www.coast.noaa.gov/ explore maps that show people, places, and floodexposure natural resources exposed to coastal flood hazards LOGIN: No • Creates a collection of maps to download or share online to communicate flood SUPPORTS: Informing and Engaging exposure DATA: National • Provides guidance for using the maps to engage community members and stake- DESCRIPTION: This tool supports users holders in conversations about potential undertaking a community-based approach coastal flood impacts to assessing coastal hazard risks and vulnerabilities by providing maps that show people, Offers access to map services and tips on using places, and natural resources exposed to them in an online mapping platform coastal flooding. LIMITATIONS: This tool allows for relatively easy access to maps that show different types of flooding hazards overlaid with spatial data showing vulnerable populations, infrastructure and open space; however, it doesn’t allow users to look at all of them at one time. Also, the data is national, so not at the resolution most communities need for decision making. This tool is better for education and engagement, but real planning would require higher resolution data and greater analysis.

36 decision support tools for climate change planning Coastal Change Hazards Portal FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: U.S. Geological Survey • Portal enables exploration of coastal hazard WEBSITE: http://marine.usgs.gov/ risks at varied scales, from a local area of coastalchangehazardsportal/ interest to a national perspective. • A range of information is provided through LOGIN: No the portal, such as historical data, existing publications, satellite imagery, maps, SUPPORTS: Informing and Engaging and more. DATA: Regional, National • The portal will enable users to view USGS science in conjunction with their own DESCRIPTION: The Coastal Change Hazards personalized data to answer specific ques- Portal allows anyone to interactively “see” tions. past, present and future hazards. It provides interactive, mobile access to coastal change LIMITATIONS: This tool focuses on coastal science and data for the nation’s coasts. This hazards and shoreline change. It offers easy information can support emergency prepared- access to a variety of low-resolution data and ness, ecosystem restoration, and where and analyses for shoreline change and hazards. how to develop coastal areas. The tool doesn’t allow for flexible analysis, queries or multiple overlays.

decision support tools for climate change planning 37 The Climate Wizard Urban Adaptation Support Tool HOST: The Nature Conservancy HOST: European Commission—Climate Adapt

WEBSITE: http://climatewizard.org/ WEBSITE: http://climate-adapt.eea.europa.eu/ tools/map-viewer LOGIN: No LOGIN: No SUPPORTS: Scenario planning SUPPORTS: Scenario planning DATA: National DATA: European Local, Regional, and National DESCRIPTION: The Climate Wizard provides access to leading climate change information DESCRIPTION: The aim of the Adaptation and the ability to visualize impacts that may Support Tool provided is to assist users occur anywhere on Earth. involved in development of climate change adaptation policies by practitioners in cities FUNCTIONALITY: and towns. • Pre-calculated map products allow the user to toggle between various climate conditions relating to different greenhouse gas emission scenarios for two future time periods. • Examine the statistical variations of 16 different general circulation models used to generate these future climate projections using any combination of general circulation model and emission scenarios. • View and analyze historical data and future climate projections for rainfall, temperature, and moisture conditions • Perform unique custom climate analyses, with the ability to draw or upload analysis boundaries • Receive analysis results, downloadable maps, tables, and graphs via Web link

38 decision support tools for climate change planning FUNCTIONALITY: Digital Coast Sea Level Rise Viewer HOST: NOAA • The Search and Discover function allows for integrated searches through the WEBSITE: http://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ contents (like datasets, documents, tools, guidance) of the Climate-ADAPT quality LOGIN: No controlled database. SUPPORTS: Scenario planning • The Case Study Search Tool provides geographical access to case studies. DATA: National • The section on ‘Uncertainty guidance’ provides guidance on handling uncertainty DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this sea level in the process of planning adaptation rise viewer is to provide coastal managers and strategies. scientists with a preliminary look at sea level • The Climate-ADAPT Map Viewer provides rise and coastal flooding impacts. The viewer observations and projections of climate is a screening-level tool that uses nationally change impacts, vulnerability and risks consistent data sets and analyses. Data and from the following projects and organisa- maps provided can be used at several scales tions: ClimWatAdapt, ESPON Climate, to help gauge trends and prioritize actions for JRC-IES and ENSEMBLES. different scenarios.

FUNCTIONALITY: LIMITATIONS: This tool is designed for Euro- pean cities, but ICLEI is championing it as a • Use the tabs at the top of the legend to model for U.S. Cities. explore visualizations of sea level rise. • The slider bar in each tab can be used to examine the impacts of sea level rise scenarios. • The overview text directly below the legend describes individual impacts. Additional documents and links provide further detail.

LIMITATIONS: The sea level rise viewer is fairly limited in use and only allows you to look at one layer at a time, along with sea level rise data, including confidence, vulnerability, flood frequency and marsh. It has a slider that allows you to look at the impact of increasing sea levels.

decision support tools for climate change planning 39 Surging Seas FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: Climate Central • An interactive searchable data toolkit that WEBSITE: http://sealevel.climatecentral.org/ shows populations, infrastructure, and assets exposed to coastal flooding aggra- LOGIN: No vated by sea level rise. • The Risk Finder incorporates the latest, SUPPORTS: Informing and Engaging, high-resolution, high-accuracy lidar eleva- Scenario Planning tion data supplied by NOAA and assesses DATA: Local, Regional, National exposure of over 100 infrastructure and other elements in order to allow users to DESCRIPTION: Search or navigate our inter- explore vulnerability from state down to active map tool to see maps of areas below zip code levels. different amounts of sea level rise and • It provides the ability to compare risk flooding, down to neighborhood scale, across areas, as well as the ability to matched with area timelines of risk. The tool analyze the likelihood of coastal flood and also provides statistics of population, homes sea level threats occurring in the future and land affected by city, county and state, by decade. plus links to factsheets, data downloads, action plans, embeddable widgets, and more. LIMITATIONS: Good for making the case from a large scale, but doesn’t go to a high enough resolution for most communities to make informed decisions. More macro level, making the case for one community over another, but not high enough resolution for local investment or adaptation decisions.

40 decision support tools for climate change planning APPENDIX D: REPRESENTATIVE DECISION SUPPORT TOOL SOFTWARE

EcoSmart Landscapes FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: USDA Forest Service and UC Davis • This suite of tools provides quantitative WEBSITE: http://www.ecosmartlandscapes.org/ data on carbon dioxide sequestration and building heating/cooling energy savings LOGIN: Yes afforded by individual trees. • Results can be used to estimate the green- SUPPORTS: Decision Analysis, house gas benefits of existing trees, to Scenario Planning forecast future benefits, and to facilitate DATA: Local Data and National Data based on planning and management of carbon 20 years research on tree growth dynamics offset projects. and urban forestry by scientists at the USFS, • Allows uploading or tracing proposed UC Davis and Pacific Southwest Research project boundaries and receiving a “profile Station. report” specific to that property that calcu- lates the water conservation, stormwater DESCRIPTION: (USFS and UC Davis) is a decision reduction, energy savings, fire risk reduc- support tool designed to help members of the tion and carbon sequestration benefits of a public, cities and other organizations esti- specific project or landscape. mate the carbon and energy impacts of trees. • Carbon calculations are based on meth- EcoSmart Landscapes Public is intended for odology approved by the Climate Action residential property owners, while EcoSmart Reserve’s Urban Forest Project Protocol. Landscapes Enterprise is for planning and management of carbon offset projects by organizations such as utilities, campuses, and municipalities.

decision support tools for climate change planning 41 i-Tree FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: USDA Forest Service • i-Tree Eco is designed to use field data from WEBSITE: http://www.ecosmartlandscapes.org/ complete inventories or randomly located plots throughout a community along with LOGIN: Yes local hourly air pollution and meteorological data to quantify urban forest structure, SUPPORTS: Decision Analysis, environmental effects, and values. Scenario Planning • i-Tree Streets focuses on the benefits DATA: Local Data and National Data based on provided by a municipality’s street trees. It 20 years research on tree growth dynamics makes use of a sample or complete inven- and urban forestry by scientists at the USFS, tory to quantify and put a dollar value on UC Davis and Pacific Southwest Research the street trees’ annual environmental and Station aesthetic benefits. • i-Tree Hydro (beta) is an application DESCRIPTION: i-Tree is a software suite from designed to simulate the effects of changes the USDA Forest Service that provides urban in tree and impervious cover characteristics and community forestry analysis and benefits within a watershed on stream flow and assessment tools. The i-Tree tools help commu- water quality. nities of all sizes to strengthen their urban • i-Tree Vue allows you to make use of the forest management and advocacy efforts NLCD satellite-based imagery to assess your by quantifying the environmental services community’s land cover, including tree that trees provide and the structure of the canopy, and some of the ecosystem services urban forest. provided by your current urban forest. • i-Tree Design provides a platform for assessments of trees at the parcel level. • i-Tree Canopy produces a statistically valid estimate of land cover types (e.g., tree cover) using aerial images available in Google Maps and estimates values for air pollution reduction and capturing atmospheric carbon.

42 decision support tools for climate change planning InVEST FUNCTIONALITY: HOST: Natural Capital Project • The toolset currently includes eighteen WEBSITE: http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/ distinct ecosystem service models designed invest/ for terrestrial, freshwater, marine, and coastal ecosystems, as well as a number LOGIN: Yes of “helper tools” to assist with locating and processing input data and with under- SUPPORTS: Scenario Planning and standing and visualizing outputs. Decision Analysis • InVEST models are spatially-explicit, using DATA: Local, Regional, National, with custom maps as information sources and producing models driving the ecosystem service and cost maps as outputs. The spatial resolution of benefit analyses. analyses is also flexible, allowing users to address questions at the local, regional or DESCRIPTION: InVest is a suite of free, open- global scales. source software models used to map and • RIOS, which is part of the InVEST toolkit, value ecosystem services. This suite of tools is supports the design of cost-effective invest- designed for governments, non-profits, inter- ments in watershed services. It combines national lending institutions, and corporations biophysical, social, and economic data to to evaluate the tradeoffs between various help users identify the best locations for natural resource management strategies. protection and restoration activities to The multi-service, modular design of InVEST maximize the ecological return on invest- provides an effective tool for measuring ment, within the bounds of what is socially and balancing environmental and economic and politically feasible. objectives. InVEST returns results in either biophysical terms (e.g., tons of carbon seques- LIMITATIONS: Designed for use by technical tered) or economic terms (e.g., net present staff with consulting support. In select value of that sequestered carbon). InVEST regions, TNC has incorporated the results of enables decision makers to assess quantified InVEST analyses into their Climate Resilience tradeoffs associated with alternative manage- Mapping Portal. ment choices and to identify areas where investment in natural capital can enhance human development and conservation.

decision support tools for climate change planning 43 HAZUS LIMITATIONS: Relies on national data. Would be HOST: FEMA good as one component of a broader resilience analysis. TNC incorporates the results of WEBSITE: http://www.fema.gov/hazus HAZUS in its Coastal Resilience Portal. LOGIN: Yes Water Supply Stress Index

SUPPORTS: Decision Analysis, Ecosystem Services Model Scenario Planning HOST: USFS

WEBSITE: DATA: National http://www.forestthreats.org/ research/tools/WaSSI DESCRIPTION: HAZUS is a nationally applicable standardized methodology that contains LOGIN: Yes models for estimating potential losses from SUPPORTS: Scenario Planning, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. HAZUS Decision Support uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to estimate physical, economic DATA: National and social impacts of disasters. It graphically DESCRIPTION: WaSSI is an integrated, process- illustrates the limits of identified high-risk based model that can be used to project the locations due to earthquake, hurricane and effects of forest land cover change, climate floods. Users can then visualize the spatial change, and water withdrawals on river flows, relationships between populations and water supply stress, and ecosystem produc- other more permanently fixed geographic tivity (i.e. carbon dynamics). WaSSI operates assets or resources for the specific hazard on a monthly time step at the HUC-4 (8-digit being modeled. Hazus is used for mitigation HUC) watershed scale (see more on HUCs) and recovery, as well as preparedness and and across Mexico at the 0.5 degree scale. response. Government planners, GIS special- For the conterminous U.S., the model can ists and emergency managers use Hazus to also be run at the HUC12 scale for water and determine losses and the most beneficial carbon balances from 1960 to 2012. As water mitigation approaches to take to minimize yield and carbon sequestration are tightly them. Hazus can be used in the assessment coupled, WaSSI can be used to evaluate trade- step in the mitigation planning process, which offs among management strategies for these is the foundation for a community’s long-term ecosystem services. strategy to reduce disaster losses and break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction and repeated damage.

44 decision support tools for climate change planning FUNCTIONALITY: CanVis HOST: NOAA • The web application for WaSSI allows users to define a custom simulation scenario, WEBSITE: http://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/ view/download model inputs and outputs tools/canvis in tabular and graphical form for a location of interest, and view/export model outputs LOGIN: No spatially for a variety of time scales using SUPPORTS: Informing and Engaging an interactive map viewer. Users may select their location in the map viewer, select a DATA: National specific HUC, or input a zip code to view model inputs and outputs. DESCRIPTION: The CanVis tool offers coastal • WaSSI users can select and adjust tempera- managers the opportunity to visualize future ture, precipitation, land cover, and water changes related to sea level rise, storm surges, use factors to simulate an unlimited and flooding. The free visualization software, number of global change scenarios for user- developed through a collaboration between determined timeframes through 2100. the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NOAA, • Simulation results are available as down- is easy to use and is compatible with most loadable maps, graphs, and data files that computers. City planners, business owners, users can apply to their unique information and land managers can use CanVis to visualize and project needs. possible future changes to ecosystems and the built environment, and to evaluate the visual

LIMITATIONS: Focused on water supply. Could impact of options for protecting homes, busi- be an important input to a more comprehen- nesses, and recreational spaces. City planners sive resilience model where water supply is have used these features to show possible an issue. impacts of rising sea level or storm surge on waterfront communities.

decision support tools for climate change planning 45 FUNCTIONALITY:

• By importing photographs from a place in their community, users are able to view the potential impacts of rising sea levels in that specific area. • In order to paint a vivid picture of the potential change, users can add elements such as docks, houses, and marshlands from CanVis’s extensive object library.

LIMITATIONS: This tool does not integrate directly with other planning tools, but users could explore ways to incorporate these visuals as enhancements to a planning process, particularly during public engagement.

46 decision support tools for climate change planning APPENDIX E: REPRESENTATIVE CUSTOM DECISION SUPPORT TOOLS

Milwaukee: The Green Infrastruc- DESCRIPTION: The GIST focuses on the Kinn- ture Scenarios Tool (GIST) ickinnic River watershed, a 26 square mile HOST: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage section of greater Milwaukee that has expe- District/Climate Interactive rienced flooding, basement backups and combined sewer overflows. This watershed is WEBSITE: N/A one of the most densely populated and highly paved parts of the city. The Kinnickinnic River LOGIN: N/A Watershed—26 square miles, densely popu- SUPPORTS: Cities determining green lated, high percentage impervious surface. infrastructure plans and projects The simulation itself is a system dynamics DATA: See March 2015 Climate Interactive simulation that tracks the stocks of green and Report, GIST—The Green infrastructure Model grey infrastructure based on a user’s decisions for the Kinnickinnic Watershed. about allocation of investment. The user can also set different rainfall regimes and modify CASE STUDY: https://www.climateinteractive. the assumptions about the effectiveness of org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GIST- different types of green infrastructure at Documentation-V12-Compressed.pdf capturing and retaining water.

FUNCTIONALITY: The model is an ordinary differential equation system, solved by Euler integration that, tracks the stocks of green and grey infrastructure based on a user’s decisions about allocation of investment. The user can also set different rainfall regimes and modify the assumptions about the effectiveness of different types of green infrastructure at capturing and retaining water. A range of benefits beyond stormwater management are tracked and reported, including water quality improvements, jobs, air quality improvements and energy savings.

decision support tools for climate change planning 47 The decision support tool performs the Silicon Valley 2.0: following: A regional effort to minimize • runs very quickly, simulating 10 to 20 years the impacts of climate change in less than 60 seconds; HOST: Santa Clara County, CA

• aims to provide a full picture, with WEBSITE: Request account for beta testing. economic, social, environmental and performance outputs; BACKGROUND: https://www.sccgov.org/ • allows for creation of different investment sites/osp/SV2/Documents/ scenarios—for 8 different classes of green SV%202.0%20One-Sheet.pdf infrastructure, as well as additional invest- SUPPORTS: Santa Clara County ment in grey infrastructure;

• supports exploration of different possible DATA: Local future rainfall patterns, to see how different investments might play out under DESCRIPTION: The Silicon Valley 2.0 Project different future climate conditions; and was developed by the County of Santa Clara • allows users to vary key assumptions, such Office of Sustainability in order to respond to as costs or performance of different types a gap in regional climate adaptation planning, of green infrastructure. and the need for an implementation play- book rather than, simply, a plan. In addition, LIMITATIONS: Tool does not executive story- authors of the project focused on the question telling or project profiling. They are working of what tool would best serve decision-makers on simpler graphics interface. and those who influence and consult them where significant commitments and long-term strategies are needed.

48 decision support tools for climate change planning Within these guidelines, Silicon Valley 2.0 Urban Climate assumed a risk management approach to: Adaptation Tool (CAT) HOST: Oak Ridge National Laboratory • identify the region’s future climate

vulnerabilities WEBSITE: N/A—under development • catalogue regional built and natural infra- structures (assets) SUPPORTS: City of Knoxville, • map climate impacts and sensitivities Stormwater permitting challenges • develop a comprehensive gaps analysis that DATA: “Using a common spatial grid, we would leverage existing or parallel efforts, meshed downscaled and bias-corrected climate and expose those strategies and measures data for both historical (1960–2005) and future that would respond to voids in climate (2010–2050) periods with land use/land cover preparedness information, topography demographics, sewer • create a decision-support tool that would pipe layouts, social media accounts of local map assets within impact zones, measure flooding events, among other sources, to their sensitivity, and calculate the value of effectively characterize the complex Knoxville the risk of loss of those assets urban landscape and its water infrastructure. This integration helps to identify areas vulnerable to flooding and discriminate system exposure, sensitivity, and stress, among other risk factors.

In order to integrate approximations of both adaptive capacity and the adaptive process into the tool, a set of indicators were developed and used to quantify each spatial grid. We defined urban resilience as a measure of eight components (Ross, 2013)—climate, social, community, capital, economic, institu- tional, infrastructure, and ecological—using multiple indicators from different sources including land cover/land use, imperviousness, slope, demographics, projected extreme precipitation, projected extreme temperature, and floodplain areas.

decision support tools for climate change planning 49 These indicators are then aggregated to Climate-Smart CitiesTM create a score for each grid cell. The scores Decision Support Tool (TPL) are in turn used to rank the spatial cells and HOST: Trust for Public Land the overlapping urban areas. The ranking was subsequently used to develop resilience The tool is currently available in two cities and profiles for each spatial cell. The developed is under development in several others. indicators and resilience profiles are jointly used to develop risk-based approaches for Healthy Connected Chattanooga The project is a collaborative effort of The stormwater and floodplain management Trust for Public Land, the City of Chattanooga respectively.” Departments of Public Works, Transportation, DESCRIPTION: Urban-CAT will be developed and Economic and Community Development, as a scenario planning tool that is locally and The Benwood Foundation. relevant to existing urban decision-making WEBSITE: http://tplgis.org/Healthy_Connected_ processes. While cities may already have Chattanooga/ (password protected) sophisticated tools to evaluate current site- specific scenarios, they lack: (i) tools that scale SUPPORTS: Chattanooga site-specific conditions to neighborhood and citywide scales; and (ii) credible climate data DATA: http://tplgis.org/Healthy_Connected_ projections and population growth data to Chattanooga/Downloads/Overlay_Metadata.pdf project future changes to urban landscape.

FUNCTIONALITY: The capabilities of the tool will include an advanced visualization platform to support decision making, access to future climate scenarios and environmental modeling results tailored for urban planning, connectivity to multitude of data sources that promote assessment and comparison of local project scenarios under different climate conditions, and better insights into local effect of climate change through scenarios management capability for testing and comparing planning alternatives.

LIMITATIONS: No demographic considerations yet; no cost-benefit analysis.

50 decision support tools for climate change planning Green Infrastructure for Coastal • protect: Create integrated networks Resilience in Staten Island and of strategically-sited waterfront parks Jamaica Bay and living shorelines, such as wetlands, WEBSITE: http://tplgis.org/NYC_ClimateSmart to protect cities from sea level rise and Cities/ (password protected) storm surge, river-borne flooding, and other related inundation threats at the SUPPORTS: New York City urban edge.

DATA: http://tplgis.org/NYC_ClimateSmart While each of TPL’s objectives for Climate- Cities/Downloads/Overlay_Metadata.pdf Smart Cities is robust in isolation, they are

DESCRIPTION: The DST focuses on helping focused on helping municipal governments TPL’s partners prioritize green infrastructure work strategically to develop green infrastruc- investment oriented around four climate ture networks that “stack” these four benefits change objectives: at the project, neighborhood, and city levels while prioritizing investment to vulnerable • connect: “Hyper-connect” walk-bike populations. corridors and public transit at the city and regional scales to maximize potential mode FUNCTIONALITY: The tool integrates diverse shift toward carbon-free and resilient trans- data and modeling to prioritize areas based portation options. on “Connect, Cool, Absorb, Protect” and • cool: Utilize specially designed urban vulnerable communities in each partner city. greenspaces, high albedo surfaces, and Users can create customized queries to iden- strategically-sited shade trees to lessen tify opportunities for multiple benefit green the energy use and human health impacts infrastructure at the parcel level. This parcel- resulting from the urban heat island effect. level analysis includes “one click” maps and • absorb: Deploy wetlands, “water smart” parcel reports and the ability to identify all parks and playgrounds, green alleys, and parcels within a city meeting user-generated other permeable surfaces to recharge local criteria. Users can also take advantage of aquifers, curb stormwater runoff pollution, the tool’s responsive design to access it on a address inundation threats in the urban range of devices from desktop computers to core, and reduce energy used for water smart phones. management.

decision support tools for climate change planning 51 TPL Urban Heat Risk Explorer California Urban Footprint HOST: Trust for Public Land HOST: Southern California Association of Governments WEBSITE: http://tplgis.org/UrbanHeatRiskApp/ WEBSITE: A portal is not available publicly, but DATA: Utilizes data from the NASA MODIS there are some webinars online and a tech- satellite as well as local or national data on nical summary. impervious cover, tree canopy, and cooling centers. WEBINAR: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=cvL8uTgmXGQ DESCRIPTION: This map highlights Urban Heat Island Hotspots, with elevated daytime land SUMMARY: http://www.scag.ca.gov/Documents/ surface temperatures averaging at least 1.25 UrbanFootprintTechnicalSummary.pdf, degrees Fahrenheit above the mean daily http://www.scag.ca.gov/committees/commit- temperature during July and August of 2013; teedoclibrary/mtf092612_urbanfootprint.pdf impervious surfaces; nighttime heat island hotspots with elevated nighttime land surface DATA: Fully loaded with all major California temperatures averaging at least 1.25 degrees MPO base data Fahrenheit above the mean daily temperature Model Includes: during July and August of 2013; tree canopy; city cooling centers. • Automated base data loading • 35+ Place type library • 90+ Building type library • Scenario translation engine • Thin-Client GUI • Web-based scenario painter • 8d sketch travel engine • Full co-benefits analysis • Modular, expandable

52 decision support tools for climate change planning DESCRIPTION: The Urban Footprint model is a land use planning, modeling, and data organization framework designed to facilitate more informed planning by practitioners, public agencies, and other stakeholders. Built on fully open-source software platforms and tools, Urban Footprint requires no proprietary software of any kind. Its development is led by Calthorpe Associates, based in Berkeley, California.

Urban Footprint comprises a suite of tools and analytical engines that vastly decrease the time and resources required to get up and running with scenario development, while significantly increasing the technical capacity of state, regional, and local users to analyze the fiscal, environmental, transportation, and public health impacts of plans and policies. Moreover, it provides a common data framework within which planning efforts at various scales can be integrated and synced.

FUNCTIONALITY: Scenario-based planning with Urban Footprint involves four stages: data organization, the translation of existing plans, scenario development, and scenario analysis.

decision support tools for climate change planning 53 APPENDIX F: CITIES USING GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS A PRIMARY STORMWATER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY1

DC Water—The DC Water Clean Rivers the South Platte River, while at the same time Project is DC Water’s ongoing 20-year, $2.6 decreasing flood risks for waterfront property. billion program that was designed to reduce combined sewer overflows into Washington Milwaukee, Wisconsin—The Green D.C.’s waterways (the Anacostia and Potomac Milwaukee program will help the city manage Rivers and Rock Creek). The project, which stormwater while providing added benefits began in 2005, aims to capture and clean of energy conservation, recycling, and urban stormwater during heavy rainfalls before it renewal. The city has constructed two major reaches the rivers. bioretention facilities that remove contami- nants from stormwater before the flows are Kansas City, Missouri—Under its Overflow discharged into the Menomonee River and has Control Plan, the city will implement green funded projects aimed at reducing the flow infrastructure projects to control wet weather of stormwater into the sewer system. This flows. Green solutions include: catch basin work has been featured in several case studies, retrofits in road and street rights-of-way, curb including by the Water Environment Research extension swales, street trees, permeable pave- Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense ment, green roofs, and stormwater planters. Council (NRDC).

Philadelphia—Green City, Clean Waters is Cincinnati, Ohio—The Metropolitan Sewer a partnership between Philadelphia and EPA District (MSD) of Greater Cincinnati’s Project that involves a $2 billion investment in green Groundworkis a two-phase initiative involving infrastructure to better manage Philadelphia’s the rebuilding and improving of the city’s stormwater. The 25-year agreement could be sewer system. Green infrastructure projects a national model for other cities interested in such as retention basins and pervious pave- implementing green infrastructure. ment are being used to controlcombined sewer overflows. Phase 1 involves completion Denver—In 2010, EPA selected Denver to of 45 construction projects in and around the become a partner for its Sustainable Commu- city by 2018; Phase 2 (after 2018) comprises nities Project. In 2011, the city and other 256 construction projects across Hamilton Denver groups were also selected as EPA green County. The entire plan is estimated to cost infrastructure partners. By using green infra- $3.5 billion. structure, the city and its partners hope to improve the water quality of Cherry Creek and 1 http://blog.nacwa.org/green-infrastructure-have-we-reached- a-tipping-point/

54 decision support tools for climate change planning Northeast Ohio Regional Sewerage all development projects greater than 500 District—Under Project Clean Lake, the square feet be designed to capture, reuse, or District will invest $42 million in green infra- infiltrate stormwater runoff. Los Angeles’s structure to address stormwater and combined Green Alleys Initiative program will add sewer overflow issues. The District aims to permeable pavement, bioswales, and drought- convert thousands of acres of parking lots, tolerant vegetation to urban alleys. These roadways, and abandoned buildings to green projects will improve water quality, reduce spaces and ponds. One project that is nearing flooding, and reduce water demand while completion consists of an $11-million complex creating recreational opportunities and more. that uses bioretention ponds, sand beds, and a 1,800-gallon cistern to capture stormwater Chicago, Illinois—Chicago has several green before it enters the combined sewer system. infrastructure programs. Since 2005, its Green Roof Program has provided residential and Portland, Oregon—Portland’s Grey to commercial grants for green roof construc- Green initiative will manage stormwater tion; the city now has more than 1 million runoff and improve water quality (as well as square feet of green roofs. The city began its air quality and community livability) by using Green Alley Program in 2006 and has since green infrastructure. Since its start in 2008, installed permeable pavements in over 100 the 5-year, $55-million program has added 6.5 alleys. The city’s Urban Forest Agenda provides acres of eco-roofs and 546 green street facili- maintenance and planting of street trees, with ties throughout the city. a goal of 20% tree canopy coverage citywide by 2020. Both NRDC and the Sierra Club have —In September 2010, New New York City summarized the project as well. York City introduced its NYC Green Infrastruc- ture Plan, which uses green infrastructure Onandoga, New York—The “Save the Rain” practices to improve water quality. One program, launched in 2009, is a comprehen- approach is the use of right-of-way bioswales sive stormwater management plan using (small patches of plants, trees, and rocks that green infrastructure to reduce pollution to help prevent flooding by absorbing rainwater), Onandoga Lake and other waterways. The which have been installed at Dean Street and program’s “Project 50” campaign began with Fourth Avenue. The city plans to invest more 50 green infrastructure projects to manage than $190 million in the program over the stormwater in 2011 alone. The program also next 20 years. includes a grant incentive program that provides financial incentives for the instal- —In September Los Angeles, California lation of green infrastructure on private 2011, Los Angeles passed the Low Impact property. Development Ordinance, which requires that

decision support tools for climate change planning 55 Pima/Tucson, Arizona—Plan Tucson, to be voted on in November 2013, will replace Tucson’s 2001 General Plan to further green infrastructure efforts. One of Plan Tucson’s primary goals is to reduce the amount of impervious surface and control urban runoff to improve water quality. The Urban Land- scape Framework, finalized in 2008, is a recent initiative that addresses this issue. Both Tucson and Pima are working together to implement green infrastructure strategies in their respective counties.

Seattle, Washington—Seattle’s Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) initiative includes several programs and projects to protect the city’s waterways including: Rain- Wise program—designed to educate the public on various Green Stormwater solutions for their private property; Restore Our Waters program—implementing projects such as rain gardens, green roofs, and habitat restoration; and several tree-planting programs to reduce run-off.

56 decision support tools for climate change planning APPENDIX G: DATA INVENTORY

United States Average Annual CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Water and Precipitation, 1961–1989 Climate Center VALUES: Absorb DOWNLOAD: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/

HOST/PUBLISHER: National Atlas normals/30year_normals_landing.htm of the United States SUMMARY: State specific data for 30 year

CONTACT: Chris Daly, 541-737-2531, precipitation, snow, streamflow normals from [email protected] 1981 to 2010.

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Natural Resources SSURGO Soils Conservation Service and Oregon State VALUES: Absorb University HOST/PUBLISHER: United States DOWNLOAD: http://nationalatlas.gov/atlasftp. Department of Agriculture html#prism0p CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USDA National SUMMARY: Average annual precipitation for Resources Conservation Service the coterminous United States from 1961 DOWNLOAD: http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda. through 1990. Parameter-elevation Regres- gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx sions on Independent Slpes Model (PRISM) derived raster data is the underlying data SUMMARY: From NRCS: The SSURGO database set. PRISM is an analytical model that uses contains information about soil as collected point data and a DEM to generate estimates by the National Cooperative Soil Survey over of annual, monthly and event-based climatic the course of a century. The information can parameters. Scale of 1:1,000,000 be displayed in tables or as maps and is available for most areas in the United States and 30 year Climatic and the Territories, Commonwealths, and Island Hydrologic Normals Nations served by the USDA-NRCS. The infor- VALUES: Absorb mation was gathered by walking over the land

HOST/PUBLISHER: Natural Resources and observing the soil. Many soil samples were Conservation Service analyzed in laboratories. The information was collected at scales ranging from 1:12,000 CONTACT: Contacts are different for each state to 1:63,360. More details were gathered at a and for river basins scale of 1:12,000 than at a scale of 1:63,360.

decision support tools for climate change planning 57 The mapping is intended for natural resource Tree Canopy planning and management by landowners, VALUES: Absorb, Cool townships, and counties. Some knowledge of soils data and map scale is necessary to avoid HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey misunderstandings. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USGS Multi-Resolu- Land Cover tion Land Characteristics Consortium VALUES: Absorb, Cool DOWNLOAD: http://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd11_

HOST/PUBLISHER: United States data.php Geological Survey SUMMARY: “National Land Cover Database

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USGS Multi-Resolu- 2011 (NLCD 2011) is the most recent national tion Land Characteristics Consortium land cover product created by the Multi- Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) DOWNLOAD: http://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd11_ Consortium. NLCD 2011 provides—for the first data.php time—the capability to assess wall-to-wall, spatially explicit, national land cover changes SUMMARY: “National Land Cover Database and trends across the United States from 2001 2011 (NLCD 2011) is the most recent national to 2011. As with two previous NLCD land cover land cover product created by the Multi- products NLCD 2011 keeps the same 16-class Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) land cover classification scheme that has been Consortium. NLCD 2011 provides—for the first applied consistently across the United States at time—the capability to assess wall-to-wall, a spatial resolution of 30 meters. spatially explicit, national land cover changes and trends across the United States from 2001 This dataset includes the 2011 percent to 2011. As with two previous NLCD land cover developed imperviousness layer for the conter- products NLCD 2011 keeps the same 16-class minous United States for all pixels.” land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across the United States at Impervious Surface a spatial resolution of 30 meters. VALUES: Absorb, Cool

The 2011 land cover layer for the contermi- HOST/PUBLISHER: United States nous United States for all pixels.” Geological Survey

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USGS Multi-Resolu- tion Land Characteristics Consortium

58 decision support tools for climate change planning DOWNLOAD: http://www.mrlc.gov/ western U.S. (roughly the western U.S. Figure nlcd11_data.php 3) corresponding to the monthly BCSD climate projections. Archive content is based on global SUMMARY: “National Land Cover Database climate projections from the World Climate 2011 (NLCD 2011) is the most recent national Research Programme’s (WCRP’s) Coupled land cover product created by the Multi- Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) (CMIP3) multi-model dataset referenced in the Consortium. NLCD 2011 provides—for the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change time—the capability to assess wall-to-wall, Fourth Assessment Report, and the phase 5 spatially explicit, national land cover changes (CMIP5) multi-model dataset that informed and trends across the United States from 2001 much of the IPCC Fifth Assessment. The down- to 2011. As with two previous NLCD land cover scaled data archive also includes GCM results products NLCD 2011 keeps the same 16-class that have been interpolated to a common, 1 land cover classification scheme that has been deg. (latitiude) by 1 deg. (longitude) horizontal applied consistently across the United States at grid (but not downscaled), as well as GCM a spatial resolution of 30 meters. results that have been interpolated to the This dataset includes the 2011 percent tree 1x1 degree grid and “bias corrected,” but not canopy cover layer for the conterminous downscaled. United States for all pixels. NASA NEX DCP30 National Downscaled CMIP3 and CMIP5 Climate Change Viewer (NCCV) Climate and Hydrology Projections VALUES: Climate VALUES: Climate HOST/PUBLISHER: Climate.gov

HOST/PUBLISHER: Climate.gov CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA/USGS

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Multiple Fed/ DOWNLOAD: http://www.usgs.gov/climate_ Univ/NGO landuse/clu_rd/apps/nccv_viewer.asp

DOWNLOAD: http://gdo-dcp.ucllnl.org/ SUMMARY: To derive higher resolution data for downscaled_cmip_projections/ regional climate change assessments, NASA

SUMMARY: This archive contains fine spatial applied a statistical technique to downscale resolution translations of climate projec- maximum and minimum air temperature and tions over the contiguous United States (U.S.) precipitation from 33 of the CMIP5 climate developed using two downscaling techniques models to a very fine, 800-m grid over the (monthly BCSD Figure 1, and daily BCCA continental United States (CONUS). The full Figure 2), and hydrologic projections over the NEX-DCP30 dataset covers the historical period

decision support tools for climate change planning 59 (1950–2005) and 21st century (2006–2099) North American Regional Climate under four Representative Concentration Change Assessment Program Pathways (RCP) emission scenarios developed (NARCCAP) for AR5. The USGS National Climate Change VALUES: Climate Viewer (NCCV) includes the historical and future climate projections from 30 of the HOST/PUBLISHER: Climate.gov CMIP5 models, downscaled to an 800-m grid CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NSF, DOE, NOAA, over the continental United States under the EPA, Ouranos (Canada) NASA NEX-DCP30 project, for two of the RCP emission scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). USGS DOWNLOAD: https://www.narccap.ucar.edu/ has also used the downscaled temperature and precipitation data from these 30 CMIP5 SUMMARY: The North American Regional models as input to a simple water-balance Climate Change Assessment Program model to simulate changes in the surface (NARCCAP) is an international program to water balance (snow water equivalent, runoff, produce high resolution climate change simu- soil water storage and evaporative deficit) lations in order to investigate uncertainties over the historical and future time periods in regional scale projections of future climate on the 800-m CONUS grid. Combining the and generate climate change scenarios for use climate data with the water balance data in in impacts research. NARCCAP modelers have the NCCV provides further insights into the run six regional climate models (RCMs) driven potential for climate-driven change in water by four atmosphere-ocean general circulation resources. The NCCV shows averages of the models (AOGCMs) over a domain covering climate and water balance data over four the conterminous United States and most of climatology periods: 1950–2005, 2025–2049, Canada. The AOGCMs have been forced with 2050–2074, and 2075–2099. The viewer the SRES A2 emissions scenario for the 21st provides a number of useful tools for char- century, covering the period 2041–2070. Simu- acterizing climate change including maps, lations with these models were also produced climographs (plots of monthly averages), histo- for the historical period (1971–2000). grams that show the distribution or spread of the model simulations, monthly time Program for Climate Model series spanning 1950–2099, and tables that Diagnosis and Intercomparison summarize changes in the quantiles (median (PCMDI) CMIP5 Archive and extremes) of the variables. The applica- VALUES: Climate tion also provides access to comprehensive, HOST/PUBLISHER: Climate.gov summary reports in PDF format and CSV files of the temperature and precipitation data for CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: DOE each geographic area.

60 decision support tools for climate change planning DOWNLOAD: http://cmip-pcmdi.llnl.gov/cmip5/ DOWNLOAD: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/ data/set/ipcc-ar4-observed-climate-impacts/ SUMMARY: The Program for Climate Model data-download Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) was established to identify limitations in SUMMARY: The Intergovernmental Panel general circulation models (GCMs) that on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assesse- simulate the global climate through system- ment Report (AR4) Observed Climate Change atic comparison of results of these models to Impacts Database contains observed responses observations. PCMDI is currently providing to climate change across a wide range of leadership in managing the Coupled Model systems as well as regions. These data were Intercomparison Project, Phase 5 (CMIP5) of taken from the Intergovernmental Panel on the World Climate Research Program (WCRP). Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report This includes leading the Earth System Grid and Rosenzweig et al. (2008). It consists of Federation (ESGF) which stores and distrib- responses in the the physical, terrestrial utes the datasets from the CMIP5 climate biological systems and marine-ecosystems. model simulations. CMIP5 model output is The observations that were selected include being increasingly used in climate change data that demonstrate a statistically significant impacts and vulnerability assessment across trend in change in either direction in systems all regions of the United States and the world, related to temperature or other climate and a multitude of socioeconomic sectors and change variable, and the is for at least 20 ecological systems. In some cases, these assess- years between 1970 and 2004, although study ments are based directly on CMIP5 model periods may extend earlier or later. results; in other cases they are based on CMIP5 results that have had value added through Snow Cover/Sea Ice process such as spatia “downscaling.” VALUES: Climate IPCC Fourth Assessment Report HOST/PUBLISHER: MODIS Land Science Team

Observed Climate Change Impacts CONTACT: Dorothy Hall, Database [email protected] VALUES: Climate CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA’s Moderate HOST/PUBLISHER: Intergovernmental Panel on Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Climate Change (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s satellites.

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA Socioeconomic DOWNLOAD: http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Data and Applications Center snow.html

decision support tools for climate change planning 61 SUMMARY: MODIS snow cover data are based download data for global Community Climate on a snow mapping algorithm that employs a System Model (CCSM3) climate model output Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) and or downscaled continental US model output in other criteria tests. The MODIS snow product shapefile or text file format. suite is composed of products covering a range of spatial and temporal resolutions, from 500 Climate Data Online m to 0.05°, and from swath to daily, to 8-day VALUES: Climate to monthly. All products provide fractional HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA snow cover, and snow albedo is provided in the 500 m resolution products. The overall CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA, National absolute accuracy of the 500 m resolution Centers for Environmental Information and products is ~93%, varying by land cover and National Climatic Data Center snow condition. The snow products are used by climatologists, and by modelers both as DOWNLOAD: http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ input to hydrological models, e.g., to develop climate-data-online-cdo snow cover depletion curves, and to compare SUMMARY: Climate Data online or CDO with GCM output. provides access to climate data products Climate Change Datasets through a simple, searchable online web mapping service. Users can find a variety of VALUES: Climate NCDC products via CDO including the Global HOST/PUBLISHER: National Center for Historical Climatology Network-Daily and the Atmospheric Research (NCAR) new 1981–2010 Annual, Monthly and Daily 30-year Normals. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NSF Drought Portal DOWNLOAD: http://gis.ucar.edu/data/climate VALUES: Climate

SUMMARY: NCAR’s Community Climate HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, National Integrated System Model (CCSM3) was one of the global Drought Information System climate model included in the Fourth Assess- ment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA and the Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). NCAR’s GIS National Drought Mitigation Center program provides GIS-compatible user access to CCSM3 AR4 global (1.4 degree or ~155 km) DOWNLOAD: http://www.drought.gov/drought/ and downscaled (4.5 km) continental U.S. simulations. Follow the links to access data as shapefiles, textfiles, KML files, WMS, WCS or

62 decision support tools for climate change planning SUMMARY: The tool provides access to U.S. SNAP Arctic Climate Datasets drought data, forecasts, and information VALUES: Climate from across federal and state agencies, tribes, universities, and other partners. Data is HOST/PUBLISHER: Scenarios Network for Alaska provided using visualization tools within the and Arctic Planning (SNAP) Portal or as links directly to an appropriate CONTACT: 907-474-7535, [email protected] website from the data’s host institution. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: International Arctic Heat and precipitation predictions Research Center (IARC) and University of (3 month) Alaska Fairbanks VALUES: Climate DOWNLOAD: http://ckan.snap.uaf.edu/dataset HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, National Weather Service SUMMARY: SNAP produces downscaled, historical and projected climate data for sub-Arctic CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Weather and Arctic regions of Alaska and Canada. We Service also share other types of project-specific data that cover much larger regions. Downscaled DOWNLOAD: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ products/predictions/long_range/seasonal. projected data come from one of 5 top ranked php?lead=1 global circulation models or are calculated as a 5-model average. Each model also has SUMMARY: Maps and data with 3 month predic- 3 versions from one of 3 climate scenarios. tions for precipitation, drought, temperature Climate datasets include daily, monthly, and derived products (e.g., monthly decadal aver- Drought predictions (3 month) ages, specific seasonal averages). Each dataset VALUES: Climate has a specified resolution, for example, This set of files includes downscaled historical HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, National Weather Service estimates of monthly temperature (in degrees Celsius, no unit conversion necessary) from CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Weather 1901–2013 (CRU TS 3.22) at 10 min x 10 min Service spatial resolution.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ Severe Weather Data Inventory products/predictions/90day/ VALUES: Climate, Extreme Weather

SUMMARY: Maps and data with 3 month predic- HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA tions for precipitation, drought, temperature

decision support tools for climate change planning 63 CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA, National Extreme Storms and Hurricanes Climatic Data Center VALUES: Climate, Extreme Weather

DOWNLOAD: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey swdi/#TileSearch CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) SUMMARY: The Severe Weather Data Inven- tory (SWDI) is an integrated database of CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Assessment severe weather records for the United States. of Coastal Change Hazards The records in SWDI come from a variety of DOWNLOAD: http://marine.usgs.gov/ sources in the NCDC archive. SWDI provides coastalchangehazardsportal/ the ability to search through all of these data to find records covering a particular time SUMMARY: Hurricanes, nor’easters, and period and geographic region, and to down- Pacific winter storms are powerful events load the results of your search in a variety of that generate dangerous waves and surge formats. The formats currently supported are capable of moving large amounts of sand, Shapefile (for GIS), KMZ (for Google Earth), destroying buildings and infrastructure, and CSV (comma-separated), and XML. even taking lives. Through processes like dune erosion, overwash, and inundation, storms Monthly Weather Extremes reshape our nation’s coastline. The storm VALUES: Climate, Extreme Weather impacts component of National Assessment

HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA of Coastal Change Hazards (NACCH) focuses on understanding the magnitude and vari- CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA, National ability of extreme storm impacts on sandy Climatic Data Center and US Cooperative beaches. Real-time and scenario-based predic- Observer Network tions of storm-induced coastal change, as well as the supporting data, are provided to DOWNLOAD: http://www7.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/ support management of coastal infrastructure, cdoextremescountryselect.cmd?exdsid=30 resources, and safety. Resolution - 1 km. SUMMARY: GIS U.S. Monthly Extremes is a web Open Trails System Specification based product that is extracted from the U.S. VALUES: Connect COOP Summary of the Month dataset (DSI- 3220). The earliest data is from 1886 and is HOST/PUBLISHER: Code for America organized by month. SUMMARY: A national trail system specification was created in 2014 in partnership with TPL, NRPA, GreenInfo Network and AllTrails, to

64 decision support tools for climate change planning standardize trail data nationally. Data is being quality assessment, observation time, view collected in that format to build out a national angles, and emissivities. trails database, which does not currently exist. As park systems and local governments begin Global Land Surface Air standardizing and sharing their trails data, it Temperature Analysis will become publicly available and accessible VALUES: Cool at a national level, which is currently not the HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, case for most trails data. Climate Prediction Center

Land Surface CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Centers for Temperature/Emissivity Environmental Prediction VALUES: Cool DOWNLOAD: http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ HOST/PUBLISHER: MODIS Land Science Team climate-prediction-center-cpc-global-land- surface-air-temperature-analysis CONTACT: Zhengming Wan, [email protected] A station observation-based global land monthly mean surface air temperature CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer dataset at 0.5 x 0.5 latitude-longitude resolu- (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s satellites. tion for the period from 1948 to the present was developed at the Climate Prediction DOWNLOAD: http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Center, National Centers for Environmental temp.html Prediction.

SUMMARY: The Land Surface Temperature Care Facilities Dataset (LST) and Emissivity daily data are retrieved VALUES: Critical Infrastructure at 1km pixels by the generalized split-window algorithm and at 6km grids by the day/night HOST/PUBLISHER: American Hospital algorithm. In the split-window algorithm, Association emissivities in bands 31 and 32 are estimated CONTACT: One North Franklin: 27th Floor, from land cover types, atmospheric column Chicago Illinois 60606, 800-242-2626. water vapor and lower boundary air surface temperature are separated into tractable sub- CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: American Hospital ranges for optimal retrieval. In the day/night Association algorithm, daytime and nighttime LSTs and surface emissivities are retrieved from pairs DOWNLOAD: http://www.ahadataviewer.com/ of day and night MODIS observations in seven TIR bands. The product is comprised of LSTs,

decision support tools for climate change planning 65 SUMMARY: AHA provided information on CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Techni Graphic hospitals for the entire United States. The Systems, Inc. attribute information provided by AHA for each medical care facility includes: the DOWNLOAD: http://gis.fema.gov/kmz/ number of beds, name, address, city, zip, state, Hurricane_Evacuation_Routes.htm#2 and geographical coordinates. South Carolina SUMMARY: “This dataset is based on supplied hospital data from 2004 was provided by the data from gulf coast and Atlantic seaboard South Carolina Emergency Division. states. Each state was contacted by TGS to National Bridge Inventory determine an official source for hurricane evacuation routes. GIS data was gathered VALUES: Critical Infrastructure from states willing to share such data. Three HOST/PUBLISHER: Federal Highway (3) states (ME, NY, and NH) indicated that Administration they do not maintain public maps showing hurricane evacuation routes and were unable CONTACT: Samantha Lubkin, 202-366-1575 or unwilling to share GIS files depicting such routes. Hurricane evacuation routes CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Bridge Inventory depicted on non-GIS maps were digitized using aerial ortho imagery while referencing DOWNLOAD: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/ supplied maps. Geographic: Latitude_Reso- britab.cfm lution: 0.000000, Longitude_Resolution: 0.000000, Geographic_Coordinate_Units: SUMMARY: Includes data on bridges and Decimal degrees, Geodetic_Model: Horizontal_ tunnels, including location, condition, and Datum_Name: D_WGS_1984, Ellipsoid_Name: age, submitted annually to FHWA by the WGS_1984, Semi-major_Axis: 6378137.000000, States, Federal agencies, and Tribal govern- Denominator_of_Flattening_Ratio: ments, in accordance with the National Bridge 298.257224, Altitude_Resolution: 0.000003” Inspection Standards and the Recording and Coding Guide for the Structure Inventory and HAZUS Appraisal of the Nations Bridges (.pdf). Each VALUES: Critical Infrastructure data set is submitted in the spring, and may be corrected or updated throughout the year. HOST/PUBLISHER: FEMA Hurricane Evacuation Routes CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Flood Map Service Center VALUES: Critical Infrastructure

DOWNLOAD: https://msc.fema.gov/portal/ HOST/PUBLISHER: FEMA resources/hazus

66 decision support tools for climate change planning SUMMARY: Hazus is a nationally applicable CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Private mailing list standardized methodology that contains provider models for estimating potential losses from earthquakes, floods and hurricanes. Hazus DOWNLOAD: https://www.infousa.com/ uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) SUMMARY: Police station and fire station technology to estimate physical, economic and datasets developed from geocoded data from social impacts of disasters. 2001 based on the SIC for the entire United Repetitive Loss Property States provided by InfoUSA Inc. The attribute information provided by InfoUSA Inc for each VALUES: Critical Infrastructure police station and fire station facility includes: HOST/PUBLISHER: FEMA name, address, city, zip, state, and geographical coordinates. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Flood Mitigation Data Collection Tool Emergency Operation Centers VALUES: Critical Infrastructure DOWNLOAD: http://www.fema.gov/library/ viewRecord.do?id=3413 HOST/PUBLISHER: InfoUSA, Inc.

The Repetitive Loss Property (RLP) Viewer CONTACT: 5711 S. 86th Circle, P.O. Box 27347, 2.0 is a standalone application capable of Omaha, NE 68127-0347, 402-930-3500. connecting to any standard National Tool (NT) database in Access format (.MDB) that uses GIS CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Private mailing list to display point features representing flood- provider prone properties. The NT User’s Guide, FEMA DOWNLOAD: https://www.infousa.com/ 497, provides assistance in using both tools. The National Flood Mitigation Data Collec- SUMMARY: The InfoUSA Inc data is based tion Tool, FEMA 497 CD, was developed for on the SIC for the entire United States. The Nationwide use to gather information about attribute information provided by InfoUSA Inc floodprone structures in order to evaluate for each emergency operations centers facility appropriate long-term mitigation measures. includes: name, address, city, zip, state, function, and geographical coordinates. Police Stations VALUES: Critical Infrastructure Schools VALUES: Critical Infrastructure HOST/PUBLISHER: InfoUSA, Inc. HOST/PUBLISHER: National Center for Educa- th CONTACT: 5711 S. 86 Circle, P.O. Box 27347, tion Statistics Omaha, NE 68127-0347, 402-930-3500.

decision support tools for climate change planning 67 CONTACT: 202-502-7300 CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Inventory of Dams CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education DOWNLOAD: http://nid.usace.army.mil/ cm_apex/f?p=838:12 DOWNLOAD: http://nces.ed.gov/ SUMMARY: The current NID, published in Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe 2013, includes information on 87,000 dams Survey Data and the Private School Universe that are more than 25 feet high, hold more Survey Data maintained than 50 acre-feet of water, or are considered SHELDUS/ Spatial Hazard a significant hazard if they fail. The NID is Events and Losses Database for maintained and published by the U.S. Army the United States Corps of Engineers (USACE), in cooperation with the Association of State Dam Safety Offi- VALUES: Critical Infrastructure cials (ASDSO), the states and territories, and HOST/PUBLISHER: The Hazards and Vulner- federal dam-regulating agencies. The data- ability Research Institute (HVRI) base contains information about the dam’s location, size, purpose, type, last inspection, CONTACT: [email protected], 803-777-1699 regulatory facts, and other technical data. The information contained in the NID is updated DOWNLOAD: http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/geog/ approximately every two years. hvri/hvri-resources

SUMMARY: SHELDUS is a county-level hazard National Rail Network Database data set for the U.S. for 18 different natural VALUES: Critical Infrastructure hazard events types such as thunderstorms, HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Department of hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornados. For Transportation each event the database includes the begin- ning date, location (county and state), property CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Bureau of Transporta- losses, crop losses, injuries, and fatalities that tion Statistics affected each county. DOWNLOAD: http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/ National Inventory of Dams rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/north_ VALUES: Critical Infrastructure american_transportation_atlas_data/index.html

HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Army Corp of Engineers SUMMARY: A network database of all railway mainlines, railroad yards, and major sidings CONTACT: NID Data Team, [email protected] in the continental U.S. compiled at a scale of 1:100,000

68 decision support tools for climate change planning National Highway geographical coordinates. The inventory data Planning Network required for these include the geographical VALUES: Critical Infrastructure location and classification of system components. Includes potable water systems, HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Department of wastewater systems, oil systems, natural gas Transportation systems, electric power systems. The distribution pipelines database for potable water, CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: North American waste water and natural gas, which is aggre- Transportation Atlas Data gated at the census tract level, was developed DOWNLOAD: http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/ based on the assumption that the number of rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/north_ distribution lines is correlated to the number american_transportation_atlas_data/ of local streets. This approximation is consid- index.html ered fairly accurate in urban areas.

SUMMARY: network database representing IMPLAN Economic Data approximately 400,000 miles of Federal- VALUES: Other, Economic aid roads in the 50 States and Puerto Rico. HOST/PUBLISHER: IMPLAN Compiled at a scale of 1:100,000 CONTACT: [email protected] Utility System Data VALUES: Critical Infrastructure CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Private economic data provider HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency DOWNLOAD: http://www.implan.com/index.php? option=com_content&view=article&id=330:330 CONTACT: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/fii/ &catid=95:products-category&Itemid=1747 fii_feedback.html SUMMARY: Used by FEMA in its HAZUS model CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Facility Registry to estimate indirect economic impacts of Service and Geospatial Reference Information natural disasters. IMPLAN Data provides a DOWNLOAD: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/ complete, comprehensive and detailed view fii/ez.html into your economy of interest. Whether you access the data through our new IMPLAN- SUMMARY: Utility systems include potable Online System or through IMPLAN Pro, you water, wastewater, oil, natural gas, elec- can view data and estimate impacts from tric power, and communication systems. the national, state, county, or zip-code level. The attribute information provided by LRT IMPLAN Pro provides even greater access to includes: name, address, city, zip, state, and regional data.

decision support tools for climate change planning 69 Biofuels Atlas Solarpower availability VALUES: Other, Energy VALUES: Other, Energy

HOST/PUBLISHER: National Renewable HOST/PUBLISHER: National Renewable Energy Laboratory Energy Laboratory

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USDA, National CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: The State University Agricultural Statistics Service, USFS’s Timber of New York/Albany Product Output database, EPA’s Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database DOWNLOAD: http://www.nrel.gov/gis/data.html

SUMMARY: The State University of New York/ DOWNLOAD: http://maps.nrel.gov/biofuels-atlas Albany satellite radiation model was devel- SUMMARY: Data on the types and concentra- oped at the National Renewable Energy tions of biofuels is available by county. Data, Laboratory and other universities for the U.S. which comes from a variety of sources, can be Department of Energy. This model uses hourly downloaded from the Data Layers tab on the radiance images from geostationary weather map. Additional sources include: EPA’s Landfill satellites, daily snow cover data, and monthly Methane Outreach Program (LMOP), Alterna- averages of atmospheric water vapor, trace tive Fuels Data Center gases, and the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere to calculate the hourly total insolation Windpower availability (sun and sky) falling on a horizontal surface. VALUES: Other, Energy Vegetation Indices HOST/PUBLISHER: National Renewable Energy VALUES: Other, Food Resilience Laboratory HOST/PUBLISHER: MODIS Land Science Team CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: AWS Truepower CONTACT: Kamel Didan, DOWNLOAD: https://dashboards. [email protected] awstruepower.com/ CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA’s Moderate SUMMARY: Data and maps on wind availability Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer at 200m resolution. Site requires subscription, (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s satellites. but can buy a daypass. DOWNLOAD: http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ vi.html

70 decision support tools for climate change planning SUMMARY: MODIS vegetation indices, interactive map visualization, dissemination, produced on 16-day intervals and at multiple and querying system for U.S. cropland. Crop spatial resolutions, provide consistent spatial cover data can be downloaded by year and by and temporal comparisons of vegetation specific location or state. CropScape provides canopy greenness, a composite property of crop-specific land cover data layers created leaf area, chlorophyll and canopy structure. annually for the continental United States Two vegetation indices are derived from using moderate resolution satellite imagery atmospherically-corrected reflectance in and extensive agricultural ground truthing. the red, near-infrared, and blue wavebands; A computer algorithm interprets the type of the normalized difference vegetation index crop growing in each field from satellite data. (NDVI), which provides continuity with Includes type of crop planted in fields each NOAA’s AVHRR NDVI time series record for year dating back to 1997. historical and climate applications, and the enhanced vegetation index (EVI), which mini- VegScape - Vegetation mizes canopy-soil variations and improves Condition Explorer sensitivity over dense vegetation conditions. VALUES: Other, Food Resilience The two products more effectively charac- HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Department of terize the global range of vegetation states Agriculture and processes. Resolution varies from 250m to 1km. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) CropScape, Cropland Data Layer VALUES: Other, Food Resilience DOWNLOAD: http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/ VegScape/ HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Department of Agriculture SUMMARY: The VegScape tool shows daily, weekly, or biweekly data on the health of CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USDA’s National crops across the contiguous United States. Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Data on crop health can be downloaded for

DOWNLOAD: http://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/ a defined area, location or state for the years CropScape/ between 2001 and 2015. The reflectance of light at different wavelengths is used to calcu- SUMMARY: CropScape displays data from the late the Normalized Difference Vegetation USDA Cropland Data Layer (CDL), an annual, Index (NDVI) of each field, an indication of remote-sensing snapshot of crop cover during how green its plants are. VegScape also allows the main growing season across the contig- for visual comparisons of crop health between uous United States. CropScape is a web-based various years. As far back as 2000, weekly

decision support tools for climate change planning 71 views of vegetation health enable viewers DOWNLOAD: http://vulcan.project.asu.edu/ to examine the effects of crop-damaging incidents over time. For instance, low NDVI SUMMARY: The Vulcan Project is an initia- values across California in the summer of 2014 tive to quantify North American fossil fuel reveal the extent of severe drought conditions. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at space and Careful analyses of daily and weekly imagery time scales much finer than has been achieved in VegScape can also reveal the growth of in the past. The purpose is to aid in quantifica- early and late season crops planted outside the tion of the North American carbon budget, to main growing season. Under 20m resolution. support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, and to support the demands posed GHG Facility emissions data by higher resolution CO2 observations. The VALUES: Other, GHG Vulcan project has achieved the quantification of the 2002 U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at HOST/PUBLISHER: EPA the scale of individual factories, powerplants, roadways and neighborhoods on an hourly CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) basis. We have built the entire inventory on a common 10 km x 10 km grid to facilitate DOWNLOAD: http://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/ atmospheric modeling. In addition to improve- ghgdata/reportingdatasets.html ment in space and time resolution, Vulcan is quantified at the level of fuel type, economic SUMMARY: The Greenhouse Gas Reporting sub-sector, and county/state identification. Program (GHGRP) collects Greenhouse Gas

(GHG) data from large emitting facilities, Hestia CO2 Inventory suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases VALUES: Other, GHG that result in GHG emissions when used, and facilities that inject carbon dioxide HOST/PUBLISHER: NASA/DOE/NSF underground. CONTACT: [email protected]

Vulcan CO2 Inventory CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Arizona State VALUES: Other, GHG University

HOST/PUBLISHER: NASA/DOE DOWNLOAD: http://hestia.project.asu.edu/

CONTACT: [email protected]

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: North American Carbon Program

72 decision support tools for climate change planning SUMMARY: The Hestia system quantifies all available in “readme” files. Public-use data fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the scale of build- files are prepared and disseminated to provide ings, streets and factories. Hestia can provide access to the full scope of the data. This allows stakeholders an unprecedented opportunity researchers to manipulate the data in a format to design and implement carbon manage- appropriate for their analyses. NCHS makes ment strategies, verify emissions reductions, every effort to release data collected through strengthen and support basic research in its surveys and data systems in a timely climate prediction and carbon cycle science, manner. This is national level data. and allow the public, decisionmakers, scientists and industry access to detailed space-time Public Health Data information on fossil/industrial energy VALUES: Other, Public Health consumption and CO2 emissions. All this will HOST/PUBLISHER: HealthData.gov be done via an intuitive, interactive, photo- realistic, three-dimensional visualization of CONTACT: [email protected] the Earth. Hestia will quantify, simulate and visualize the metabolism of greenhouse gas CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: CMS, CDC, FDA, NIH emitting activity down to the building and DOWNLOAD: http://www.healthdata.gov/ street level dataset?f[0]=type%3Adataset

Public use national health data SUMMARY: HHS has begun “liberating” health VALUES: Other, Public Health data through the Health Data Initiative— making more and more data from HHS’ vaults HOST/PUBLISHER: Centers for Disease Control (from CMS, CDC, FDA and NIH, to name a CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Center for few sources) easily available and accessible Health Statistics to the public and to innovators across the country. This information includes clinical DOWNLOAD: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ care provider quality information, nationwide data_access/ftp_data.htm health service provider directories, databases of the latest medical and scientific knowl- SUMMARY: The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is pleased to offer download- edge, consumer product data, community able public-use data files through the Centers health performance information, government for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) FTP spending data and much more. file server. Users of this service have access to data sets, documentation, and question- naires from NCHS surveys and data collection systems. Downloading instructions are

decision support tools for climate change planning 73 SoVI, Social Vulnerability Index most toward low-income/ minority residents VALUES: Other, Social Vulnerability nationwide having a higher environmental indicator score on average than the rest of the HOST/PUBLISHER: The Hazards and Vulner- U.S. population. To calculate a single EJ Index ability Research Institute (HVRI) for one block group, EJSCREEN multiplies the environmental indicator by demographic CONTACT: [email protected], information. This demographic information 803-777-1699 includes percent low-income and percent CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: United States minority (as the Demographic Index), and Census Bureau total population of the block group. This is the formula for the index: DOWNLOAD: http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/ geog/hvri/sovi-data EJ Index = (Environmental Indicator) X (Demographic Index for Block Group—Demo- SUMMARY: The Social Vulnerability Index graphic Index for US) X (Population Count for (SoVI®) 2006-2010 measures the social Block Group)” vulnerability of all United States counties to environmental hazards. The index was created Flood Map Service Center using 30 socieconomic variables, which VALUES: Protect research literature suggests contribute to the HOST/PUBLISHER: FEMA reduction in a community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from hazards. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Flood Map Service Results are at census tract level. Center

EJScreen DOWNLOAD: https://msc.fema.gov/portal/ VALUES: Other, Social Vulnerability advanceSearch

HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Environmental SUMMARY: The GIS data is designed to provide Protection Agency the user with the ability to determine the flood zone, base flood elevation and the CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: U.S. Census floodway status for a particular location. DOWNLOAD: http://ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper/ It also has NFIP community information, map panel information, cross section and SUMMARY: “The EJ index is a number that hydraulic structure information, Coastal combines environmental and demographic Barrier Resource System information (if appli- information for a place. There is an EJ Index cable), and base map information like road, for each environmental indicator. The EJ Index stream, and public land survey data. When in highlights which block groups contribute the Preliminary or Pending status, these datasets

74 decision support tools for climate change planning are referred to as FIRM Databases (FIRM DB). July-June, and January-December, allowing When FIRMs and FIRM databases become for hemispheric differences in the growing effective, that data is incorporated into the seasons, and enabling the product to capture National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL). The two growth cycles if necessary. Data varies NFHL is a continuously updated digital dataset from 500m to 1km resolution depending on that represents the current effective flood data type. data. A list of data available and resolution of data is available here: http://www.fema.gov/ Vdatum (integrated vertical media-library-data/20130726-1919-25045-5493/ elevation data) gis_services_user_guide.pdf VALUES: Protect Land Cover HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA VALUES: Protect CONTACT: [email protected]

HOST/PUBLISHER: MODIS Land Science Team CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA, National

CONTACT: Mark Friedl, [email protected] Geodetic Survey, Office of Coast Survey and Center for Operational Oceanographic Prod- CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NASA’s Moderate ucts and Services. Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s satellites. DOWNLOAD: http://vdatum.noaa.gov/ welcome.html DOWNLOAD: http://modis-land.gsfc.nasa.gov/ landcover.html SUMMARY: VDatum is a free software tool designed to vertically transform geospatial SUMMARY: The MODIS Terra+Aqua Combined data among a variety of tidal, orthometric and Land Cover product incorporates five different ellipsoidal vertical datums - allowing users to land cover classification schemes, derived convert their data from different horizontal/ through a supervised decision-tree clas- vertical references into a common system and sification method. The primary land cover enabling the fusion of diverse geospatial data scheme identifies 17 classes defined by the in desired reference levels. VDatum software IGBP, including 11 natural vegetation classes, is written in Java so it runs on Mac OS X, Unix, three human-altered classes, and three non- VMP and Windows. vegetated classes. The Land Cover Dynamics product includes layers on the timing of vegetation growth, maturity, and senescence that mark the seasonal cycles. Estimates of vegetation phenology are provided twice annually from the two 12-month focus periods,

decision support tools for climate change planning 75 Sea Levels Online: Sea Level CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: NOAA

Variations of the U.S. from National DOWNLOAD: http://coast.noaa.gov/slrdata/ Water Level Observation Network Stations These data illustrate the potential flooding VALUES: Protect from coastal flood advisories as issued locally by the National Weather Service. The inunda- HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA tion layer depicts flooding above local flooding thresholds. All data are based on the best CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Ocean available elevation data at the time of their Service’s (NOS) National Water Level Observa- creation and the methods defined by NOAA tion Network (NWLON) Coastal Services Center staff. These data are DOWNLOAD: http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ used in NOAA’s Sea Level Rise and Coastal sea-levels-online-sea-level-variations-of-the- Flooding Impacts Viewer, a screening-level tool united-states-derived-from-national-water- that uses nationally consistent data sets and level-o analyses. Data and maps provided can be used to help gauge trends and prioritize actions for SUMMARY: Water level records are a combi- different scenarios.Esri file geodatabase rasters nation of the fluctuations of the ocean and and feature classes; shapefiles available on the vertical land motion at the location of request the station. Monthly mean sea level (MSL) variations were analyzed for 128 stations of Storm Surge the National Ocean Service’s (NOS) National VALUES: Protect Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, National Weather having between 30 and 146 years of data. Service The sea level variations determined are the linear trend, the average seasonal cycle, and CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Meteorological the interannual variability at each station. Development Laboratory of the NWS, in coop- Monthly data up to the end of 2006 were used eration with the National Hurricane Cente in the calculation and all stations had data spanning a period of 30 years or more. DOWNLOAD: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/surge/ psurge.php Sea level rise, Coterminous U.S. (except for Louisiana), Hawaii, SUMMARY: The Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge Pacific and Caribbean territories Probabilities (P-Surge 2.0) is a graphical product developed with the intent to provide VALUES: Protect the emergency management community; HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, Digital Coast federal, state, and local government agencies;

76 decision support tools for climate change planning media; maritime interests; and the general National Wetlands Inventory public with information that enhances their VALUES: Protect ability to make preparedness decisions specific to their own situations with regards to storm HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service surge. The Tropical Cyclone Storm Surge Prob- DOWNLOAD: http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/data/ abilities product was created in response to Data-Download.html user requests for additional tropical cyclone probabilistic information, and the National SUMMARY: These spatial data are not designed Research Council’s Fair Weather Report to stand alone. They form topical overlays to encouraging probabilistic products. the U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000 or 1:25,000 scale topographic quadrangles or digital Long Range (3 month) imagery. Note that coastline delineations were river flood risk drawn to follow the extent of wetland or deep- VALUES: Protect water features as described by this project and may not match the coastline shown in other HOST/PUBLISHER: NOAA, National Weather Service base maps. The map products were neither designed nor intended to represent legal or CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Advanced Hydrologic regulatory products. Includes tidal, historic Prediction Services and other wetlands data.

DOWNLOAD: http://water.weather.gov/ahps/ Coastal Vulnerability Index for download.php Gulf and Atlantic Coast VALUES: Protect SUMMARY: While the AHPS display allows for the use of interactive toggles with the HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey image, AHPS data can also be utilized within GIS software. This page links to “Shapefiles” CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) and “KMZ” files (generated every 15 minutes) CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Assessment which are compressed “KML” files compatible of Coastal Change Hazards with several GIS software applications. A list of some of the software applications that support DOWNLOAD: http://marine.usgs.gov/ Shapefiles and KML can be found HERE or, coastalchangehazardsportal/ui/info/item/ visit the NWS website Standards Description CDKfMtg Website which explains KML in more detail. SUMMARY: These data provide a preliminary overview, at a National scale, of the relative susceptibility of the Nation’s coast to sea-level rise through the use of a coastal vulnerability

decision support tools for climate change planning 77 index (CVI). This classification is based upon Long-term and historical shoreline the following variables: geomorphology, change rates regional coastal slope, tide range, wave height, VALUES: Protect relative sea-level rise and shoreline erosion and accretion rates. The combination of these HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey variables and the association of these vari- CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) ables to each other furnish a broad overview of regions where physical changes are likely CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Assessment to occur due to sea-level rise. The purpose of of Coastal Change Hazards these data layers is to allow the user to view both the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) and DOWNLOAD: http://marine.usgs.gov/ the data from which the CVI is calculated coastalchangehazardsportal/ (tides, wave height, relative sea-level rise, SUMMARY: Long-term (78+ years) rates of coastal slope, geomorphology, and shoreline shoreline change for open-ocean shorelines of erosion and accretion rate) for the U.S. Atlantic the United States and parts of Hawaii ranging Coast. The CVI provides insight into the rela- from 1800’s to 2008. Historical shoreline posi- tive potential for coastal change due to future tions for ocean shorelines of the United States sea-level rise. The maps and data presented ranging from 1800’s to present. Resolution here can be viewed in at least two ways: 1) - 1km as a base for developing a more complete inventory of variables influencing the coastal USGS Streamflow Data Set for vulnerability to future sea-level rise to which the U.S. for the Study of Climate other elements can be added as they become Fluctuations available; and 2) as an example of the poten- VALUES: Protect tial for assessing coastal vulnerability to future sea-level rise using objective criteria. The data HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey are stored in an attribute table associated with CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) a 1:2,000,000 shoreline at 3 minute resolution. Thus, for each 3 minute (~5 km) section CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Hydroclimatic Data of shoreline, there are data for each of the Network following variables—geomorphology, relative rate of sea-level rise, coastal slope, mean DOWNLOAD: http://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/ wave height, tidal range and erosion and wri934076/1st_page.html accretion rates, as well as their ranked values SUMMARY: A streamflow data set, which is (1–5) and the calculated coastal vulnerability specifically suitable for the study of surface- index (CVI). water conditions throughout the United States

78 decision support tools for climate change planning under fluctuations in the prevailing climatic CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Data from academic conditions, has been developed. This data institutions, agencies and citizen science. set, called the Hydro-Climatic Data Network, or HCDN, consists of streamflow records for DOWNLOAD: http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov/#home

1,659 sites throughout United States and SUMMARY: BISON provides access to more its Territories. than 168 million primary records of plant and Wetlands animal species found in the United States. The information system builds on citizen VALUES: Protect, Absorb science as well as professional science activi- HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ties. Users can query species by name, range, state, county, or data record provider. BISON CONTACT: [email protected] displays search results in list or interactive map formats, and each species occurrence CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USFWS National Wetlands Inventory point can be clicked to find more information about who provided or collected the data. DOWNLOAD: http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/ Users can also draw a boundary around an Data/Data-Download.html area of interest, down to small areas such as parks, and find the species occurences that SUMMARY: Over 45 million acres of the have been reported in that area. U.S. have new wetlands data posted on the Wetlands Mapper. These updates include FIDO, EVALIDator, portions of the lower 48 states as well as and FIA DataMart Alaska and Hawaii. The Wetlands Mapper inte- VALUES: Protect, Habitat grates digital map data with other resource information to produce timely and relevant HOST/PUBLISHER: USFS management and decision support tools. Data CONTACT: http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/tools-data/ can also be downloaded by HUC 8 Watershed customer-service/index.php Boundary or by State. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Forest Inventory and Biodiversity Information Serving Analysis National Program Our Nation (BISON) VALUES: Protect, Habitat DOWNLOAD: http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/tools-data/ index.php HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey

CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747)

decision support tools for climate change planning 79 SUMMARY: FIDO - Forest Inventory Data online. consistent set of climate scenarios for all Evalidator is a program that allows users streams. It is hoped that open access to the to produce population estimates and FIA data and the availability of accurate stream Datamart is a source of raw data for download. temperature scenarios will foster new research and collaborative relationships that enhance Bird Species Atlas management and conservation of aquatic VALUES: Protect, Habitat resources. HOST/PUBLISHER: USFS Water supply forecasts

DOWNLOAD: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/bird/ VALUES: Protect, Water Resources RFbirdmod_5290.html HOST/PUBLISHER: Natural Resources Conserva- Bird Species Atlas provides data on current tion Service and modeled future changes in bird species CONTACT: contacts are different for each state habitat up to the year 2100 under a variety of and for river basins climate change scenarios. CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Water and NorWest Stream Temperature Climate Center VALUES: Protect, Habitat DOWNLOAD: http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/wsf/ HOST/PUBLISHER: USFS index.html

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: Rocky Mountain SUMMARY: Water Supply Forecasts, including Research Center basin data reports, state water supply outlook reports, supply forecast maps and google earth DOWNLOAD: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/ AWAE/projects/NorWeST.html water supply forecast layer.

SUMMARY: Stream temperature data and Regional Groundwater Availability geospatial map outputs from a regional Studies Geospatial Data temperature model for the Northwest U.S. VALUES: Protect, Water Resources The temperature database was compiled HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey from hundreds of biologists and hydrolo- gists working for dozens of resource agencies CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USGS Groundwater and contains more than 50,000,000 hourly Resources Program temperature recordings at more than 20,000 unique stream sites. These temperature data DOWNLOAD: http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/gwrp/ are being used with spatial statistical stream activities/fundamental_data.html#geo network models to develop an accurate and

80 decision support tools for climate change planning SUMMARY: These data are from regional hydro- SUMMARY: The USGS compiles online access logic models that were developed to assess to water-resources data collected at approxi- the availability of the Nation’s groundwater mately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, the resources. The models are constructed such District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin that the hydrologic system is discretized with Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the a grid of cells which are identified in terms Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana of rows, columns, and layers. Many of the Islands. data sets provided here are organized into grid cells that correspond with the rows and National Hydrography Dataset columns that were defined by each hydrologic VALUES: Protect, Water Resources model. This approach allows for direct access HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey to data that were used for model calculations and allows the scientific and water manage- CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) ment community to more easily update these models with new data, apply the models in CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Geospatial different ways to answer new water-manage- Data Asset and National Hydrography Dataset ment questions, and create new local-scale DOWNLOAD: http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ models. The data is available in the following usgs-national-hydrography-dataset-nhd- formats: Shapefile, Raster, ASCII Grid (High downloadable-data-collection-national- Resolution), Geodatabase. geospatial-data-as

Water Quality Data for the Nation SUMMARY: The USGS National Hydrography VALUES: Protect, Water Resources Dataset (NHD) Downloadable Data Collection from The National Map (TNM) is a compre- HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey hensive set of digital spatial data that encodes CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) information about naturally occurring and constructed bodies of surface water (lakes, CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Water ponds, and reservoirs), paths through which Information System water flows (canals, ditches, streams, and

DOWNLOAD: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qw rivers), and related entities such as point features (springs, wells, stream gages, and dams). The information encoded about these features includes classification and other characteristics, delineation, geographic name, position and related measures, a “reach code” through which other information can

decision support tools for climate change planning 81 be related to the NHD, and the direction Forests to Faucets of water flow. The network of reach codes VALUES: Protect, Water Resources delineating water and transported mate- rial flow allows users to trace movement HOST/PUBLISHER: USFS in upstream and downstream directions. CONTACT: [email protected] Resolution 1:24,000–scale CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: USDA Forest Service, Groundwater Data for the Nation Cooperative Forestry VALUES: Protect, Water Resources DOWNLOAD: http://www.fs.fed.us/ HOST/PUBLISHER: U.S. Geological Survey ecosystemservices/FS_Efforts/

CONTACT: Call 1-888-ASK-USGS (1-888-275-8747) forests2faucets.shtml

CONTRIBUTORS/SOURCES: National Water SUMMARY: The USDA Forest Service Forests to Information System Faucets project uses GIS to model and map the continental United States land areas most DOWNLOAD: http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/gw important to surface drinking water, the role forests play in protecting these areas, and the SUMMARY: The USGS compiles online access extent to which these forests are threatened to water-resources data collected at approxi- by development, insects and disease, and mately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, wildland fire. The results of this assessment the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the provide information that can identify areas of Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa interest for protecting surface drinking water and the Commonwealth of the Northern quality. The spatial dataset can be incorpo- Mariana Islands. rated into broad-scale planning, such as the State Forest Action Plans, and can help identify areas for further local analysis. In addition it can be incorporated into existing decision support tools that currently lack spatial data on important areas for surface drinking water. Use the 12 digit HUC code. Index of impor- tance to surface drinking water, IMP, ranked and normalized to be on a 0–100 scale.

82 decision support tools for climate change planning Notes Notes

The Trust for Public Land 101 Montgomery St., Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94104 415.495.4014 photos: front top, darcy kiefel, front bottom, hollis bennett; back, andrew federman. tpl.org