Coastal Toolkit

This section provides resources for estuaries and coastal programs that are interested in learning more about climate change impacts and adaptation. The information below provides links to websites, reports, and other resources related to the following areas:

CRE Progress
CRE Publications
Adaptation Toolkits
Resources for Vulnerability Assessments
Resources for Developing Adaptation Plans

CRE Progress

CRE 2011 Progress Report (PDF) (24 pp, 5.9MB) (EPA, December 2011)
This document reports on 2011 program accomplishments and the new NEP projects started during 2011. The progress report uses NEP projects from 2008–2010 to illustrate how the risk management paradigm can be used for climate change adaptation.

CRE 2010 Progress Report (PDF) (28 pp, 3.9MB) (EPA, December 2010)
This document focuses on the accomplishments of the existing CRE Partners, including vulnerability assessments, stakeholder engagement, climate change indicators and monitoring, and adaptation planning. This report complements the 2009 CRE Progress Report; together they provide a summary on the design and accomplishments of CRE to date.

Lessons Learned from the Climate Ready Estuaries Program (PDF) (4 pp, 1.35MB) (EPA, June 2011)
This document presents best practices and lessons learned from the CRE annual progress report for 2010.

CRE 2009 Progress Report (PDF) (21 pp, 4.1MB) (EPA, December 2009)
This document provides an overview of CRE’s accomplishments in 2009, including activities being managed by the NEP Partners, lessons learned in the adaptation planning process, challenges encountered, and next steps for the program.

CRE Publications

Rolling Easements (PDF) (176 pp, 6.2MB) (EPA, June 2011)
This primer examines rolling easements, a collection of approaches allowing beaches and wetlands to migrate inland as sea levels rise in cases where traditional protective measures, such as the construction of dikes, seawalls, and other structures, may prove economically or environmentally unsustainable.

Adaptation Planning for the National Estuary Program (PDF) (19 pp, 477K) (EPA, May 2009)
This white paper developed by the Climate Ready Estuaries program describes five critical elements of adaptation planning in coastal areas and provides examples and resources for more information.

Climate Ready Estuaries Program Synthesis of Adaptation Options for Coastal Areas (PDF) (32 pp, 1.2MB) (EPA, January 2009)
This guide provides a brief introduction to key physical impacts of climate change on estuaries and a review of on-the-ground adaptation options available to coastal managers to reduce their systems' vulnerability to climate change impacts.

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product (SAP) 4.1: Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region
This report addresses the vulnerability of coastal areas to sea level rise.

Adaptation Toolkits

Climate Ready Water Utilities Toolbox
EPA’s Climate Ready Water Utilities (CRWU) Toolbox provides access to resources containing climate-related information relevant to the Water Sector. These resources include several categories of information and can be searched by geographic region, water utility type and size, water resources, climate change impact, and climate change response strategies.

Coastal Climate Adaptation
The Coastal Climate Adaptation website, hosted by the NOAA Coastal Services Center, is a resource for state and local officials to share climate adaptation activities and resources. The site also includes basic climate change information and training materials useful for outreach efforts.

Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE)
CAKE, a joint project of Island Press and EcoAdapt, is aimed at building a shared knowledge base for managing natural systems in the face of climate change. It helps users by vetting and organizing information available, building a community via an interactive online platform, creating a directory of practitioners to share knowledge and strategies, and identifying and explaining data tools and information available from other sites.

Resources for Vulnerability Assessments

The following resources are available to coastal resource managers seeking to assess risks and vulnerabilities in planning for climate change impacts.

National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Adaptation Strategy
Through a multi-partner effort, this strategy outlines a unified approach to maintaining the key terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems needed to sustain fish, wildlife, and plant resources and the services they provide in the face of accelerating climate change.

National Park Service Climate Change Response Strategy (PDF) (36 pp, 5.1MB)
This strategy describes goals and objectives to guide National Park Service actions under four integrated components: science, adaptation, mitigation, and communication. The National Park Service will collaborate with partners to identify and monitor climate change effects in parks and to apply accurate and relevant science to management and policy decisions.

Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment
This guide, released by the National Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the Department of Defense, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Geological Survey, provides conservationists and resource managers a way to understand the impact of climate change on species and ecosystems and supports efforts to safeguard valuable natural resources.

U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Products
The U.S. Climate Change Science Program developed a series of synthesis and assessment products (SAPs) to provide information on climate change that is useful to policymakers, resource managers, stakeholders, and the public. Several SAPs address adaptation options for estuarine areas, including:

SAP 4.1: Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region
This report addresses the vulnerability of coastal areas to sea level rise.

SAP 4.4: Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources
This report includes a chapter on estuaries.

Resources for Developing Adaptation Plans

The following resources provide information on climate change adaptation options and other resources that can help coastal managers develop adaptation strategies.

Adapting to Climate Change: A Planning Guide for State Coastal Managers (PDF) (138 pp, 2.7MB)
The purpose of this guide is to help U.S. state and territorial coastal managers develop and implement adaptation plans to reduce the impacts and consequences of climate change and climate variability. It was written in response to a request from state coastal managers for guidance from NOAA on adaptation planning in the coastal zone.

America’s Climate Choices: Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change
This report, from the America's Climate Choices suite of studies from the National Research Council, calls for a national adaptation strategy to support and coordinate decentralized efforts. As part of this strategy, the federal government should provide technical and scientific resources that are currently lacking at the local or regional scale, incentives for local and state authorities to begin adaptation planning, guidance across jurisdictions, shared lessons learned, and support of scientific research to expand knowledge of impacts and adaptation.

Climate Ready Estuaries Program Synthesis of Adaptation Options for Coastal Areas (PDF) (32 pp, 1.2MB)
This guide provides a brief introduction to key physical impacts of climate change on estuaries and a review of on-the-ground adaptation options available to coastal managers to reduce their systems' vulnerability to climate change impacts.

Progress Report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force: Recommended Actions in Support of a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (PDF) (72 pp, 1.0MB)
The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force, co-chaired by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and NOAA, released its interagency report outlining recommendations to President Obama for how Federal Agency policies and programs can better prepare the United States to respond to the impacts of climate change. The Progress Report recommends that the Federal Government implement actions to expand and strengthen the Nation’s capacity to better understand, prepare for, and respond to climate change.