Regional Climate for Adaptation

Deliver climate science to decision-makers to promote sustainability and reduce vulnerabilites to impacts

Deliver sound climate science to decision-makers at regional and local scales to promote sustainability and reduce human system vulnerabilities to anticipated climate change impacts.

As the reality of human-induced climate change is accepted by policymakers and the public at large, the demand for actionable, regional-scale information and knowledge about observed and projected climate changes and impacts at individual, local, and regional levels is increasing rapidly.  Effective decision-making about adaptation will require accurate and usable information about regional-scale climate change and the relationships among climate change and other important environmental and socio-economic stressors, including land use change, invasive species, “conventional” pollution, and market forces.

  • Usable Climate Science:  Investigate, understand, and document the climate science needs of decision-makers in critical end-use domains (e.g., urban planning, water resources, natural resources, and ecological sustainability) within multiple development contexts by leading activities and working groups internationally, in the US and in the NCAR flagship regional & global modeling programs.
  • Integrated Vulnerability and Adaptation Research: Develop and apply tools and metrics to measure and quantify the effectiveness of climate adaptive interventions under co-occurring changes to social and bio-geophysical conditions at system boundary thresholds, particularly on specific ‘high impact’ geographies such as urban, coastal, and high Alpine systems.
  • Capacity Building: Develop training workshops, fellowship programs, and scientist exchanges with local and regional partners to foster collaboration, innovation, and multi-directional capacity building. Develop tools, methods and techniques to assist in the translation of climate science information to support localized decision-making