U.S. EPA's Climate Scenarios Projection Map illustrates potential climate change effects throughout the United States. These effects include changes in average annual temperature, precipitation, 100-year storm intensity, sea level and extreme heat events.
As part of National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, U.S. EPA reminds water and wastewater utilities of its Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT). This tool is a climate risk assessment and planning application for water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities. Utilities can use CREAT to understand the impacts of climate change, assess adaptation options, and conduct cost-benefit analyses of risk reduction strategies. EPA.
EPA launched on August 15 Version 3.0 of the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT). CREAT 3.0 is now a web-based tool with a much-improved intuitive user interface compared with previous versions. To access the tool, users must register to receive a login and password. All analyses generated in CREAT belong to the user and are not accessible to other users.
EPA has published version 3.0 of its Climate Resilience and Evaluation Tool (CREAT) along with a methodology guide. The web-based application was developed to assist drinking water, wastewater and stormwater utility owners and operators in understanding potential climate change threats and assess the related risks at their individual utilities. According to the guide, the risk assessment process is designed to be iterative. The goals are to increase operators’ awareness of climate change impacts and assist utilities in determining threshold levels for asset failures.
The California Natural Resources Agency has begun seeking public comment on a draft plan for how California will prepare for and adapt to the catastrophic effects of climate change, including extended droughts and wildfires, rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather. The draft plan – Safeguarding California: Implementation Action Plans – identifies the state’s vulnerabilities to climate change and details steps that need to be taken across ten sectors including water, transportation, agriculture, biodiversity and habitat, emergency management, and energy.
The U.S. EPA has recently released a new webpage showcasing innovative practices of state water agencies to reduce vulnerability to climate change impacts. The new webpage contains short descriptions of select climate adaptation related practices in diverse programmatic areas and geographic locations around the country. These state practices can be a resource for other state agencies, as well as local and tribal governments, seeking to engage in climate adaptation efforts within their own water programs.
U.S. EPA has developed a handout summarizing the tools it has developed for state and local governments and others to adapt their clean water and drinking water programs to a changing climate. The tools include the Storm Surge Inundation and Hurricane Strike Frequency Map, the Workbook for Developing Risk-Based Adaptation Plans, the Flood Resilience Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities, and the National Stormwater Calculator with Climate Scenarios, among others.
U.S EPA has just released 2015 Workplan: National Water Program Response to Climate Change, which lays out the actions the National Water Program plans to take this year to implement the EPA National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change. The 2012 Strategy describes long-term goals for the management of sustainable water resources in light of climate change. It is intended to be a roadmap to guide program planning and inform decision-makers during the Agency's planning and budgeting process.
The U.S. EPA has set up a new blog that discusses the effects and implications of climate change. Despite the challenges and threats climate change presents, the blog reminds us that there are many actions that can be taken to anticipate, prepare, an adapt. It also discusses the actions U.S. EPA is taking to help states, tribes, and local communities, which includes an online training module it will release to help local government officials take actions to increase their communities’ resilience to climate change.
National and international drinking water and wastewater associations and its supporters and partners are hosting the 2015 International Water & Climate Forum on December 7-9 in San Diego.
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