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CA EO B-54-18: Safeguarding California plants, wildlife and ecosystems from climate change
September 7, 2018
California Governor Brown’s Executive Order (EO) directs the state Department of Food and Agriculture and Department of Fish and Wildlife to work together to protect ecosystems, plants and wildlife while restoring and building climate resilience in habitats across the state. The order also supports the state's new California Biodiversity Initiative, an action plan to protecting the state's ecosystems and diversity of wildlife and plants. The Executive Order and Initiative will improve understanding of the state’s biological diversity, and identify and implement strategies to protect the state’s biodiversity from climate change.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Managing Drought in a Changing Climate: Four Essential Reforms
September 6, 2018
This Public Policy Institute of California report examines climate change impacts on water resources in California, and the state’s capacity for adaptation to water scarcity and drought. California’s 2012–2016 drought - which was the hottest in the state’s recorded history and one of the driest - is used to assess water management and responses from that time in four sectors: cities and suburbs, irrigated agriculture, rural communities, and freshwater ecosystems. Policy and management reforms are recommended for drought planning, water infrastructure and operations, water rights administration, and funding.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Paying it Forward: The Path Toward Climate-Safe Infrastructure in California
September 2018
From California’s Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group (CSIWG), this report provides a framework for planning for and developing climate resilient infrastructure. The report details the accelerating climate impacts on California’s infrastructure systems and offers short- and long-term recommendations for buildings, water, transportation, and energy infrastructure. Comprehensive guidance is given on the infrastructure design and implementation process that supports climate change mitigation and adaptation, nature-based solutions, and social equity measures.
Resource Category: Planning
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Rigorously Valuing the Role of U.S. Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction
2019
This report issued by the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Department of the Interior quantifies the value of U. S. coral reefs in protecting people and infrastructure from coastal hazards that will be exacerbated by climate change and sea-level rise including extreme weather events, flooding, and erosion. The report is intended to inform stakeholders and decision-makers of the value of coral reefs in reducing risk from coastal hazards, and to provide quantitative data that can be used to consider the role coral reefs should play in adaptation and risk mitigation planning.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Curt Storlazzi, Borja Reguero, Aaron Cole, Erik Lowe, James Shope, Ann Gibbs, Barry Nickel, Robert McCall, Ap R. van Dongeren, Michael Beck
Resource Category: Assessments
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Chicago Participatory Budgeting Project and Rulebook
In 2009, the Chicago 49th Ward Alderman, Joe Moore launched the first participatory budgeting process in the United States in the City of Chicago, Illinois. When participatory budgeting was first introduced in the City, Alderman Moore used the process to engage with his constituents regarding how the community would spend its $1.3 million in discretionary capital funds. Since this initial introduction, the participatory budgeting process in Chicago has proved a rousing success. In 2012, the Great Cities Institute partnered with the Participatory Budgeting Project and community-leaders from the area to launch PB Chicago to spread the budgeting process throughout the city. PB Chicago has now engaged with over 13,000 residents in 12 different communities, allocating over $18 million in funding to community-chosen projects varying from tree planting to establishing bike lanes. By focusing a majority of their outreach on marginalized and underserved communities, PB Chicago ensures not only that policymakers and city officials hear these residents’ voices, but that these same voices have the opportunity to effectuate change within their own communities as well.
Resource Category: Funding
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Resilient Affordable Housing Grant Program - Boston, Massachusetts
2019
Boston’s Resilient Affordable Housing Grant Program illustrates how cities can use Section 4 Capacity Building Program grants to fund resilience investments in affordable housing. Despite having one of the narrowest housing affordability gaps in the country, Boston nevertheless faces pressures from increasing population growth. Like many urban areas across the country, Boston also faces increased incidences of climate impacts like extreme heat, coastal and riverine flooding, and more frequent stormwater flooding. In 2019, the Boston chapter of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) issued an RFP for Section 4 funding (up to $9,000) to assist community development corporations (CDCs) and community housing development organizations (CDHOs) with preparing the city’s affordable housing stock for extreme weather, sea-level rise, and other impacts of climate change. Specifically, the Resilient Affordable Housing Grant program provided funding to conduct resiliency assessments for vulnerable properties (located in the floodplain or at-risk for extreme heat), as well as for creating emergency management and training plans.
Resource Category: Funding
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Union Square Neighborhood Council, Somerville, Massachusetts
2019
In 2019, the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC) negotiated and ratified a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with the developer Union Square Station Associates LLC (US2), following approximately a year of weekly meetings with the negotiating committee. The CBA set forth terms on a number of issues, including housing, workforce development, and environmental sustainability. Specifically, under the CBA, US2 committed to developing 90 permanently affordable units in the Union Square neighborhood (out of a total of 1,000 new affordable and market rate units).
Resource Category: Solutions
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Wetlands Restoration for California Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant Program
Administered by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, this grant program offers funds for wetland restoration or enhancement projects that result in a net reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Wetland restoration is both a climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Wetlands sequester carbon at high rates, while providing protection from flooding, sea level rise, coastal storm surge, and coastal erosion, as well as offer drought mitigation through groundwater recharge.
Resource Category: Funding
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South Carolina Hazard Mitigation Plan - 2018 Update
October 2018
The 2018 Update to the South Carolina Hazard Mitigation Plan identifies the major natural hazards affecting the state, analyzes risk and vulnerability, and identifies actions to minimize impacts of those hazards. Mitigation actions identified in the plan are based on the Risk Assessment of multiple natural and manmade hazards, including climate impacts, and on the Capability Assessment reviewing the state’s capacity to address the hazards.
Resource Category: Planning
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Paying for Climate Adaptation in California: A Primer for Practitioners
October 2018
This guide provides information for local, state and regional practitioners in California on how to pay for the investments needed to prepare for the impacts of climate change. It provides an analysis of the legal context for funding and financing adaptation investments in California and catalogues different sources of funding that could be used to pay for adaptation. The report also provides equity principles that could be used for directing investments in climate resilience.
Resource Category: Funding
