• Ecosystems Resources

Biodiversity and Ecosystems Planning Guides

This tab includes guides to help practitioners conduct an adaptation plan assessing impacts to ecosystems and biodiversity. 

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Considering Climate Change in Florida’s State Wildlife Action Planning: A Spatial Resilience Planning Approach

2011

Conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and commissioned by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), this study piloted a new approach to incorporating climate change into wildlife conservation planning through a "spatial resilience planning" method. The method was tested, and recommendations developed, through a series of workshops with Florida species experts and wildlife managers that focused first on revising impact assessments for each species. Priority management actions and spatially specific planning options were then developed for each species under various climate change scenarios.

Authors or Affiliated Users: Michael Flaxman, Juan Carlos Vargas-Moreno

Resource Category: Planning

 

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Flood Frequency Estimates for New England River Restoration Projects: Considering Climate Change in Project Design

2011

Prepared by the NOAA Fisheries Service, this 2011 flood frequency brief and provides guidance for incorporating climate change into river restoration projects. The report explains recent climate and streamflow research, helping river restoration practitioners on improving estimates of flood frequency and magnitude for project design. The document focuses on New England, but is applicable as general guidance for the entire northeastern United States.

Resource Category: Planning

 

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Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment

2011

This report from the National Wildlife Federation is designed to assist fish and wildlife managers and other conservation and resource professionals to better plan, execute, and interpret vulnerability assessments in support of wildlife conservation and ecosystem-based adaptation.   Key steps for assessing ecosystems, habitats and species vulnerability to climate change are described. This guidance material details various approaches for assessing sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity, at each of these biological levels.

Author or Affiliated User: Patty Glick

Resource Category: Assessments

 

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Flowing Foward: Freshwater ecosystem adaptation to climate change in water resources management and biodiversity conservation

August 2010

At the request of the World Bank the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) developed this report to provide guiding principles, processes, and methodologies for incorporating climate change impacts into analytical framework for evaluating water sector projects, with a particular emphasis on impacts on freshwater ecosystems. It was developed for use by the World Bank, however, much of the content is valuable for U.S. resource managers as well.

Authors or Affiliated Users: Tom Le Quesne, John H. Matthews, Constantin Von der Heyden, A.J. Wickel, Rob Wilby, Joerg Hartmann, Guy Pegram, Elizabeth Kistin, Geoffrey Blate, Glauco Kimura de Freitas, Eliot Levine, Carla Guthrie, Catherine McSweeney, Nikolai Sindorf

Resource Category: Planning

 

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U.S. Forest Service (USFS) National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change

July 2010

The National Roadmap for Responding to Climate Change, provided through the U. S. Forest Service Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC), is a guide for forest managers to "prepare their forests for the effects of climate change while enhancing their water resources. " The guide focuses on three types of activities: assessing current risks, vulnerabilities, policies, and gaps in knowledge; engaging partners in seeking solutions and learning from as well as educating the public and employees on climate change issues; and managing for resilience, in ecosystems as well as in human communities, through adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable consumption strategies.

Resource Category: Planning

 

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A Method to Assess Climate-Relevant Decisions: Applications in the Chesapeake Bay (External Review Draft)

June 2010

The goals of EPA’s Global Change Research Program (GCRP) are to assess the potential effects of climate change on water quality, air quality, ecosystem health, and human health, and to provide decision makers with information and tools that enable them to incorporate considerations of climate change into their decision making processes.

Authors or Affiliated Users: Susan H. Julius, Britta G. Bierwagen, Chris Pyke, J. Randall Freed, Susan Asam

Resource Category: Assessments

 

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Climate Change Preparation Planning on National Landscape Conservation System Lands

January 2010

The National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) is a collection of BLM lands which are mandated to protect specific resources, including  natural, cultural, geologic, scenic, scientific, and recreational resources, found within their boundaries. Several agencies, including the BLM and the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, are mandated by DOI Secretarial Order 3289 to "consider and analyze potential climate change impacts when undertaking long-range planning exercises, setting priorities for scientific research, developing multi-year management plans, and making major decisions about the potential use of resources under the Department's purview.

Author or Affiliated User: Marni Koopman

Resource Category: Planning

 

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Climate Change Preparation Planning on National Landscape Conservation System Lands: Recommendations for Direction and Approach

January 2010

This report provides specific recommendations are provided for Conservation System managers as they incorporate climate change impacts into planning documents and management strategies. The guidance was designed to help agencies, primarily the Bureau of Land Management, to develop planning frameworks that were to be implemented starting in 2010.

Author or Affiliated User: Marni E. Koopman

Resource Category: Planning

 

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Adapting Governance to Climate Change: Managing Uncertainty Through a Learning Infrastructure

2009

This report addresses the challenges and limitations of natural resource governance to cope with the effects of climate change, and highlights uncertainty as limiting the capacity for advancing adaptation measures.   It recommends that legislators adopt an “adaptive governance” - the systematic assessment and adaptation of management decisions and regulatory programs. The article also proposes a comprehensive strategy for managing uncertainty by promoting a "learning infrastructure. " With this strategy, legislators establish and promote use of a shared information infrastructure that provides regulators opportunities to learn from the knowledge and experience of other regulators and respond to rapid changes in natural systems, scientific knowledge, and technology.

Author or Affiliated User: Alejandro E. Camacho

Resource Category: Planning

 

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Voluntary Guidance for States to Incorporate Climate Change into State Wildlife Action Plans & Other Management Plans

November 2009

This document provides voluntary guidance that can be used by state fish and wildlife agencies to better incorporate current and expected impacts of climate change into Wildlife Action Plans. The report presents steps for developing a wildlife adaptation strategy, the process for revising state Wildlife Action Plans, and tools to support the planning and implementation process, including vulnerability assessments and monitoring. Relevant case studies are included in each chapter.

Resource Category: Planning

 

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