Water Sector Law and Policy
This tab includes laws and policies for avoiding or reducing climate change impacts in the water sector, including best practices and legal and policy analysis. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by resource type, impact, jurisdictional focus, state, or region.
105 results are shown below.
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Resource
February 2017
This white paper discusses climate change impacts on septic systems in New England, and whether states in the region are prepared for these impacts. The paper provides a state-by-state analysis of septic system regulations in New England and discusses how these regulatory frameworks are not fully considering climate change impacts, especially groundwater table rise. It also identifies challenges in septic system regulation, and suggests recommendations and best practices for how states and municipalities can work to change laws, amend rules, or adopt new policies or incentives to better construct, manage, and regulate septic systems to be resilient to climate change.
Author or Affiliated User: Elena Mihaly
Resource Category: Assessments
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Resource
2017
Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems (CREWS) consists of 24 nonprofits - Kresge Foundation grantees - who are building solutions for low-income communities in U. S. cities to adapt to climate enhanced storm and flood impacts. CREWS programs are transforming urban stormwater and wastewater systems with climate resilient integrated water-management practices and socially equitable solutions. CREWS is an initiative of the Kresge Foundation’s Environment Program, focused on climate resilience through adaptation, mitigation, and social justice.
Resource Category: Solutions
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This series of five fact sheets explain Low Impact Development (LID), Green Infrastructure (GI), and sustainable design in order to help communities understand and adopt smart land use. This information describes how LID and GI not only help to manage stormwater and improve groundwater supplies, but also can reduce flooding, improve water quality, lower maintenance costs, and increase property values. MassAudubon suggests that preserving existing GI is a first line of defense against climate impacts such as increased storm intensities, while achieving long-term cost savings.
Resource Category: Education and Outreach
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Resource
December 2016
The Water section of Los Angeles County, California's Climate Action Framework (A Greater LA) identifies climate change impacts on water resources in the Los Angeles County region, and regional-scale priorities for improving the reliability of the region's water supply under future conditions. The Framework, which also contains sections for four other sectors, was developed by the Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability (LARC) to support more coordinated and collaborative regional policies relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Resource
December 12, 2016
Achieving Urban Resilience illustrates the environmental, health and economic benefits that Washington, D. C. could gain from citywide adoption of smart surface technologies such as cool roofs, green roofs, solar PV, porous pavements, bio-retention, rainwater harvesting, reflective pavements, permeable pavements, and urban trees. The report quantifies the benefits of adopting cost-effective strategies to manage sun and rainfall at a city level, and documents how the District could save at least $5 billion over 40 years with smart surface strategies.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Greg Kats, Keith Glassbrook
Resource Category: Planning
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Resource
November 16, 2016
Looking at 17 communities engaged in adaptation, this report examines what communities are doing to address climate risks. It finds that communities are often motivated by extreme climate event and are more focused on reducing their current vulnerabilities to extreme events, compared to addressing future climate impacts. Despite this, there is encouraging evidence that communities can begin addressing climate change risks and overcome barriers to action and implementation. The 17 case studies provide insights into the key components of a well-adapted community.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Jason M. Vogel, Karen Carney, Charles Herrick, Missy Stults , Megan O'Grady, Alexis St. Juliana, Heather Hosterman, Lorine Giangola, Joel B. Smith
Resource Category: Solutions
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Resource
2014, Revised 2016
Michigan's Washtenaw County Water Resource Commissioner guidelines promote stream channel protection and stormwater management for flood control, and have been updated to address improved water quality and availability. The guidelines outline the best management practices (BMPs) that should guide the design criteria for green infrastructure installations. The rules address when different BMPs are appropriate, how to design and build them (including calculations for runoff), how to test their effectiveness, and how to maintain them over time.
Author or Affiliated User: Evan N. Pratt
Resource Category: Planning
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September 14, 2016
From the Georgetown Climate Center, the new Green Infrastructure Toolkit is a comprehensive guide presenting a wide array of best green infrastructure practices from cities across the country. The tool is integrated with this Adaptation Clearinghouse to showcase some of the best examples available, whether you are just getting started, scaling up, determining how to pay for green infrastructure, or working to ensure that local policies are integrated with climate equity and environmental justice efforts in the community.
Author or Affiliated User: Sara Hoverter
Resource Category: Solutions
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July 8, 2016
The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a fact sheet describing ways that state and local governments can finance climate resilience investments using green bonds and other innovative financing strategies. Green bonds can be used to finance investments in and retrofits to infrastructure to increase community resilience, including investments in renewable energy and grid resilience, clean transportation, drinking and wastewater infrastructure, and more. The fact sheet provides a high level summary of some financing options including green bonds, catastrophe bonds, resilience bonds, and social impact bonds.
Resource Category: Solutions
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May 9, 2016
B-37-16 “Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life” is an executive order that builds on temporary statewide emergency water restrictions set forth by Governor Brown and the State Water Resources Control Board in 2015, to establish longer-term water conservation measures for California. In response to the extreme and persistent drought conditions along with warmer weather and reduced snowpack expected for the state, the 2016 executive order directs permanent changes to: use water more wisely, eliminate water waste, strengthen local drought resistance, and improve agricultural water use efficiency and drought planning.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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