Adaptation Support

Adoption of Nature-Based Solutions and Measuring Success in Community Adaptation Planning

Overview

In 2021, the Climate Resilience Fund (CRF) collaborated with NOAA to fund work supporting community climate resilience and adaptation planning within four topic areas identified as priorities by adaptation practitioners: 1) Diversity, equity, and inclusion; 2) Nature-based solutions to climate change; 3) Finance-ready resilience planning; and 4) Measures of success. Through their Coordination and Collaboration in the Resilience Ecosystem (CCRE) program, four project teams developed synthesis papers and training materials on these topics to support adaptation planning within NOAA's Steps to Resilience framework. The NOAA Climate Program Office will integrate this content into their new Practitioner's Guide for Climate Resilience, which is being developed for the Steps to Resilience framework within the NOAA Climate Resilience Toolkit and will provide guidance on best available practices for adaptation planning for use by adaptation service providers across the nation.

EcoAdapt played a role on two of the four project teams, synthesizing the best available information on nature-based solutions to climate change (in collaboration with partners at the National Wildlife Federation) and measuring the success of adaptation through monitoring and evaluation (in collaboration with partners at Adaptation Insight).

Products

Incorporating Nature-Based Solutions Into Community Climate Adaptation Planning

This synthesis report offers guidance for integrating natural and nature-based features into community adaptation and resilience planning processes, identifying seven "key considerations" to help promote the broader use of nature-based solutions. The report also summarizes approaches for overcoming barriers to adopting nature-based solutions and highlights funding and financing mechanisms that can help communities implement nature-based approaches. This effort represents a collaboration between the National Wildlife Federation and EcoAdapt and is specifically designed to support the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit and its “Steps to Resilience” planning framework.

How Will We Know We're Adapting?: Moving from Faith-based to Tested Adaptation Process and Approach

With our partners at Adaptation Insight, EcoAdapt offers the adaptation community this synthesis report focused on how the field of adaptation can shift from practices built on assumptions to practices built on evidence and deliberation. Doing so will require the systematic collection of information and its use to support analysis and learning about when, where, why, and how to implement adaptation. This paper explores how the field of adaptation would benefit from increased and informed use of indicators, metrics, monitoring, and evaluation at every level.

Worksheets to support the use of this guide.