SuperUser Account Friday, September 30, 2016 / Categories: Research Headlines, Press Release, Climate, 2016 New tool helps urban communities build resilience to climate change Our nation’s city planners, and business and community leaders have been grappling with weather- and climate-related impacts for decades. Now they have a set of tools to help them plan and prepare: The Built Environment section of the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is designed to help address a wide range of risks facing cities and towns. About 325 million people live in the United States today, and about eight out of ten live in or near a city or town. Extreme events that hit these urban areas — heat waves, heavy downpours, floods, and storm surges — often come with devastating and lasting impacts to property, lives, and livelihoods. Economic inequality, environmental degradation, and deteriorating public infrastructure can make some communities more vulnerable to weather and climate extremes than others. “We worked with experts in the field and communities that would use the tool to ensure it meets the needs of urban and suburban planners,” said Nancy Beller-Simms, Ph.D, who led the project with experts from the U.S. Forest Service and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. The toolkit’s new Built Environment feature provides authoritative, peer-reviewed information, real-world case studies, science-based decision-support tools, planning guides, training courses, reports, action plans, and links to regional experts — all freely available to the public. “We wanted to be sure the tool included information on how to harness the benefits of trees, wetlands and other natural resources to strengthen the health, wellbeing, and sustainability of our cities and towns,” said Lauren Marshall, of the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program. “In terms of resilience planning, this tool can help shift the conversation from one of recovery to one of proactive planning,” said Jesse M. Keenan, Ph.D., of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. About the tool NOAA, the U.S. Forest Service, and Harvard University led the development of the new tool in collaboration with a National Institute of Standards and Technology, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan. For more information, please contact Monica Allen, director of public affairs for NOAA Research, at 301-734-1123 or by email at monica.allen@noaa.gov Previous Article NOAA “reels in” data on Utah’s winter ozone problem Next Article NOAA awards $44 million for climate research to improve community resilience Print 10347 Tags: climate Related articles National Academy of Science honors NOAA's Kirk Bryan for pioneering ocean and climate science Atmospheric Rivers: What are they and how does NOAA study them? Arctic Report Card: Update for 2022 When volcanoes roar: protecting the public and tracking long-term climate impacts NOAA Research's top accomplishments from 2022