The Role of Decision Support in Adapting to Climate Change: Findings from Three Place-based Regional Assessments
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This report summarizes the methodologies and findings of three regional assessments and considers the role of decision support in assisting adaptation to climate change.
Background. In conjunction with the US Global Change Research Program’s (USGCRP’s) National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change, EPA led three regional assessments of the impacts of climate change across a range of sectors, including ecosystems, human health, water resources, agriculture, and other important endpoints. The EPA-funded regional assessments included the Great Lakes, the mid to upper Atlantic, and the Gulf Coast. Phase I focused on identifying how people and their surroundings are affected by climate variability and how they will be affected in the future by climate change, how regions can take advantage of opportunities and reduce vulnerabilities to climate variability and change, and what information is needed to improve decision-making and adaptation strategies to address the impacts of climate change. The National Assessment laid the foundation for understanding how adaptation and decision making informed by research could reduce the potential impacts of climate variability and change. However, the first phase only began to explore how science could inform decision making to build resilience to changes in natural and human systems. Seeing an opportunity to make progress on that front, EPA funded Phase II of the regional assessments explicitly to address this gap by examining decision processes and developing decision tools to support adaptation to climate change impacts. The assessments funded by the EPA for these three regions are now complete.