Climate Adaptation Planning with Alaska-Based Adaptation Tools

The dynamic landscape and climate of Alaska presents many challenges to the over 200 communities that live in rural areas of the state and have a wide variety of resource needs. Coastal and riverine erosion, flooding, wildfire, permafrost dynamics and increasing temperatures act as drivers for many of these landscape changes. Both the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center and the Scenarios for Alaska and Arctic Planning have developed a wide range of tools that provide useful information for climate adaptation planning efforts. In partnership with the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association and via a Bureau of Indian Affairs, grant researchers in Alaska will utilize these tools to gather information for 5 Alaskan communities. The tools range from a geo-located database that includes land-use management plans, journal articles, and community-based projections of temperature and precipitation. Rural communities have already begun implementing adaptation strategies that involve everything from community-based monitoring to adapting traditional subsistence practices to relocation.