Helping Communities Adapt to Climate Change
Even if society stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the impacts of past and current emissions would be felt for decades. That’s why the Georgetown Climate Center is working with state and local policymakers to plan for flooding in coastal communities, to address water shortages in already dry regions of the country, and to offset the public health dangers related to climate change.
The Georgetown Climate Center provides states and local governments with best-practice models, legal analysis, policy work, and legislative tracking, and seeks to maximize the federal, state, regional, and local collaborations that are needed to implement new approaches to adaptation.
Learn more about the Center’s work on adaptation.
News and Updates
Several bills have been introduced in the 113th Congress to roll back the insurance subsidy reforms that were included in the Biggert Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012.1
Biggert Waters reformed the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which provides federal flood insurance to landowners in floodplains and is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Biggert Waters included three key provisions that will affect insurance rates for property owners in special flood hazard areas (i.e., the “100-year floodplain” or regulated floodplain)....
In April 2013, the Government Accountability Office issued a report, Future Federal Adaptation Efforts Could Better Support Local Infrastructure Decision Makers. The report discusses potential climate change impacts to the nation’s infrastructure (roads, bridges, and wastewater treatment facilities); and examines the extent to which adaptation is being incorporated into infrastructure planning. Through several case studies, the report details how climate change was incorporated into the design of infrastructure projects (e.g., Interstate 10 in Louisiana, the design of green infrastructure in Milwaukee, and NASA facilities in Texas and Virginia). The authors find that decision makers have not systematically...
Disaster relief funding presents an opportunity for state and local governments to rebuild in a manner that anticipates and responds to future changes in the climate. In most cases, programs funded through disaster relief appropriations, such as the Sandy Relief Act, provide administering agencies with enough authority to prepare for climate changes during the rebuilding process.
As part of a Georgetown Climate Center analysis of the Sandy Relief Act, which is available for download below, the Center has identified the opportunities below to use direct disaster relief funds for adaptive projects that help communities prepare for future climate change impacts.
- FEMA could use its authority to “modify”...
Washington Lawyer's cover story for May 2013, "The Cost of Doing Nothing," highlights the impact that climate change is already having in the U.S., and the important role that Hurricane Sandy is having on public perceptions about the issue.
Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center, discussed the issue with reporter Sarah Kellogg and underscored the important steps forward that many states are taking to prepare for climate changes.
"We've seen an interest on the state level in adaptation and resilience, even in states that are not that progressive on climate policy,"...
A new study calls on the State of Virginia and coastal localities to launch a comprehensive and coordinated planning effort to avoid catastrophic flooding related to sea-level rise.
The report predicts that flood risk will continue to worsen for at least the next 50 years. For example, more than 40 percent of Virginia's Accomack and Northampton counties could face severe flooding from an estimated sea-level rise of one and a half feet and storm surges of an additional three feet -- numbers the study says represent “a very moderate assumption” for the region.
The report was issued by a group led by he Virginia Institute of Marine Science (...
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently released updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps for parts of New York City that double the number of structures located in flood zones. The maps include the hardest hit parts of Staten Island, Queens, and Brooklyn during Hurricane Sandy.
The maps, released in January 2013, will not formally go into effect for the purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program for about two years, but the mayor’s office is already preparing an executive order to support owners of damaged homes in rebuilding to higher standards. For instance, a home in the expanded flood zone could be...
Georgetown Climate Center staff and state experts from Maryland and Alabama recently discussed important opportunities states can pursue to expedite the adoption of living shorelines and better prepare their communities for climate changes.
Living shorelines are defined as shoreline stabilization techniques that use natural habitat elements like tall grasses to enable communities to become more resilient to coastal flooding and erosion. They provide an alternative to "hard armoring", the common use of concrete and other man-made barricades, which is intended to protect property but can often divert flooding to another coastal area and increase erosion.
During the March 21 webinar, Jessica Grannis, staff attorney for the Georgetown Climate...
