Document Details

Climate Change Handbook for Regional Water Planning

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 28th, 2011


As the science of climate change quickly develops and evolves, watershed planning practitioners face the challenge of interpreting new information and discerning which methods and approaches are more appropriate for their planning needs. This handbook offers an innovative analytical framework for incorporating climate change impacts into a regional and watershed planning process.

This handbook was developed as a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9, the California Department of Water Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division, and the Resources Legacy Fund. Although this handbook is focused on the California Integrated Regional Water Management Planning (IRWMP) process, it can be used by other practitioners nationally and internationally when incorporating climate change into any watershed or water supply planning process.

This handbook considers both climate change adaptation (reduction of impacts) and mitigation [greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction]. Quantitative tools and techniques for addressing both are introduced and discussed in order to prepare comprehensive IRWMPs. A guide to assess the vulnerability of a watershed or region to climate change impacts is presented in this handbook, and guidelines to prioritize vulnerabilities are introduced. This handbook relies on approaches that have been developed and applied to regional watershed planning processes. This handbook also presents case studies that provide illustrative examples in which the latest science and methods on climate change, including uncertainty and adaptive management approaches, have been applied outside academia.

While the available suite of climate change tools and analytical techniques for incorporating climate change is continually advancing and improving, the underlying planning processes outlined in this handbook should continue to provide a solid basis for comprehensive watershed planning. Improved decisions about water resources management systems, whether adapting them to future climate change or mitigating climate change through reductions in GHG emissions, should result from application of the framework in this handbook. This handbook presents the range of decisions that need to be made and the factors that go into making those decisions at a local or regional level.

During implementation of the decision support framework that is presented in this handbook, planners must consider the suite of available tools and the abilities and resources available to the regional/watershed planning group. The long-term goal of this handbook is to serve as a foundation for a thoughtful planning process for incorporating climate change impacts into IRWMPs and other regional and watershed management planning processes.

Keywords

climate change, planning and management