CoastalResilience

ClimAID

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has undertaken a project entitled “Integrated Assessment for Effective Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in New York State” Or ClimAID. The focus of the project is to provide New York State with information detailing its vulnerability to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and changing weather patterns. The project will draw upon both local experience and scientific knowledge by involving numerous stakeholders in eight key sectors: agriculture, communications, ecosystems, energy, ocean coastal zones, public health, transportation, and water resources. Assessing New York’s vulnerability to climate change in these sectors will provide baseline information to inform the development of adaptation strategies.

The project’s first task will be to identify relevant stakeholders within each of the sectors to be covered by the project. Subsequent to identifying sectors and stakeholders, researchers will conduct an assessment of present and future vulnerabilities associated with climate change. Stakeholder-identified needs will contribute to the development of an outline of current and future adaptation requirements for New York State. Researchers will then perform a statewide vulnerability assessment and economic analysis. The assessment will include the magnitude, spatial extent, consequences to human welfare, and financial costs of climate change, while the economic analysis will evaluate how the impacts are likely to affect different sectors of the state’s economy.

Based on the assessment of vulnerabilities and adaptation requirements, the project will produce a comprehensive climate change analysis for New York State, addressing both current and projected impacts and identifying adaptation strategies, including economic analyses, for each sector. Out of this analysis, researchers will develop and test a generalized set of guidelines for a flexible, yet prioritized, response to climate change. The guidelines will facilitate the development of science-based adaptation strategies within each sector.

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