Proactive Planning for Resilience: Protocols for Community-Led Climate Adaptation in Virginia

Tools and Resources

There are many tools available to assist local governments in assessing their current and predicted impacts, risks and vulnerabilities due to climate change. NOAA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (MARISA) offers a Chesapeake Bay Climate Adaptation Toolbox that is designed to help users identify the best decision-support tool to address their needs. It is an excellent reference for local governments in Virginia undertaking adaptation planning. In addition, the US Climate Resilience Toolkit, which provides information from across federal agencies, is also very helpful, including its Steps to Resilience. Note that there is potential for different tools to provide different or conflicting results/ information when they are based on multiple data sources that are updated at different times. 

Some key factors to keep in mind when selecting tools to support adaptation planning are that they should:
  • Be simple to use and visually clear, so a variety of local government staff and residents find them accessible. If there is concern about this, then appointing training liaisons could be useful.
  • Provide finer-scale data, both current and predictive, with community-specific, local, and regional data sources.
  • Have the ability to provide visualization of local changes, and scenario evaluation. It can be helpful to community engagement to have pictures or graphs showing actual damage and impacts for the area being discussed.
  • Include social vulnerability metrics.
  • Support co-production of data with communities.

Tools Developed by Federal Agencies:

Other Tools:

  • The American Society of Civil Engineers’ online toolkit, Pathways to Resilient Communities: Infrastructure Designed for the Environmental Hazards in Your Region (https://www.asce.org/-/media/asce-images-and-files/advocacy/documents/pathways-to-resilient-communities-asce-toolkit.pdf) is a clearinghouse of technical tools and resources to assist community leaders in improving their built environment’s ability to respond to increasingly severe storms and other threats to vertical and horizontal infrastructure. It features ASCE’s hazard-specific standards for threats to the built environment by region, including flooding, earthquakes, wind, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, winter weather, and more.
  • Georgetown Climate Center’s Adaptation Clearinghouse is a database containing information on many sectors relevant to community adaptation, as well as many toolkits. For example, Georgetown Climate Center’s Equitable Adaptation Legal & Policy Toolkit assists local governments that are centering equity in their adaptation planning.
  • Urban Sustainability Network’s Guide to Equitable Community-Driven Climate Preparedness Planning focuses on creating solutions with equitable outcomes.
  • The US Climate Resilience Map produced by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht – Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center is a visualization tool that shares proven solutions to address cities’ climate risks and social vulnerabilities. The icons on the interactive map feature ten cities across the U.S. that successfully implemented resilience-building interventions. The data layers are organized into two categories: (1) climate risks and (2) social vulnerabilities. The climate risk layers include coastal flood risk, drought risk, extreme heat days, extreme precipitation days, riverine flood risk, and wildfires.
  • Deltares is piloting in the U.S. a decision support tool that combines compound flood modeling and detailed impact modeling that can be used to evaluate compound events, future conditions and adaptation options. See FloodAdapt – an adaptation planning tool | Deltares.
  • North Carolina has released a Heat Action Plan Toolkit which focuses on how to address the rising problem of extreme heat in communities. 
  • Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit supports planning by helping local decision makers understand how environmental outcomes will translate into social and economic costs. There are 15 completed VCAPS reports on the website, along with the user guide.
  • The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) has over 60 climate variables across models at the local and national level.

Virginia-specific Tools:

Tools Developed by Federal Agencies:
  • The range of maps at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center allow for layering to see differential flood zone risks. 
  • US Climate Resilience Toolkit’s Climate Explorer shows projected climate conditions (including temperature changes) by county/city in graph or map format.
  • The NOAA Atlas 14 provides detailed rainfall estimates by location, which can be helpful in assessing impacts to infrastructure such as stormwater management systems.
  • On the NOAA Office for Coastal Management’s Digital Coast website, FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer digital database shows data used by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), enabling users to determine the flood zone, base flood elevation, and floodway status for a particular geographic location. In addition, NOAA | Coastal County Snapshots turns county-level data into easy-to-understand charts and graphics that can be  used to create printable handouts; and the Coastal Flood Exposure Mapper can be used to create user-defined maps showing people, places and natural resources potentially exposed to coastal flooding, and provides guidance for using the maps to engage community members and stakeholders.
  • FEMA’s Resilience Analysis Planning Tool (RAPT) includes map layers with community resilience indicators, demographic data, and other useful data sources.
  • NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS)’ coastal hazards portfolio includes sea level, tide fluctuation, and coastal flooding information with additional information on sea level.
  • NOAA National Hurricane Center’s National Storm Surge Hazard Maps can be used to identify areas at risk.
  • FEMA’s Hazus Program provides standardized tools and data for estimating risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes.
Other Tools: Virginia-specific Tools:
Tools Developed by Federal Agencies: Virginia-specific Tools:
  • The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Resilience in a Box offers resources for businesses reopening after disasters and emergencies.
  • The Insurance Institute for Building and Home Safety provides guidance for national disasters. 
  • DHS Ready.gov has business resources to prepare for disasters and emergencies.
  • The Virginia Institute of Marine Science and partners drafted a report to advise and help guide landowners who farm within coastal areas vulnerable to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion, and ultimately, loss of arable cropland in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: Final_VIMS_FarmlandReport.pdf. The report includes strategies for assessing the scale of impact of sea level rise and saltwater intrusion on agricultural lands, and potential cropping or land-use practices that would sustain economic use.
  • Local governments should first consult the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Coastal Resilience Web Explorer, which has an extensive list of grants and loans, last updated in September of 2021. 
  • Also see the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association’s 2023 webinar, Funding Options for Increasing Community Resilience, which features the City of Hampton’s innovative use of Environmental Impact Bonds and other funding mechanisms for its Resilient Hampton program; the use of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Section 202 grants by Buchanan and Dickenson counties to address flooding in southwest Virginia; and the funding sources administered by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, particularly the Community Flood Protection Fund and the Resilient Virginia Revolving Fund. See Your Hour With APA VA | Funding Options for Increasing Community Resilience | CM #9265699 (youtube.com).
  • For federal funding, Wetlands Watch has a grants guide that provides an overview of available sources and a searchable database of grant information.
  • For specific funding sources and implementation tools for localities in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia, check out the Fight the Flood VA website, which contains a form to enter property and flooding information to be matched with potential funding sources. There is also assistance available through the site for the funding application process.
  • The Georgetown Climate Center’s Managed Retreat Toolkit has in-depth information on some of the most notable funding sources and includes additional tips for successfully obtaining and implementing funds, as well as additional case studies, resources, and updates.
  • NOAA’s Funding and Financing: Options and Considerations for Coastal Resilience Projects provides a brief overview of different funding options and their Funding and Financing Coastal Resilience Webinars (noaa.gov) provide in-depth information on funding opportunities. 
  • NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management has a digital resource with worksheets and guides on how to develop federal grant proposals and successfully engage communities in the process. 
  • The American Society of Adaptation Professionals’ Ready-to-Fund Resilience Toolkit provides information on how to best design a ready-to-fund project, offering ten characteristics of readily fundable projects and solutions for common funding challenges such as lack of staff capacity, regulatory barriers, etc.
  • The U.S Climate Resilience Toolkit links to many different databases / collections of grants collected and organized by both public and private funding entities. It is a useful, centralized location to look for grant-related information.
  • For an in-depth overview of the current landscape of climate resilience funding, see Chapter 9 of the National Academies Community-Driven Relocation report.
  • The Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association’s 2023 webinar, Funding Options for Increasing Community Resilience, which features the City of Hampton’s innovative use of Environmental Impact Bonds and other funding mechanisms for its Resilient Hampton program; the use of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Section 202 grants by Buchanan and Dickenson counties to address flooding in southwest Virginia; and the funding sources administered by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, particularly the Community Flood Protection Fund and the Resilient Virginia Revolving Fund. See Your Hour With APA VA | Funding Options for Increasing Community Resilience | CM #9265699 (youtube.com).
  • EPA has released a new website, the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Toolbox (CRAFT) (https://www.epa.gov/resilient-investments), to support technical assistance providers working with states, Tribes, communities, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, businesses, and others looking to invest in climate-resilient projects. Technical assistance providers can use the materials in CRAFT to help reduce the administrative burden on EPA’s funding applicants and recipients as they develop, apply for, and implement their projects. Resources in the Toolbox include overviews of EPA’s financial assistance programs with climate-safe investment opportunities; climate risk tools and decision support resources; communications materials to facilitate discussions about adaptation, resilience and environmental justice;  resources on how to effectively perform targeted community engagement efforts; and definitions of common terms to use during technical assistance consultations, engagement efforts and the development of project proposals.
  • ASERT – Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow is a tool  developed by Old Dominion University that allows community members to engage with adaptation planning in an intuitive way.
  • Green 2.0’s Coastal Considerations: Improving NGO Engagement with Coastal Communities of Color (COASTAL CONSIDERATIONS:) provides helpful “lessons learned” that can be applied to community engagement efforts.
  • EPA’s Equitable Resilience Builder | US EPA provides a guided process to inclusively assess local hazards, equity, and the resilience of built, natural, and social environment systems. Results can be used to collaboratively prioritize actions. For an example of the ERB in practice, see this storymap by the Urban Waters Learning Network.
  • The State of Maryland and The Nature Conservancy hosted a series of workshops in a project called SEAFARE (Supporting Equitable Access to Funding for Adaptation Resources). The resulting report discusses barriers to equitable access to funding and includes Recommendations for Decision-Makers to help overcome those barriers. See SEAFARE Report_TNC Maryland_May 2024.pdf | Powered by Box.
  • The Climigration Network offers a Guidebook for Community Conversations on Climate Migration that is designed to help leaders begin conversations about relocation.
  • Felt: The only cloud-native GIS platform offers communities the ability to create and share web-based maps for free. For a fee, communities also can access heat maps and custom mapping apps and dashboards.

Tools Developed by Federal Agencies:

Other Tools:

Virginia-specific Tools:

  • Wetlands Watch has developed a guide, Designing Living Shorelines for Sea Level Rise in​ Virginia, to assist shoreline professionals seeking sustainable and adaptive solutions for shorelines facing sea level rise and coastal hazards. The resource provides technical guidance, including detailed adaptive design examples, practical strategies, and real-world case studies.
  • AdaptVA’s Adaptation Stories provide case studies on implemented green infrastructure projects and outlines the funding partners and strategies to inform future projects.
  • Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia Green Infrastructure Directory shows examples of developed green infrastructure in the Commonwealth.
  • The Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) Living Shoreline Decision Tool and Coastal Resource Tool provide overall best practices and shoreline information tailored to specific Virginia coastal community needs. The VIMS Comprehensive Coastal Resource Management Portals provide current and historic shoreline management information for Virginia localities, including interactive mapping tools, shoreline and tidal marsh inventory reports, sea level rise and flooding information, GIS data for downloading, and other locality-specific VIMS shoreline publications.
  • VIMS provides green infrastructure design alternatives for living shorelines.
  • The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission offers planning tools, educational resources, and funding opportunities to support green infrastructure project development in Virginia.
  • The former Virginia Coastal Policy Center at William & Mary Law School developed A Quick Guide to Resilience as a short, easy- to-navigate reference for citizens and local governments in Virginia. It covers a variety of climate change resilience-related topics, and includes a helpful chart comparing the benefits of various types of green infrastructure or Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBFs).
  • Forestry Resources: The Virginia Department of Forestry and the Green Infrastructure Center produced Resilient Coastal Forests of Virginia: Overcoming Challenges and Implementing Strategies for a Better Future (Resiliency-Coastal_Virginia-web.pdf), the result of a pilot study of coastal forests in communities within the lower watershed of the York River in Virginia. The report analyzes coastal forest trends; outlines the benefits of coastal forests; models the threats and risks to coastal forests and showcases strategies to address them; and recommends management strategies to mitigate or adapt to future impacts.  Also see the Resilient Coastal Forests of Virginia: Benefits Report (https://gicinc.org/wp-content/uploads/VA-RCF-Benefits-Report_sm.pdf).
  • The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Virginia Natural Heritage Data Explorer map is an excellent resource during adaptation planning to assist with selecting prime areas for conservation to achieve multiple benefits (e.g., flood buffering, habitat and rare species preservation, wetlands upland migration corridors, wildlife crossings, and forest conservation): Map | Virginia Natural Heritage Data Explorer. In prioritizing wetlands for conservation, communities also can use the Virginia Wetland Condition Assessment Tool (WetCAT). The tool assesses and scores wetlands’ stress condition and capacity to perform ecosystem services.
  • The Virginia Department of Historic Resources offers help with preserving burial grounds, obtaining legal permits for archaeological recovery of remains, making archival records, and getting funding: Cemetery Preservation – DHR.
  • The International Right of Way Association provides suggestions and best practices for cemetery relocation.
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