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.

General Climate Adaptation and Resilience Planning Tools and Resources

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit’s Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation shows early, mid- and late century (past, present and predicted) conditions related to five climate hazards (wildfire, drought, inland and coastal flooding, extreme heat and extreme cold): https://resilience.climate.gov/. Also see the Toolkit’s Steps to Resilience framework (U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.)
FEMA’s Local Mitigation Planning Handbook recommends consideration of the probability of future hazard events when conducting a community risk assessment.
The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) project provides support for community-led resilience planning by Virginia localities.
The RAFT’s PREP Tool bases prioritization of actions on the level of risk, resilience efforts to-date, and best practices in resilience planning.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed a comprehensive, multi-volume Community Resilience Planning Guide | NIST and an accompanying COMMUNITY RESILIENCE PLANNING GUIDE FOR BUILDINGS AND INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS: A Playbook (nist.gov). The Guide sets forth six steps for resilience planning by communities and includes community success stories, an online tool to assist in selecting cost-effective community resilience projects, and an Inventory of Community Resilience Indicators & Assessment Frameworks.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and FEMA developed the Regional Resilience Toolkit: 5 Steps to Build Large-Scale Resilience to Natural Disasters (pdf), which is designed to help governments, NGOs and community groups to collaborate on regional-scale actions. It recommends five steps to build resilience: Engage, Assess, Act, Fund and Measure. For an overview of the Toolkit, see https://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/regional-resilience-toolkit.
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.
Planning story map on VIMS’ AdaptVa website outlines eight successful community resilience examples.
Wetlands Watch’s Sea Level Rise Adaptation Guide is intended for local governments in Virginia.
Georgetown Climate Center’s Adaptation Clearinghouse is a database containing information on many sectors relevant to community adaptation, as well as many toolkits.
Urban Sustainability Network’s Guide to Equitable Community-Driven Climate Preparedness Planning focuses on creating solutions with equitable outcomes.
Georgetown Climate Center’s Equitable Adaptation Legal & Policy Toolkit assists local governments that are centering equity in their adaptation planning.
NOAA Digital Coast’s Adaptation Strategies Guide provides training on beginning the process of creating a plan, identifying available options, evaluating those options, and engaging stakeholders, as well as a series of case studies.
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.
The US Climate Resilience Toolkit has a Steps to Resilience framework which outlines a process of working with a community to create a resilience plan.
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) 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.
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).

Tools to Determine Current Climate-Related Risks and Vulnerabilities

The Virginia Flood Risk Information System (VFRIS) can be used to determine flood zones and the extent of any Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) within a locality.
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; and its Climate Vulnerability Map shows how climate is expected to shift.
The NOAA Atlas 14 provides detailed rainfall estimates by location, which can be helpful in assessing impacts to infrastructure such as stormwater management systems.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management’s Commonwealth of Virginia Hazard Mitigation Plan is a general guide to hazard mitigation activities in Virginia.
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.
Yale School of Public Health’s Map of Heat Vulnerability Index shows data by census tract.
EDF and Texas A&M’s US Climate Vulnerability Index shows vulnerability to multiple risks by census tract.
First Street Foundation’s Risk Factor includes Flood Factor, Fire Factor, Wind Factor, and Heat Factor tools to calculate a property’s risk level.
Climate Central’s Surging Seas website has maps showing properties at risk of flooding from sea level rise.
FEMA’s Hazus Program provides standardized tools and data for estimating risk from earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes.
There is a list of assessment tools available on the Maryland Department of Natural Resource’s Climate Change Planning website: Maryland Climate Change Planning – Assessment Tools.

Tools for Addressing Extreme Heat

The Climate Mapping for Resilience & Adaptation tool includes resources dedicated to addressing extreme heat and a collection of GIS datasets to predict and understand the threat of extreme heat.
The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) includes local and national maps, along with other datasets that have information on extreme heat.
The Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT) includes extreme heat data layers.
The National Risk Index shows expected losses using historical extreme heat data.
Heat.gov is the federal home of extreme heat data and information. It’s federal funding opportunities page lists sources that can be used for extreme heat.

Tools to Determine Predicted Climate-Related Risks

The VA Coastal Resilience Master Plan’s predictive flood data can help localities to determine their risk levels. Also see the helpful Guidance for Using Maryland’s 2018 SLR Projections.
The Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s AdaptVA website has resources for mapped predicted sea level rise and flooding data, including layers for socially vulnerable communities, infrastructure and natural resources.
The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) Interactive Atlas shows predicted climate conditions by region for later this century.
NOAA MARISA’s Community Climate Outlooks map heat, flooding and storm surge predicted risks for communities throughout Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
The NOAA MARISA Projected Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Curve Data Tool for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and Virginia can be used to determine a community’s projected increase in rainfall.
NOAA’s Digital Coast includes a Sea Level Rise Viewer and High Resolution Land Cover Data.
For an overarching explanation of projected sea level rise, see Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States: Updated Mean Projections and Extreme Water Level Probabilities along U.S. Coastlines. Sweet, W.V. et al., NOAA Technical Report NOS 01 (2022), NOAA National Ocean Service. Sea Level Rise Technical Report: Download and FAQs (noaa.gov).
The Coastal Virginia Sea Level with Minor and Moderate Flooding map viewer shows flooding due to sea level rise for the years 2040, 2060, and 2080.
VIMS’ Climate Change Impacts in Virginia: A Natural Resource Database includes information on natural resource, meteorological and economic datasets.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | Disaster Cost and Frequency | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (noaa.gov) and Hazards Risk & Vulnerability Mapping Tool provide information available at the county level.
For drinking water and wastewater management guidance, see EPA’s Vulnerability Self-Assessment Tool for drinking water and wastewater utility risk and Resilient Strategies Guide for Water Utilities and the Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT).
For information on the vulnerability of transportation systems, see the US DOT Vulnerability Assessment Scoring Tool (VAST) and VIMS’ Coastal Virginia Road Accessibility Assessment.

Tools to Determine Economic Risks and Vulnerabilities

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.

Toolkits and Resources for Funding

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.

Tools to Help Identify and Engage with Physically and Socially Vulnerable Communities, and Groups that Service Them

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s interactive map on the AdaptVA website includes a layer with social vulnerability data.
The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) project provides support for community-led resilience planning by Virginia localities.
The Council on Environmental Quality’s Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool shows census tracts that are overburdened and underserved, and federally recognized tribes which are considered to be disadvantaged communities.
The EPA’s EJScreen (Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping) Tool provides environmental and demographic information incorporating 13 environmental and 7 socio-economic indicators.
The EPA Inflation Reduction Act Environmental and Climate Justice Program , created by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), provides funding for financial and technical assistance to benefit underserved and overburdened communities. EPA has created the EPA IRA Disadvantaged Communities map layer to help identify whether a community is disadvantaged for the purposes of this program. EPA must award grants by September 30, 2026.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Community Resilience Estimates includes social vulnerability data.
The RAFT’s Exercise Worksheet Contextualizing Natural Hazards and Impacts on Vulnerable Populations can assist local governments in understanding the specific impacts of hazards on a locality and identifying populations vulnerable to those impacts.
Maine Sea Grant and partners developed a Social-Resilience-Planning-Guidebook.pdf (wellsreserve.org) that can help others interested in designing and implementing social resilience projects.
The EPA’s Equitable Resilience Builder helps support communities focus on equity when creating a resilience plan. For an example of the ERB in practice, see this storymap by the Urban Waters Learning Network.

Tools to Assist with Community Engagement

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 for Green Infrastructure Development

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.
Clemson University shows several case studies of living shorelines in use and provides guidance for planning living shoreline projects.
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.
Engineering With Nature provides a database of tools used to plan and design green infrastructure projects.
The Georgetown Climate Center offers a toolkit for localities to glean best practices from successfully implemented green infrastructure and apply it to their own development.
The EPA has resources to help communities plan, design, maintain, and fund green infrastructure, and provides options to use green infrastructure to build resiliency.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has resources to help communities plan and implement green infrastructure that protects coastal highways.
FEMA offers two different guides for localities to successfully implement nature based solutions, as well as planning resources and funding opportunities.
NOAA offers a guide to assist with assessing site risk, identifying benefits and costs of various green infrastructures, choosing a green infrastructure strategy, setting and meeting flood reduction targets, and implementing selected green infrastructure projects.
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).

Tools for Historic/Cultural Site Preservation

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Virginia’s State Historic Preservation Office, offers helpful reports and publications and knowledgeable staff who work with local governments. See The Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
The National Park Service provides a list of Federal regulations and a list of standards and guidelines for preservation projects.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation offers “Tips & Tools” for preservation projects.
North Carolina’s Historic Resilience Project seeks to equip local communities to address the natural threats to historic and cultural resources.

Tools for Cemetery Preservation

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.
FEMA provides a Guide to Expanding Mitigation: Making the Connection to Cemeteries that offers recommendations for communities that want to implement hazard mitigation measures in at-risk cemeteries.
The International Right of Way Association provides suggestions and best practices for cemetery relocation.