The Guide divides the adaptation planning process into 5 Steps: Initial Assessment, Strategy Development, Detailed Planning, Funding Plan, and Plan Implementation, Evaluation, and Adjustment. Each step includes specific actions and discusses some best practices, helpful tools and resources, and community engagement challenges. It is not necessary to start at Step 1, and the process is not necessarily linear. Some communities may be further along in this process and may be able to start at a later step, while others may be just beginning and should start at Step 1. Communities are encouraged to assess where they are in the process and what they want to achieve with an adaptation planning process.

Local governments can use this Guide to help them put together a suite of complementary tools – such as living shorelines, public education, targeted buyout programs, and regulatory setbacks and building code requirements in floodplains – that effectively mitigate risks and encourage adaptation.¹ Local leadership and political will play important roles in developing proactive and innovative solutions. So local governments should invest in developing community leaders who understand and can help communicate local climate-triggered risks to increase local support for adaptation planning.

¹ For example, see Dyckman, C., St. John, C. and London, J. “Realizing managed retreat and innovation in state-level coastal management planning,” Ocean & Coastal Management 102 (2014), p. 212-223 (discussing innovative coastal states’ combination of tools used in coastal management). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964569114002919.

Where Are You In the Planning Process, and What Do You Want to Do? 

How you use this Guide depends on your community goals and where you are in the planning process.

• If you want to assess your community’s risks and vulnerabilities, see Step 1.

• • If you want to find recommended best practices for community engagement to obtain input on your risk assessment, see Step 1 here.

• If you want to research various options available to mitigate or adapt to climate-change risks, see Step 2.

• • Specifically, for information about reducing risk by limiting development in vulnerable areas, see Step 2 here.
  • For information about reducing risk to buildings, see Step 2 here; and for reducing risk to infrastructure, see Step 2 here.
  • For addressing risks to historic and cultural sites, including cemeteries, see Step 2 here.
  • For reducing risks by using green infrastructure (such as living shorelines, permeable pavers, or beach replenishment) or gray infrastructure (such as seawalls, levees, and traditional pipes and culverts), see Step 2 here.
  • For planned relocation away from high risk areas, see Step 2 here.
  • If you want to find recommended best practices for community engagement when selecting options, see Step 2 here.

• If you have assessed your community’s risks already, and have worked with your community to decide which options to pursue, see Step 3 for help with developing your Adaptation Plan.

• • • If you want to find recommended best practices for community engagement in plan development, see Step 3 here.
• If you are seeking funding, see Step 4.
• If you have a completed resilience plan, see Step 5.