Cities across the United States face the challenge of integrating climate change considerations into their planning. Climate data is complex and fragmented, and often presented in a format and scale that are not aligned with planners’ needs. To support the integration of climate change adaptation into relevant plans such as local hazard mitigation plans, Four Twenty Seven, a California-based climate risk consulting firm, worked with the Alameda County waste authority to develop:

The Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast (MaPP) is a collaboration between British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, and First Nations representing the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative, the North Coast-Skeena First Nations Stewardship Society, and the Nanwakolas Council. EcoAdapt partnered with MaPP in 2012-2015 to facilitate the integration of climate change into marine use plans for the four subregions: Haida Gwaii, North Coast, Central Coast, and North Vancouver Island.

In 2013, the Town of Hull passed a zoning by-law creating a Nantasket Beach Overlay District to create a sustainable shoreline that allows for mixed-use development while protecting natural resources and coastal communities. The zoning by-law establishes the Planning Board as a Special Permit Granting Authority for the overlay district.

Maine’s Coastal Sand Dune Rules recognize uncertainty around rates of erosion and sea level rise, but also the need to act despite uncertainty. The rules define erosion hazard areas as any section of the coastal dune system that may become part of a coastal wetland over the next 100 years due to cumulative changes resulting from (1) historic long-term erosion, (2) short-term erosion from a 100-year storm, or (3) flooding during a 100-year storm combined with a two-foot rise in sea level.