Salem recognizes the importance of being prepared for climate change and has produced this Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Plan). The Plan investigates some of the most serious climate change impacts, the resulting stresses to different sectors in the City, and outlines project ideas to address some of the most critical issues. The goal for this plan is to identify immediate, actionable adaptation priorities, and incorporate these into existing and future projects and policies.

The Urban Land Institute convened its first major meeting focused on resilience on September 4–5, 2014. The San Francisco conference brought together several hundred leading real estate, development, finance, planning, and policy professionals to explore strategies for building resilient cities.

How does one protect and enhance the value of a real estate asset, community, and infrastructure as the climate changes and sea levels rise?

What constitutes strengthening resilience through equitable adaptation planning? How do we assess the context comprehensively so that effective methods are designed? To be able to declare that community resilience has been achieved, we must develop systems that address the needs and provide protection for those most vulnerable and marginalized.

Over the past five years, the U.S. Department of Transportation has been conducting a climate change vulnerability assessment pilot in Mobile, Alabama, known as Phase 2 of the Gulf Coast Study.

Many aspects of the Californian approach to controlling the greenhouse gases that cause climate change now have a sufficient track record to provide potential models or lessons for national and even international action. In comparison, the state's efforts on climate change adaptation, although multifaceted, are less well developed and thus far have focused largely on information sharing, impact assessments, and planning.

It is expected that the impacts of climate change on Canada’s water resources will be significant. Climate induced changes in precipitation and air temperature will lead to earlier timing of peak flows, greater frequency of flooding, and more extreme drought conditions. Changes in climate and the related impacts on terrestrial and freshwater environments will also affect nutrient cycling, stream temperatures, the distribution, concentration, and timing of contaminants, as well as the transport and concentrations of sediments in watercourses.