Land Use Planning

Vegetative enhancement in the form of tree planting has been found to be a highly effective strategy for cooling urban environments, yet as cities continue to warm, the suitability of urban environments for some tree species is changing with shifting hardiness zones. Trees are assigned to hardiness zones, which are based on the average annual minimum temperature that a species can thrive. In recent decades, human induced global warming has shifted the location of hardiness zones across the United States.

The O‘ahu Resilience Strategy outlines 44 actions to address climate change and the resilience of the City and County of Honolulu. This Strategy was created by residents and community leaders, using the City Resilience Framework (CRF), which identifies 12 drivers of resilient cities across the areas of health and wellbeing, economy and society, infrastructure and environment, and leadership and strategy.

Coral reefs provide food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people as well as harbor some of the highest regions of biodiversity in the ocean. However, overexploitation, land‐use change and other local anthropogenic threats to coral reefs have left many degraded. Additionally, coral reefs are faced with the dual emerging threats of ocean warming and acidification due to rising CO2 emissions, with dire predictions that they will not survive the century.

This report synthesizes and presents the results of a planning process designed to help the Pala Band of Mission Indians more proactively prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Prior to this report, Pala assessed its vulnerability to climate change, which was summarized in its Vulnerability Assessment. The Vulnerability Assessment concluded thatelevated temperature, wildfire, storms and flooding, and drought present high-risk climate change exposures for Pala.

The resilience of socio-ecological systems to sea level rise, storms and flooding can be enhanced when coastal habitats are used as natural infrastructure. Grey infrastructure has long been used for coastal flood protection but can lead to unintended negative impacts. Natural infrastructure often provides similar services as well as added benefits that support short- and long-term biological, cultural, social, and economic goals.

Habitat for fish and wildlife, a place to enjoy the outdoors, a transportation network, our first line of defense against coastal storms—these are just some of the benefits coastlines provide. When a concerted effort is made, some balance between these functions can be achieved, even in our densest urban waterfronts. 

Novel forms of drought are emerging globally, due to climate change, shifting teleconnection patterns, expanding human water use, and a history of human influence on the environment that increases the probability of transformational ecological impacts. These costly ecological impacts cascade to human communities, and understanding this changing drought landscape is one of today’s grand challenges.

Rangelands are complex, intricate, interconnected, and dynamic socio-ecological systems comprised of humans, livestock, and natural wildlife. They are an integral part of the region’s economy and provide valuable income to both tribal and non-tribal ranchers and communities.