Suburban

Climate change has serious and far-reaching health implications for present and future generations. A team of international scientists recently described these challenges in The Lancet as “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century” (Lancet 2009).

Even if there is local and global action to immediately reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we will likely feel the impacts from the current build up of emissions in the atmosphere for decades. These impacts, such as hotter summers and wetter, warmer winters for the Pacific Northwest, will likely affect our health, especially those most vulnerable. Communities must, therefore, begin to plan and prepare for the likely impacts that will be experienced because of the emissions already present in the atmosphere.

The Multnomah County/City of Portland Climate Action Plan identified “Climate Change Preparation” as one of its eight key action areas with the objective to “adapt successfully to a changing climate”. Adaptation means “to adjust to a new situation or environment” such as an increase in consecutive days over 95 degrees. This public health plan is a part of broader ongoing efforts by the City of Portland and Multnomah County to make our infrastructure, our natural environment, and our society more resilient to climate change. This plan communicates why we as a community, as policymakers and as public health professionals should care about climate change; what the local impacts may be; which populations and areas may be impacted; why equity and justice are key parts of this work; and what we can do to further prevent health issues and disparities.

The Crook County Health Department Climate and Health Action Plan was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Climate-Ready States and Cities Initiative which was assigned to assist 16 states and 2 cities develop ways to anticipate health effects by applying climate science, predicting health impacts, and preparing flexible programs. The grant was administered by the Oregon Health Authority and the project ran from August 2011 through August 2013.

This grant opportunity was meant to enhance the ability of public health to engage in this important work. The Crook County Climate Health Action Plan developed by Public Health will:

• Develop strategies for public health staff to be a source of leadership, expertise, and guidance concerning sustainable development in Crook County;
• Raise awareness in Crook County as to the important responsibilities of, and actions regarding sustainable development and climate change; and
• Help shape local policy promoting sustainable development, with strategies to mitigate climate change for Crook County.

Jackson County Health & Human Services (JCHHS) is ideally suited to coordinate and plan local adaptation strategies relating to the health impacts from climate change. The climate issue is a global problem, but responses may be ideally dealt with at a local level. Much of what we do as a county health department is appropriate to the monitoring, assessment, and response to the health effects from climate change. Surveillance of communicable diseases and outbreaks, public health emergency preparedness planning, and environmental health messaging and oversight are core functions of Public Health.

This plan was an outgrowth of JCHHS’s role in a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project from July 2011 to August 2013, using the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework. This project was designed to help states, cities and county health departments investigate, prepare for, and respond to the health effects that climate change may have on people.

Public Health staff and managers worked with external advisors and stakeholders to define the projected climate outlook for Jackson County Oregon at mid-century. Engaged advisors came from public and non-profit agencies, scientists, local business, and interest groups. Adaptation interventions and actions were jointly developed with input from multiple sources to insure appropriateness to the local social, economic, and political milieu.

NCPHD staff determined which climate factors might already be addressed via other public health programs and local emergency management plans, and which factors would likely need more attention. Drought seemed the most likely factor that is currently not focused on by public health, and due to its chronic nature, not as well addressed via emergency management lens. So for now, NCPHD will focus on building community resiliency to address the many possible public health sequela of drought. Climate health will be rolled into the All Hazard Response plan cycle so that the NCPHD Climate Action Planning Team may revise the priorities and adaptation strategies to align with new climate and health discoveries and new insights provided by climate health scientists.

Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, and the scientific community is confident that global warming is the most important cause. Higher sea levels translate to more and higher coastal floods. To forecast future risk, this analysis integrates historic flood statistics with local sea level rise projections developed by the U.S. National Research Council. Under mid-range projections, floods exceeding today’s historic records are likely to take place throughout California, Oregon and Washington within the next 30 years. In Southern California, such floods would become annual events within the same period; in Northern California and Puget Sound, this would take up to six decades.

The tool includes:

• Interactive local projections of sea level rise and increasing coastal flood risk from 1-10 feet by decade;
• A zooming, zip-searchable map of low-lying areas threatened, plus layers showing social vulnerability, population density and property value;
• Detailed assessments of populations, property, infrastructure and contamination sources exposed, for each implicated county, city, town, zip code, planning district, legislative district and more; and
• State- and county-wide heat maps facilitating high-level vulnerability comparisons. Detailed knowledge of vulnerability is a critical tool for communities seeking to build resiliency to the climate challenges of today and the future.

The intent of this report is to provide a brief overview of key climate change impacts and a review of the prevalent work occurring on climate change adaptation in the Southeastern United States and U.S. Caribbean, especially focusing on activities as they relate to water resources. The Southeastern United States includes Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) comprise the U.S. Caribbean region. This report presents the results of EcoAdapt’s efforts to survey, inventory, and, where possible, assess climate-informed water resources action in the region.

The synthesis includes:

• A summary of key regional climate change impacts and discussion on how the aforementioned issues combine to influence water supply, demand and use, quality, and delivery;
• The results of a survey sent to federal, tribal, state, and other practitioners to identify challenges, needs, and opportunities for climate-informed water resources management;
• Examples of adaptation initiatives from the region, focusing on activities in the natural and built environments as they relate to water resources;
• Eighteen full-length case studies, detailing how adaptation is taking shape; and
• A guide to the current suite of tools available to support adaptation action in water resources management, planning, and conservation.

Version 2.0 of the BRG has been updated to include a new chapter on Urban Beavers authored by Greg Lewallen. 

The Urban Beaver Management Chapter discusses strategies and techniques applicable to managing beaver in a broad range of urban settings. It attempts to balance the urban habitat needs of beaver while protecting the property and infrastructure of private and public lands. Two urban beaver case studies and two urban beaver management reports are included in Version 2.0 to provide lessons learned and examples of different techniques applied to urban beaver projects. We hope the information contained in this chapter can be used to facilitate the non-lethal management of urban beaver, help restore degraded urban aquatic habitats using beaver, and to continue the discussion of using beaver-based restoration techniques across varied settings in North America.