Read the full story at Smart Cities Dive.
Federal agencies are helping local government leaders mitigate climate risk by “curating the data” and providing analytical tools and technical assistance, said Vicki Arroyo, associate administrator for policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, during a Brookings Institution webinar on the availability of climate data and how cities can best use it. Three tools Arroyo highlighted were:
- The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, a website the EPA designed to help people understand their exposures to climate change impacts, assess vulnerability and risks, investigate options and prioritize, plan and take action.
- The Office of Water’s Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool, which helps water sector utilities assess climate-related risks to utility assets and operations, develop scenarios based on the threats, outline potential consequences, catalog critical assets and plan adaptations. Updates are added to these tools, Arroyo said, to address the latest climate concerns.
- EJScreen, an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that “allows us internally to think about where we are going in targeting our outreach to communities that are overburdened by pollution and are underserved,” she said.
Many states and local governments now rely on EJScreen to anticipate climate impacts such as wildfire risk, drought, coastal floods and 100-year floods “because they don’t have the resources to do their own EJScreens,” Arroyo added.
Environmental News Bits 