Building a Stronger Coast

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services

Overview: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services is the agency dedicated to protecting oceanic ecosystems.

How to Use This Resource: This website features state fact sheets, an infographic on coastal resilience, restoration and repair videos, and an interactive story map of Hurricane Sandy recovery projects, with detailed profiles of each and a database of media resources that is searchable by state.

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Building Climate Resilient Transportation

U.S. Federal Highway Administration

Overview: The Federal Highway Administration is run through the U.S. Department of Transportation and is responsible for the upkeep of our roads and highways.

How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a detailed analysis of climate changes’ impact on the U.S. transportation system and what efforts are in place to combat it on the federal and state level.

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FEMA on Climate Change

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency

Overview: The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency supports citizens and first responders to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from and mitigate hazards.

How to Use This Resource: FEMA’s climate change site provides access to a wide range of its own tools and data, as well as those from other agencies. Links are provided to information on risk mapping, the federal flood risk management standard, coastal flood risks and hurricanes. Search elsewhere within the FEMA site for information on flood insurance, emergency response, and activities in regions of the country, as well as preparing for emergencies.

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100 Resilient Cities

The Rockefeller Foundation

Overview: The global nonprofit Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative invests in climate resilience worldwide by providing select cities with financial and logistical guidance, and access to solutions, service providers and partners to help develop and implement resilience strategies.

How to Use This Resource: The website provides detailed reports on member cities via a database that allows users to select cities based on region and specific challenges. The site also maintains an active blog.

A New Climate for Peace: Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks

The Group of 7

Overview: The Group of 7 leading nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — commissioned this report to identify the largest climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead.

How to Use This Resource: The report identifies seven “compound climate-fragility risks,”  such as extreme weather and sea-level rise, that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies. Based on an assessment of existing policies on climate change adaptation, development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding, the report recommends actions to reduce climate fragility and increase resilience. The report also includes nine country case studies, while the web site includes a fact book, risk briefs, suggested reading and an events list.

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Climate Desk

Climate Desk

Overview: The Climate Desk is a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impacts of a changing climate, including adaptation. The partners are The Atlantic, CityLab, Grist, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Medium, Mother Jones, The New Republic, Newsweek, Slate, and Wired.

How to Use This Resource: The site combines the latest climate-related stories from Climate Desk’s partners, as well as features from its own staff.

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Coastal Storm Surge Scenarios for Water Utilities

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.

How to Use This Resource: This map illustrates worst-case coastal storm scenarios with datasets from the National Hurricane Center, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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Data Snapshots: Reusable Climate Maps

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Overview: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.

How to Use This Resource: This catalog of maps features filtering options, such as droughts, temperature and severe weather, to help users pinpoint data by location.

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Digital Coast: Office for Coastal Management

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Overview: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.

How to Use This Resource: This repository contains U.S. topographic data that users can search by year, area, data provider, elevation product, projection, datum, and format.

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Extreme Weather Research

Climate Central

Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change in the United States.

How to Use This Resource: Climate Central scientists survey and conduct research on climate change, then partner with journalists to report their findings. The result is this database of scientific research covering topics such as energy, sea level rise, wildfires and drought.

Hurricane Sandy Recovery Progress Report

New York City Office of the Mayor

Overview: This report provides updates on the progress of the  Office of the Mayor’s Housing Recovery Operations and the Build it Back Program in the three years since Hurricane Sandy first hit New York City. 

How to Use This Resource: The city intends to provide financial relief and expedite recovery for homeowners and better engage local communities directly in the rebuilding process.  This report provides a detailed analysis of those efforts, as well as the Build it Back Program, which offers financial assistance to homeowners who were hit by the Hurricane Sandy.

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Living on Earth

Public Radio International

Overview: Living on Earth with Steve Curwood is a weekly environmental news and information program distributed by the Minneapolis-based Public Radio International.

How to Use This Resource:  Living on Earth provides a wide range of environmental news, and frequently focuses on climate change (the site’s search function yields many reports). Special climate change features look at the changing language of climate, climate change and New York’s future, and Louisiana storm protection.

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National Stormwater Calculator

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Overview: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the federal organization that develops policies concerned with human health and the environment.

How to Use This Resource: This desktop application estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site anywhere in the United States.

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New York State Hurricane Sandy Response Programs

The Governor's Office of Storm Recovery

Overview: The Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery was formed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

How to Use This Resource: This site details the New York State programs dedicated to housing recovery, small business, and community reconstruction.

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North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study Report

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigates, develops and maintains the nation  environmental resources.

How to Use This Resource: This report and interactive map details the results of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of coastal storm and flood risk to vulnerable populations, property, ecosystems, and infrastructure affected by Hurricane Sandy in the North Atlantic region.

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Resilience and Adaptation in New England

Northeast Regional Ocean Council

Overview: The Northeast Regional Ocean Council is a state and federal partnership that assists the region’s states, federal agencies and local organizations to address oceanic issues.

How to Use This Resource: This presentation from the EPA Region 1 Climate Mapping Effort in May, 2015 details the efforts of the Northeast Regional Ocean Council to adapt the New England coastline to climate change.

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States of Change: Stories of Climate Change from Close to Home

Climate Central

Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change in the United States.

How to Use This Resource: Journalists can use an interactive map to navigate a multimedia collection of stories, research, and data about climate change on a local level, searchable by region, topic or media within the United States.

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Strategic Sustainability Performance and Adaptation Plans

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Overview: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the Department of Defense agency responsible for investigating and maintaining the nation’s environmental resources.

How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find the most recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers progress reports on its climate change risk assessment research, as well as video and other resources on climate resilience.

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Superstorm Sandy News, Articles, and Research

City Limits

Overview: City Limits is a nonprofit news source for investigative journalism on the inner workings of New York City.

How to Use This Resource: Hurricane Sandy plays a key role in the continuing conversation on climate adaptation. This archive of the storm’s news coverage is a valuable resource for journalists to track its impact on the local level in New York City.

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Surging Seas: Sea Level Rise Analysis

Climate Central

Overview: Climate Central is an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting climate change primarily in the United States.

How to Use This Resource: This set of interactive tools and maps provides accurate sea level rise and coastal flood hazard data down to the neighborhood scale in the United States, as well as globally.

 

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Weather and Climate Toolkit

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Overview: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.

How to Use This Resource:The toolkit allows the visualization and data export of weather and climate data, including radar, satellite and model data. It also provides tools for background maps, animations and basic filtering.

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Introduction to Storm Surge

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Overview: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a federal agency dedicated to the preservation of oceans and the atmosphere.

How to Use This Resource: Storm surge is an abnormal rise of water generated by a storm. And as climate change intensifies the power of tropical storms, storm surge will become one of the greatest challenges facing coastal cities. This fact sheet explains the science behind the surge.

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The Big One: The East Coast’s USD 100 Billion Hurricane Event 

Swiss Reinsurance Company

Overview: Swiss Reinsurance Company is a reinsurance company based in Zurich.

How to Use This Resource: In 1821, a powerful hurricane decimated the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States. If it were to strike today, it would potentially cost more than $100 billion in property losses. This report examines what data exists from that storm to predict the impact of future mega-storms.

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Two Years after Superstorm Sandy: Exploring Resilience in Twelve Neighborhoods

The Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center for Public Affairs Research

Overview: The Associated Press-National Opinion Research Center for Public Affairs Research is a joint collaboration between the University of Chicago and the AP to creative unbiased journalism that is rigorously researched.

How to Use This Resource: Journalists will find a report on Hurricane Sandy recovery that focuses on the critical role social factors play in community resilience.

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Bloomberg’s Hidden Legacy: Climate Change and the Future of New York City

Inside Climate News

Overview: Inside Climate News is a Pulitzer prize-winning, nonprofit news organization that covers clean energy, carbon energy, nuclear energy and environmental science.

How to Use This Resource:  Mayor Bloomberg’s initiatives to fortify New York City after Hurricane Sandy have since become a model for urban adaptation across the globe. This book details those initiatives.

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East Coast Harbors Affected by Hurricane Sandy

The New York - New Jersey Harbor Coalition

Overview: The New York – New Jersey Harbor Coalition is a campaign of local and national advocacy organizations working to improve and adapt the region’s waterways.

How to Use This Resource: The maps on the Harbor Coalition provides valuable data on the East Coast harbor, how it was impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and what plans are in the work to repair and improve it.

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Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast

Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority

Overview: The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority was established after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, in order to unify the state entities involved with protecting the coastline. For the first time in state history, Louisiana is uniting infrastructural and environmental agencies to produce a more climate-resilient community.

How to Use This Resource: Louisiana is one of the most vulnerable states, as well as one of the most innovative. This master plan details projects that provided relief to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina and lays groundwork for large-scale efforts to fortify the coastline in time for the next extreme storm.

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Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise in Florida

The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council

Overview: The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council is a research organization sponsored by the federal government to develop priorities for ocean and coastal research statewide.

How to Use This Resource: This report on the effects of climate change on Florida’s ocean and coastal resources found the state extremely unprepared, because none of its infrastructure was built to accommodate sea level rise. The Florida Oceans and Coastal Council calls for immediate action in this comprehensive guide.

 

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