Adaptation Challenges and Emerging Efforts in Adaptation Planning in California

Following Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Order (S-03-05) of 2005, numerous researchers have been engaged in an ongoing assessment effort to support the state's mitigation and adaptation efforts. Under the sponsorship and coordination of the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program, a wide range of climate change impacts and adaptation studies are being conducted and summarized on a biannual basis to assess the latest climate change science, potential impacts on critical sectors, and the state's efforts to manage its climate change risks. In the past, adaptation needs assessments in the state have primarily used a hazards-based (i.e., climate scenario-driven, top-down) approach, while vulnerability-based, bottom-up studies are only now emerging. They are increasingly viewed as complementary and necessary to adequately inform adaptation strategies. This paper briefly highlights this assessment history and then focuses on the planning efforts currently underway to prepare California's first state-wide adaptation plan. As the science and policy/management evolve in tandem, this paper will suggest future policy- or use-inspired research areas, and offer recommendations on how to improve interaction between researchers and practitioners at the science-policy interface, in order to build the state's decision support capacity in the face of a rapidly changing climate.