In It for the Long Haul: Strategic sustained climate services for regional resilience

As the implications of a changing climate become increasingly evident, demands for actionable science related to identifying and managing climate risks are also dramatically increasing. Given the resource intensity of developing and maintaining the trusted science-practice relationships necessary for identifying and filling knowledge gaps; the small number of existing organizations dedicated to supporting climate change adaptation at local, regional and national scales; the relative paucity of progress to-date in science-based adaptation decision making; and the hundreds of thousands of communities, organizations, jurisdictions, businesses and decisions remaining to inform with climate information; it is more crucial than ever to identify effective strategies for prioritizing, leveraging, sustaining and accelerating climate services-related efforts.

Reflecting on over twenty years of experience working in partnership with decision makers in federal, tribal, regional, state and local government to develop, deliver and support the use of decision-relevant climate information, we identify specific strategies that have enabled us to progress from delivering successful one-off climate change adaptation projects to supporting the integration of climate science in decision making across Washington state and the US Pacific Northwest. Strategies for meeting accelerating decision-support needs include: shifting perspective (to focus on the long-term for society at large), estimating return on investment at multiple scales (to inform prioritization of effort), intentionally changing approaches and services as society moves towards implementation, questioning expressed needs, and creating and leveraging relationships, networks and intermediaries. We illustrate these strategies with examples from the work of the University of Washington Climate Impacts Group and the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center. Finally, we identify cross-cutting gaps in current efforts to connect science and practice to enable systemic science-based climate adaptation.