Assessing Resilience Capacities of Community Water Systems for Climate Adaptation

Climate change stresses U.S. water systems; many struggle to bounce back from current climate risks and few prepare for future challenges. In this paper we build on the concept adaptive capacity to encompass both generic and specific resilience capacities necessary to function well day-to-day and withstand today's risks as well as to adapt to climate change. We apply this framework to analyze 21 drinking water systems in Texas and Florida to determine what capacities (and capacity quality) are associated with systems that adapt to climate change versus those that do not.