Regional Adaptation Guidance and Resources

Cal-Adapt

Cal-Adapt is a public web-based platform that provides climate data projections and other information on climate change in California. Cal-Adapt provides tools to visualize this data, download it, and apply it to adaptation planning needs.

California Fourth Climate Change Assessment - San Joaquin Valley Regional Report

California published its fourth Climate Change Assessment in 2018 to better understand climate-related vulnerability at the local scale and inform resilience actions across the state. For the first time, the Assessment includes nine regional reports, with one for the San Joaquin Valley, to better support local and regional government action in their respective communities. The report summarizes relevant climate impacts and solutions for the San Joaquin Valley.

Climate Central's Surging Seas Risk Zone Map

The independent group of scientist and communicators, Climate Central, has an interactive web-based tool called the Surging Seas Risk Finder that includes maps, local sea level and flood risk projects, and potential impacts for population, land, and other variables. The tool allows users to search across different geographic scales, adjust the level of sea level rise, and receive summary information for the selected geography. The tool can be used to review sea level rise projections in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Delta Stewardship Council's Delta Adapts

The state's Delta Stewardship Council published the Delta Adapts vulnerability assessment for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2021. The assessment identified and analyzed the potential impact of climate stressors on the Delta's people, places, agriculture, and recreational and infrastructure resources, along with impacts to Delta ecosystems and water supply reliability.

Caltrans Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment - District 10

The District 10 Caltrans Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment reviews State Highway System vulnerabilities to climate change within District 10, which includes San Joaquin county. Climate hazards assessed include rising temperature, changing precipitation, wildfire, and sea level rise and storm surge in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Caltrans Adaptation Priorities Report - District 10

The District 10 Adaptation Priorities Report builds upon the Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment by prioritizing the vulnerable assets on the State Highway System based upon asset exposure to climate change and consequences of impact. The highest priority assets will be first in line for asset-level study of climate impacts and adaptation projects.

Fresno Area Express Rides to Cooling Centers

Fresno Area Express (FAX) gives free rides to cooling centers along their routes on days where temperatures exceed 105°F. The rider needs to know where the cooling center is. There are public service announcements on some of the local television channels for the cooling centers. Cooling centers, such as the mall, are often used for other purposes too. Fresno and Clovis have been the most active in terms of opening cooling centers. The Fresno Madera Area Agency on Aging (FMAAA) helps publicize cooling center opportunities to the elderly.

Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborative

The Capital Region Climate Readiness Collaborate (CRC) is a multidisciplinary network of 47 members from local and regional government, organizations, businesses, and associations that work to advance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts in California's Capital Region. The CRC provides a forum for members to collaborate on adaptation initiatives and opportunities, network, and learn from each other's efforts.

Sacramento Municipal Utility District's (SMUD) Shade Tree Program

The electric utility servicing Sacramento County and parts of Placer County, SMUD, supports an initiative through the Sacramento Tree Foundation that provides free shade trees to SMUD customers. Customers can receive up to ten shade trees to plant around their homes or businesses to reduce solar gain during hot and sunny days, helping reduce energy costs associated with cooling. The measure also has a resiliency benefit by mitigating the impacts of severe heat and reducing the need for blackouts during periods of high energy demand.

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is a 25-square mile area in Yolo County that provide flood control, wildlife and habitat management, and recreational and educational uses. The Yolo Bypass carries Sacramento River water at overflow to the Delta, but also provides habitat for numerous migratory birds and creates a year-round managed wetland. The Bypass illustrates the use of nature-based solutions for climate adaptation.

San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency's Climate Adaptation Policy

The San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency developed a climate change adaptation policy that calls for additional factors of safety for flood infrastructure design, as well as purchasing the additional right of way needed to increase the resiliency of levee structures. The policy creates a process for adopting design standards for proposed projects and can serve as the basis for helping SJCOG consider resilience in its RTP/SCS, as well as for ensuring project applications in the solicitation process address resilience appropriately.

Federal:

FHWA Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Framework

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed a framework for state Departments of Transportation (DOTs), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), and other agencies managing and planning transportation infrastructure to conduct a vulnerability assessment and identify adaptation options for implementation. FHWA's framework involves seven steps ranging from the need to articulate objectives of the vulnerability assessment scope to assessing vulnerability, integrating findings into decision-making, and monitoring progress.

FHWA Adaptation Decision-Making Assessment Process

FHWA has developed the Adaptation Decision-Making Assessment Process (ADAP) as a tool to account for the role of climate change in the design of civil works projects. This tool provides a scenario-based framework to generate information needed such as life cycle cost, resilience, and regulatory settings intended to aid decision makers in determining project alternatives based on costs and benefits.

State:

(Draft) Protecting Californians Amidst Extreme Heat: A State Action Plan to Build Community Resilience

This (draft) plan serves as an updated to the "Preparing California for Extreme Heat Guidance and Recommendations" report released in 2013 and outlines state actions set to combat and address extreme heat threats to California's public health and safety, economic prosperity, and communities and natural systems. The plan is organized into four tracks that include existing and recommended state actions, as well as eight areas of near-term focus.

(Draft) 2021 California Climate Adaptation Strategy

Governor Newsom's Administration is currently in the process of updating California's Climate Adaptation Strategy, as required by the Legislature. The draft, released for public comment in October 2021, provides a framework for adaptation solutions that integrate equity into California's climate resilience programs. This draft outlines the 2021 State Adaptation Strategy by priority, goal, and region.

Southern California Climate Adaptation Framework - SB379 Compliance Curriculum for Local Jurisdictions

In October 2015, Senate Bill 379 was signed into law. This law requires all local governments, cities, and counties in California to incorporate climate adaptation and resilience in the safety elements of their general plan updates or by reference to other planning documents. This guidebook, issued June 2021, provides a compliance curriculum for local jurisdictions to help address this requirement to integrate climate adaptation and resilience strategies into safety elements, ultimately enhancing local and regional climate resilience.

2020 California Adaptation Planning Guide

The 2020 California Adaptation Planning Guide is the most recent update of the Adaptation Planning Guide, first released in 2012. This guide is designed to support the integration of best practices to the adaptation planning efforts of local government, regional organizations, and climate collaborative groups. This guide includes a recommended approach that integrates climate adaptation and resilience across sectors, provides helpful resources to local governments as they comply with state requirements, and gives advice on community-level climate change adaptation planning.

Office of Planning and Research - Planning and Investing for a Resilient California

The California Office of Planning and Research developed a guidebook for state agencies as part of implementing Executive Order B-30-15, which requires consideration of climate change in state-funded investments. While the guidebook was developed to inform state agency efforts, the guidebook's process provides a framework that other local and regional agencies can apply to their own resiliency planning efforts. The framework involves identifying climate change impacts and analyzing risk to a project or plan, making climate-informed decisions, and tracking and monitoring progress.

This section provides grant opportunities for local or regional transportation improvement and climate resilience projects. New grant programs for climate resilience will be created from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the California Climate Resilience Package.

Federal:

This list of federal funding sources comes from the "Competitive Infrastructure Funding Opportunities for Local Governments" fact sheet, summarizing new and existing grant programs receiving funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. See the factsheet for the complete list.

FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC)

Provides grants for infrastructure project planning, design, and technical assistance to build community resilience and reduce impacts of disasters. $1 billion will go to the program from the signing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Flood Mitigation Assistance

Provides $3.5 billion. Funding can be used for projects that reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured by the National Flood Insurance Program.

Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects Discretionary Grant Program (currently known as "INFRA")

Funds critical infrastructure and freight projects of regional and national significance. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide $8 billion for the program and clarifies the eligibility of resiliency projects for this program.

Rebuilding American Infrastructure Sustainably and Equitable (RAISE) Grants

Provides $7.5 billion for road, rail, transit, and other surface transportation projects that are locally or regionally significant.

Port Infrastructure Development Program Grants

An existing $2 billion program which funds investments in Port modernization, including improvement related to resilience and sustainability. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expanded program eligibility to include electrification projects, equipment charging infrastructure, worker training, and more.

Bus & Bus Facilities Competitive Grants

This existing $2 billion program funds projects to replace, rehabilitate, purchase, or lease buses and bus equipment and to rehabilitate, purchase, construct, or lease bus-related facilities. The grant also funds low or no emissions bus projects.

Upcoming grant programs from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law:

• Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant Program: $500 million for a new competitive grant program for demonstration projects that implement advanced smart city or community technologies and systems to improve transportation efficiency and safety. Part of the criteria for eligibility include "improve energy efficiency, reduce pollution and increase the resiliency of the transportation system; and improve emergency response" among others.
• Safe Streets and Roads for All: This new $5 billion competitive grant program will provide funding to for local governments to support their efforts to advance "vision zero" plans and other complete street improvements to reduce crashes and fatalities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians.
• Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grants: This $2.5 billion discretionary grant program will fund the strategic deployment of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure, as well as hydrogen, propane, and natural gas fueling infrastructure, along designated alternative fuel corridors and in communities.
• Reconnecting Communities: $1 billion program to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure - particularly historically disadvantaged communities.
• Rural Surface Transportation Grant: This new $2 billion competitive grant program will provide funding to improve surface transportation infrastructure and connectivity in rural areas.

State:

Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grants

The Sustainable Transportation Planning Grants include: The Sustainable Communities Grants ($29.5 million) for local and regional planning that advances state goals and the Strategic Partnership Grants ($4.5 million) to address regional transportation deficiencies on the State Highway System.

CA Strategic Growth Council Transformative Climate Communities (TCC)

Funds disadvantaged communities to implement development and infrastructure projects that provide environmental, health, and economic benefits.

CA Strategic Growth Council Regional Climate Collaboratives (RCC)

This program helps under-resourced communities build regional capacity and collaboration to develop and implement climate change mitigation and adaptation projects. It provides $20 million in funding over two years. The California 2021-22 Budget Summary includes new funding allocations for wildfire prevention, water resiliency, and climate resilience, amongst other sustainability and natural resources focused funding packages.

CA Strategic Growth Council Build Organize Optimize Strengthen Transform (BOOST) Program

Provides under-resourced communities with funding to advance climate and equity goals. Supports local capacity building, plan development, and project implementation. $1 million in funding available.

CA Resilience Challenge

Provides funding for resilience planning projects, with a preference for projects that will lead to implementation of resiliency infrastructure. It provides a funding source for local entities with jurisdiction over communities and infrastructure to implement climate change adaptation planning projects. Grants will $100,000 to $200,000 for each grant, but CRC reserves the right to make smaller or larger grants.

Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning Grants

This program by the Office of Planning and Research provides $25 million total over three years to develop a cohesive and coordinated response to the impacts of climate change across the state. The California 2021-22 Budget Summary includes new funding allocations for wildfire prevention, water resiliency, and climate resilience, amongst other sustainability and natural resources focused funding packages.

California Natural Resources Agency Urban Greening Grant Program

This program contains $47.5 million in specified General Fund dollars to urban greening and forestry projects that reduce GHG emissions and provide multiple additional benefits.

California Department of Water Resources Flood Emergency Response Project Grants

Provides funding to improve local flood emergency response and contribute to increased public safety. $5 million in funding is available statewide.

Upcoming grant opportunities:

Community Resilience Centers/Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program

This program will be administered by the Office of Planning and Research "for the purpose of coordinating state efforts and supporting local and regional efforts to mitigate the impacts of, and reduce the public health risks of, extreme heat and the urban heat island effect."