Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning in the Hudson Estuary
Planning and prioritizing climate action can help your community thrive.
Many communities are creating Climate Action Plans that detail how they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to combat climate change. Another important aspect of responding to a changing climate is the Climate Adaptation & Resilience Plan (CARP), which provides a roadmap for how communities will respond to climate impacts like flooding and heat waves.
A CARP is a flexible tool that can be scaled to fit the needs of a community. It can focus on a specific area (e.g., the waterfront), specific assets (e.g., critical infrastructure), or comprehensively look at an entire city. It can be a chapter in a Climate Action Plan, part of a Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, or a stand-alone document.
Why Create a Climate Adaptation & Resilience Plan (CARP)?
Because your community wants to:
- Plan proactively for a thriving, resilient future,
- Understand the unique set of risks and opportunities you face in our changing climate,
- Create many benefits including economic stability, improved public safety and health, and ecosystem resilience,
- Access state funding and support programs, and
- Receive points toward Climate Smart Communities (CSC) certification.
What is a CARP?
An inventory of climate vulnerabilities and a plan for addressing them, including a:
- Summary of current and future conditions in the focus area (local, county-level or regional),
- Assessment of vulnerabilities across a range of sectors and neighborhoods,
- Overview of adaptation strategies that could increase physical, social and economic resilience,
- Selection and prioritization of specific adaptation actions, from simple to more complex, depending on need and risk exposure,
- Plan to adopt, share, implement, and update the CARP.
How to Develop a CARP
The Hudson River Estuary Program works with NYS Climate Smart Communities (CSC) to provide guidance on this type of planning. CSC supports a network of communities engaged in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving climate resilience.
The CSC certification program awards points to applicant communities for completing a CARP (PE7: Climate Adaptation Plan) and conducting other climate-ready actions. Additionally, CSC provides municipalities with guidance, support, and access to funding. Recognizing that a CARP can be tailored to meet each community’s unique needs, the CSC program offers a variable point system so municipalities can earn points based on the scale of the CARP that they develop.