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Adaptation Workbook

More information is becoming available on climate change projections and potential impacts on natural resources and agriculture, however, many land owners and land managers are unsure how to use this information at a meaningful scale relevant to their work. The Adaptation Workbook was created to bridge this gap. The Workbook provides users with a flexible, logical process to consider climate change information in project-level planning and design customized management actions that can help achieve their management objectives.

Inputs

The online Adaptation Workbook requires substantial information inputs from the user, drawing upon their understanding and knowledge of the property or topic of interest. Before beginning the process, it may be helpful to assemble information about the property including management plans, maps, or forest inventory data.

Outputs

The Adaptation Workbook leads the user through a process to evaluate management goals and objectives in light of climate change, addressing both the challenges and opportunities that climate change might pose on their management activities. It provides a platform for the user to develop and evaluate custom adaptation actions that may help adapt to expected conditions. The Workbook also helps the user develop a monitoring plan to see if adaptation actions were effective. The end result is a written plan containing each of these elements that can be exported and downloaded as a PDF document.

Restrictions and Limitations

The Adaptation Workbook is not intended to provide specific guidance or replace other forms of management planning. Rather, it relies on the experience and expertise of natural resource professionals and landowners and is meant to complement existing management planning and decision-making systems. The Workbook requires a substantial amount of input from the user and user knowledge (of the ecosystem, and management techniques). The quality of the final plan will depend on the quality of information provided by the user. The online Workbook is mostly text-based; all work is auto-saved by the application every few seconds. Before beginning, users should be prepared to type and read, using a computer screen that is large enough to read clearly, in a comfortable workspace. The Workbook process may take several hours or longer, depending on the complexity of the project and user familiarity with climate change information.

Format:

Web

Audience:

Extension, Land Manager

Time Investment:

Medium

Release/Version:

2016-2023

Spatial Scale:

Farm/Forest

Time Scale:

User-defined

Tool Developers:

Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, USDA Northern Forests Climate Hub