Climate Change Handbook for Regional Water Planning

This handbook considers both climate change adaptation (reduction of impacts)
and mitigation (greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction). Quantitative tools and techniques
for addressing both are introduced and discussed in order to prepare comprehensive
Integrated Regional Water Management Plans (IRWMPs). A guide to assess the
vulnerability of a watershed or region to climate change impacts is presented in
this handbook, and guidelines to prioritize vulnerabilities are introduced.
This handbook relies on approaches that have been developed and applied to
regional watershed planning processes. This handbook also presents case studies
that provide illustrative examples in which the latest science and methods on
climate change, including uncertainty and adaptive management approaches, have
been applied outside academia. While the available suite of climate change tools
and analytical techniques for incorporating climate change is continually advancing
and improving, the underlying planning processes outlined in this handbook
should continue to provide a solid basis for comprehensive watershed planning.
Improved decisions about water resources management systems, whether adapting
them to future climate change or mitigating climate change through reductions in
GHG emissions, should result from application of the framework in this handbook.
This handbook presents the range of decisions that need to be made and the factors
that go into making those decisions at a local or regional level.