An Adaptation Plan may overlap with a Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) or a Climate Action Plan (CAP), but they are not always the same.

HMPs focus on preventing harm to people and property based on past disturbances, but may not fully account for likely future climate conditions. CAPs often emphasize reducing greenhouse gas emissions rather than preparing for climate-related impacts. Adaptation Plans typically address a full range of climate-related impacts (including future conditions);  chronic and secondary effects on human systems such as health, infrastructure, and the economy; and natural systems.

An adaptation process requires the people who will lead the process, the people who will implement it, and the people who will be affected by it. Those three groups are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but they all need to be participants and ideally co-developers. It is very beneficial to have the a broad range of perspectives and experiences in your process to ensure all groups are properly represented. 

Learn more about how to build your team using the Steps to Resilience: Get Started »

The Steps to Resilience Training is a six-module e-learning course designed to help practitioners lead local resilience efforts. The best way to receive updates about future trainings is to join the Climate Smart Communities mailing list. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about the Steps to Resilience, there is a great overview on the Climate Resilience Toolkit.

Understand your community's vulnerabilities, then design strategies to reduce those vulnerabilities and increase your ability deliver on services, protect assets, and provide actionable outcomes. 

The Steps to Resilience: Investigate Options can help you compile an extensive list of actions that could reduce your current vulnerabilities and risk.

The Options Database contains over a thousand resilience-building solutions considered by other communities. To see examples of adaptation strategies in practice, explore the Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange and the Climate Resilience Toolkit case study libraries. For examples specifically focused on state and local adaptation policy, explore the Adaptation Clearinghouse.

When evaluating community actions (e.g., projects, capital improvements, facilities siting and maintenance), you can apply a "climate lens" or evaluation assessment tool and integrate it into standard operating procedures. This could become a required or recommended part of how your organization or agency completes a permitting or financing process. The Steps to Resilience: Prioritize & Plan can help you evaluate the costs, benefits, and your team’s capacity to implement each potential solution.

Another example of such a tool is the Climate Change Adaptation Certification Tool. This tool asks simple questions to quickly guide users through an evaluation to make a decision about the project’s suitability in the context of climate change risks and helps the user think through modifications needed to address identified risks.

Risk is the potential for negative consequences where something of value is at stake. In the context of assessing climate impacts, risk refers to the potential for adverse consequences of a climate-related hazard. Risk can be assessed by multiplying the probability of a hazard by the magnitude of the negative consequence or loss. 

For example, the risk of extreme heat exposure to a subsection of a city's population might be evaluated by examining projections of extreme heat and the number and sensitivity of people or other assets that are potentially exposed to extreme heat events. Evaluating sensitivity could entail identifying populations that may be particularly sensitive to heat, identifying housing stock with poor or no climate control, and/or identifying whether there are sufficient cooling centers to assist those without access to cooling at home.

Assets include the people, resources, ecosystems, infrastructure, and the services they provide. Assets are the tangible and intangible things communities value and will vary by community. 

The Steps to Resilience – Assess Vulnerability & Risk can help practitioners think through the full range of asset categories that may be relevant for their community.

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