California’s plan to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions significantly has captured attention worldwide. Less well known is the effort by State agencies, coordinated by the Natural Resources Agency, to hammer out a comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy to help California prepare for the unavoidable changes. Strategies are being developed for six sectors: biodiversity and habitat, infrastructure, oceans and coastal resources, public health, water, and forests and agriculture. Early drafts of each of the strategies are online at www.climatechange.ca.gov/adaptation; a draft for public comment is expected in April. The strategies will guide state policy-makers and resource managers to incorporate climate change impacts into their policies and planning. Some State agencies have already begun this process; the Coastal Conservancy, for example, is developing criteria to help staff evaluate proposed projects both for their greenhouse gas emissions and their vulnerability to climate change impacts.

Most land-use decisions are made by local or county agencies, but few so far have devoted much attention to preparing for global warming, sea-level rise, and other extreme effects of climate change, according to a November 2008 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Two exceptions are the San Francisco Bay Area and the City of Arcata, in Humboldt County. “The Bay Area is very vulnerable to sea-level rise,” said Ellen Hanak, director of research for PPIC. The Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) helped raise awareness about this issue, she said, by creating and publicizing maps that show what areas are expected to be inundated. Of the 80 (out of a total of 109) Bay Area cities and counties that responded to the PPIC survey, 60 percent reported some level of analysis or discussion of expected impacts, compared to only 36 percent of the 310 jurisdictions (out of a total of 535) responding statewide.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Marin County and San Francisco are among jurisdictions beginning to incorporate adaptation to sea-level rise into their planning. Marin’s 2007 countywide plan contains provisions for mapping areas at risk for flooding, monitoring ocean and bay levels, and incorporating sea-level rise into planning for future development. In San Francisco, the Public Utilities Commission is studying measures to protect its wastewater system from increased flooding.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a major flood-control and habitat-restoration study for southern San Francisco Bay, in collaboration with the Coastal Conservancy and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Sea-level rise projections are being factored into the Corps’ assessment of flood risks and protection strategies for that low-lying region. Meanwhile, BCDC is working with the San Francisco Estuary Institute and several agencies to develop a regional sea-level rise adaptation plan for San Francisco Bay.