Learning from Success in Climate-Informed Decision-Making:  Case Studies Across Three U.S. Regions

What motivates some organizations and managers to apply climate information when making decisions? And, what helps them to do this effectively? These questions guided a project led by the network of sustained assessment specialists created within the NOAA RISA program.

In their report, Learning from Success in Climate-Informed Decision-Making:  Case Studies Across Three U.S. Regions, released in September 2019 at the NOAA RISA Network Meeting, the sustained assessment specialists present five case studies of successful local responses to climate change that are supported by scientific information.  Based in three regions—the U.S. Pacific Islands, the South Central United States, and the Rocky Mountain West—the case studies in this report feature local managers who are providing and applying climate information, with valuable outcomes, across a range of geographic scales and sectors. They include improving local climate-adaptation efforts in San Angelo, Texas, enhancing the resilience of iconic coastal ecosystems on Hawai‘i Island, managing water in the Colorado River Conservation District, increasing conservation resilience in the southern Great Plains, and using El Niño forecasts to plan for drought in the Pacific Islands.

The case studies reaffirm factors previously shown to contribute to making science useable, and they provide new insights. Five common themes that emerged from the case studies are summarized as practical lessons for anyone seeking to better integrate climate considerations into decision-making:

• Identify how to provide data and knowledge in localized, relevant formats.
• Empower local champions to initially drive climate science application, and encourage the integration of climate considerations into workflows to sustain initiatives in the long run.
• Commit to sustained participation in “boundary networks” to improve prediction capabilities and build relationships of trust.
• Encourage diverse and sometimes unlikely collaborations.
• Recognize that climate knowledge brokers are often non-scientists.

To effectively manage climate-related risks, information and strategies grounded in evidence and experience are needed. These five lessons and the case studies are intended to provide inspiration toward creating and using actionable climate science. Read and download the report at www.eastwestcenter.org/climate-case-studies.