Climate Risk Areas Initiative News

A newly released case study explores the wide-reaching impacts of drought in Texas. Central Texas entered its third consecutive year of drought in 2013, which began in 2011 when the state endured its worst single-year drought and hottest summer in recorded history. That year, communities in Central Texas faced 90 days of triple-digit heat, during which extensive wildfires burned hundreds of homes. 

WE&T Magazine highlights a collaborative research project that examines how water utilities, resource managers, and county and regional planners make decisions before and during extreme weather.

A newly released case study explores the wide-reaching impacts of four consecutive extreme weather events in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin (ACF) in Georgia, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars in damaged infrastructure, homes, and businesses and threatened water supply for ecological, agricultural, energy, and urban water users.

In a place routinely afflicted by drought, water managers in Tampa Bay use climate forecasts to ensure a water supply to people's taps without sucking the region's rivers, wetlands, and groundwater dry. The limits of their innovation might be tested in a future which could pose even more challenges to ensuring the oasis remains green. 

The second of five workshops sponsored by NOAA's Sectorial Applications Research Program, EPA, the Water Environmental Research Foundation and WaterRF took place in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on May 9 and 10. The focus of the workshop was on adaptation strategies and information needs in response to extreme events.