State Water Agency Practices for Climate Adaptation Database

The compilation of practices featured below highlight some of the innovative actions or planning efforts by various state water management agencies that help address a changing climate. Showcasing a diverse array of climate adaptation related practices in several programmatic areas and geographic locations around the country can help encourage the adoption of useful models across state agencies.

January 3, 2017 - We are pleased to announce that a second round of practices has been added to the compilation below.

If you would like to submit a climate related practice from your state agency for consideration, please contact water_climate_change@epa.gov for more details.

To download the documents, scroll to the bottom of the page.

State	Title of State Practice	Topic Area
AZ	Ensuring Water Supply Sustainability: Arizona Department of Water Resources' Drought and Water Supply Planning	Drinking Water, Water Supply Planning, Water Conservation, Drought
AZ	Arizona Uses Water Infrastructure Finance Authority to Provide Funding for Infrastructure Projects that Address Climate Impacts	Water Supply Planning, Water Conservation, Resource Efficiency, Green Infrastructure, Funding
CA	California Integrated Assessment of Watershed Health	Monitoring and Assessment
CA	California “Save Our Water” Conservation Education Program	Water Conservation
CO	Using Colorado WaterWise to Achieve Water Efficiency in a Changing Climate	Water Conservation
CO	Planning for Impacts of Climate Change on Colorado’s Water Supply	Water Supply Planning, Water Conservation, Drought, Modeling/Research
IL	Planning for Climate Variability: Illinois State Water Survey and Statewide Framework for Drought and Water Supply Planning	Water Supply Planning
MA	Maintaining Integrity of River and Stream Ecosystems with Massachusetts River and Stream Continuity Partnership	Ecosystem Connectivity, Monitoring and Assessment
MD	Conserving Maryland’s Wetlands in a Changing Climate using Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model	Wetlands
MD	Maryland Supplements Long Term Water Supply Planning Requirements with “Message on Climate Change”	Water Supply Planning
MN	Promoting Climate Change Adaptation through Minnesota’s Stormwater Manual and Design Standards	Green Infrastructure/ Stormwater
MN	Long-term Monitoring to Help Detect Climate Variability in Minnesota	Monitoring and Assessment, Wetlands, Modeling/Research, Water Quality Standards
NH	New Hampshire Considers Climate Change in Wetlands Program Plan and Review Process	Wetlands
NH	New Hampshire Drinking Water Program’s Climate Change Resilience Plan	Water Supply Planning, Drinking Water, Water Quality Standards
NM	Wetland Protection and Beaver Habitat Restoration as Climate Adaptation Tools in New Mexico	Wetlands, Monitoring, and Assessment
OR	Oregon Builds Ecosystem Resilience to Climate Change with Thermal Refugia and Temperature Standard	Water Quality Standards, National Polluntant Discharge Elimination System, Total Maximum Daily Loads
OR	Oregon’s Strategy to Build Capacity and Address Harmful Algal Blooms in a Changing Climate	Drinking Water, Monitoring and Assessment, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, Total Maximum Daily Loads, Water Quality Standards
WA	Washington’s Integrated Plan to Create Partnerships and Diversify Funding for Climate Adaptation	Water Supply Planning, Water Conservation, Integrated Water Resource Management

• Ensuring Water Supply Sustainability: Arizona Department of Water Resources’ Drought and Water Supply Planning (pdf) (860.76 KB)
• Arizona Uses the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority to Provide Funding for Infrastructure Projects that Address Climate Impacts (pdf) (696.82 KB)
• California Integrated Assessment of Watershed Health (pdf) (772.95 KB)
• California “Save Our Water” Conservation Education Program (pdf) (677.42 KB)
• Using Colorado WaterWise to Achieve Water Efficiency in a Changing Climate (pdf) (505.95 KB, 10.16.15)
• Planning for the Impacts of Climate Change on Colorado’s Water Supply (pdf) (814.37 KB)
• Planning for Climate Variability: The Illinois State Water Survey and Statewide Framework for Drought and Water Supply Planning (pdf) (723.02 KB, 10.16.15)
• Maintaining the Integrity of River and Stream Ecosystems with the Massachusetts River and Stream Continuity Partnership (pdf) (978.76 KB)
• Conserving Maryland’s Wetlands in a Changing Climate using the Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (pdf) (1.15 MB)
• Maryland Supplements Long Term Water Supply Planning Requirements with “Message on Climate Change” (pdf) (446.98 KB, 10.16.15)
• Minnesota’s Stormwater Manual and Design Standards Address Climate Change Adaptation (pdf) (627.32 KB, 10.16.15)
• Minnesota is Performing Long-term Monitoring to Help Detect Climate Variability (pdf) (753.35 KB)
• New Hampshire Considers Climate Change in Wetlands Program Plan and Review Process (pdf) (613.09 KB, 10.16.15)
• The New Hampshire Drinking Water Program’s Climate Change Resilience Plan (pdf) (708.88 KB)
• Wetland Protection and Beaver Habitat Restoration as Climate Adaptation Tools in New Mexico (pdf) (496.02 KB)
• Oregon Builds Ecosystem Resilience to Climate Change with Thermal Refugia and Temperature Standards (pdf) (476.62 KB, 10.16.15)
• Oregon’s Strategy to Build Capacity and Address Harmful Algal Blooms in a Changing Climate (pdf) (1006.82 KB)
• Washington’s Integrated Plan is Creating Partnerships and Diversifying Funding for Climate Adaptation (pdf) (1.08 MB)