The Adaptive Design & Assessment Policy Tool (ADAPTool) for Creating New Policies

The ADAPTool is a Microsoft Excel-based tool for policy-makers to design policies that are resilient to future stressors. It utilizes a five-worksheet process to analyze policy objectives, identify stressors, assess vulnerabilities, evaluate adaptive capacity, and synthesize design recommendations. The process is intended to be iterative, led by a trained designer and a team of 5 to 10 experts across four structured meetings.

• The ADAPTool is designed to help policy-makers identify and account for future stressors—including climate change, demographic pressures, and volatile market prices—to ensure policies can adapt effectively to changing conditions.
• The tool assesses a policy's ability to help stakeholders adapt and its own ability to adapt through five specific worksheets: Policy Objective, Stressor, Vulnerability & Adaptation Analysis, Adaptive Capacity Analysis, and Policy Design Synthesis.
• The application of the tool is an iterative process involving a lead designer and an analysis team of five to 10 people, structured across four meetings covering scoping, vulnerability analysis, adaptive policy analysis, and the synthesis of recommendations.
• The ADAPTool is the first guidance tool to apply principles for intervening in complex adaptive systems and is based on the 2009 book 'Creating Adaptive Policies: A Guide for Policy-Making in an Uncertain World'.

APA

Swanson, D., & Roy, D. (n.d.). The Adaptive Design & Assessment Policy Tool (ADAPTool) for Creating New Policies. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/adaptool_overview.pdf

Chicago

Swanson, Darren, and Dimple Roy. The Adaptive Design & Assessment Policy Tool (ADAPTool) for Creating New Policies. International Institute for Sustainable Development, n.d. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/adaptool_overview.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Swanson |first1=Darren |last2=Roy |first2=Dimple |title=The Adaptive Design & Assessment Policy Tool (ADAPTool) for Creating New Policies |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/adaptool_overview.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{swansonndadaptive, author = {Swanson, Darren and Roy, Dimple}, title = {{The Adaptive Design \& Assessment Policy Tool (ADAPTool) for Creating New Policies}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/adaptool_overview.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }