Search Climate Insights Directory

Climate Central's analysis of 150 U.S. weather stations shows that 90% experienced an increase in hourly rainfall intensity between 1970 and 2021, with an overall average increase of 13%. This trend is linked to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, where warmer air holds more moisture, increasing the frequency and intensity of heavy downpours. Such extremes contribute significantly to flash flood risks, accounting for approximately one-third of U.S. flood damages ($73 billion) from 1988 to 2017. Future projections suggest that U.S. flash floods could intensify by 8% by 2100 under high-emission scenarios, with the Southwest and central U.S. identified as high-risk areas.

The report finds that Jakarta's urban climate finance from 2015-2019 totaled USD 44.9 billion, heavily dominated by public funding and a single mega-project, the Giant Sea Wall. Despite having the highest fiscal capacity in Indonesia, Jakarta underutilizes private finance, which accounted for only 2% of total climate investment. The study recommends better alignment between the city, the central government, and satellite cities, alongside the adoption of innovative financing tools like green municipal bonds to reduce reliance on central government funding, especially given plans to move the national capital.

The document examines the 2013 flood in Siksika Nation as a case study of how colonial land dispossession and the Indian Act create disproportionate climate risks for Indigenous communities. It details a five-phase displacement process where evacuees faced substandard temporary housing and long-term trauma. The report highlights the Dancing Deer Disaster Recovery Centre as a model of self-determination, providing culturally safe, community-led health and social services to aid recovery.

The report highlights that California's water system is engineered for historical conditions that no longer apply due to climate change. It identifies critical shifts in the state's hydroclimate—including declining snowpack, more extreme precipitation events, and increased volatility between wet and dry years—that threaten the viability of surface reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. The authors argue that while the data to plan for these changes is available, state and local agencies are underprepared, often relying on outdated operational rules or proprietary models. The report recommends updating the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), developing new hydrologic operations models, and increasing collaboration between climate scientists and water managers to prevent wasted investments and exacerbate inequities between well-resourced and vulnerable communities.

The IISD database serves as a tool for estimating the financial performance of infrastructure assets by accounting for systemic costs and benefits often omitted in conventional assessments. It contains 2,057 entries across five categories: environmental externalities (1,059), social externalities (291), governance externalities (4), direct costs (192), and climate risks (511). The database covers infrastructure types including transport, energy, water management, materials management, building, mining, and nature-based infrastructures, and is used to support the SAVi simulation service and SAVi Academy training.

The document outlines a resilience planning framework in Louisiana that utilizes extensive community engagement to identify challenges and develop project portfolios. Through 71 community meetings and the participation of 2,835 individuals in 2017, the process identified key strategies such as improved drainage, coastal restoration, and affordable housing. The 'LA SAFE' approach combined community-rated strategies with flood risk data to create draft projects across six parishes, focusing on high-ground growth corridors and supply chain planning.

The document details the LA Safe program, which combined state-led data from the Coastal Master Plan with grassroots engagement to develop land-use strategies and fund resilience projects in coastal Louisiana. It emphasizes the importance of building trust through leadership programs like 'Lead the Coast' and the necessity of integrating long-term adaptation planning into state agency operations to address the 'existential emergency' of land loss.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) updated the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas to version 3.0 in August 2019. The update introduces a new hydrological model (PCR-GLOBWB 2.0) that incorporates groundwater resources and provides 144 times higher spatial resolution than the previous GLDAS-2 model. The Water Risk Framework was revised by removing four indicators, updating eight, and adding five new ones. Additionally, the tool transitioned from the Global Drainage Basin Database to HydroBASINS level 6 sub-basins to improve alignment with other water risk tools and provide more homogeneous sub-basin sizes. These changes affect the calculation of key metrics, including overall water risk and baseline water stress, which now account for both surface and groundwater supplies and use daily historical data from January 1960 to December 2014.

The Climate-Resilient Cities in Latin America Initiative (CRC) focused on small and medium-sized cities (50,000 to 1 million inhabitants) to bridge the gap between research and concrete climate action. The initiative emphasizes that while these cities are highly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological disasters, they offer significant opportunities for resilience due to their proximity scale. Key strategies included the co-generation of knowledge using both scientific data and citizen perceptions, the implementation of low-cost technological prototypes, and the integration of a gender perspective to address the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women. The report argues for a localization agenda where resilience is integrated into local development plans and supported by greater fiscal and administrative decentralization.

The Union of Concerned Scientists used a combination of NOAA elevation data, tide gauge records, and Zillow's ZTRAX database to identify coastal properties at risk of chronic inundation. The analysis defines chronic inundation as areas flooded at least 26 times per year and evaluates three sea-level-rise scenarios: high (6.6 feet), intermediate (4.0 feet), and low (1.6 feet) by the end of the century. Key caveats include the assumption of constant population and demographics, the exclusion of local coastal defenses like sea walls, and the lack of consideration for future adaptation measures.

The briefing by WWF and IISD offers policy guidance for COP 14 regarding the mainstreaming of biodiversity into the infrastructure sector, following a decision from COP 13 to address biodiversity in energy, mining, infrastructure, manufacturing, and health. It mentions upcoming discussions by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) and references two specific case studies: bus fleet electrification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and hybrid infrastructure in the Bogotá River basin, Colombia.

The analysis concludes that while Hurricane Harvey was an extremely rare event, global warming increased the intensity of its precipitation by approximately 15% and made such an event about three times more likely. Observational data and climate models indicate a trend of increasing extreme precipitation along the US Gulf Coast, often exceeding the standard Clausius-Clapeyron scaling. The study emphasizes that while the storm's rarity makes it difficult to attribute its existence to climate change, the increased rainfall intensity contributed significantly to the flooding in Houston, which was further exacerbated by urban development and subsidence.

The report investigates the vulnerability of Nepal's small- and medium-scale irrigation systems to climate change and non-climatic stressors. It finds that while non-climatic factors like land-use change and riverbed mining are critical in the short term, long-term climate impacts—including increased temperature, erratic rainfall, and reduced seasonal water availability—pose severe risks. Through case studies in the Banaganga and Girwari basins, the study demonstrates that water availability has dropped significantly, leading farmers to adopt deficit irrigation and groundwater extraction. The report proposes a resilience framework focusing on three pillars: systems (infrastructure), institutions (governance), and agents (individuals), recommending risk-based design, improved river basin management, and better use of seasonal forecasts.

The document critiques the ESIA for the 250km Lamu-Garissa road, highlighting risks to the critically endangered Hirola antelope and the Tana River ecosystem. It argues that the preferred route (Alternative I-1) lacks species-specific wildlife crossing data and fails to allocate budget for wildlife protection in its management plan. Additionally, the authors identify failures in stormwater management planning, a lack of impact analysis for the extraction of approximately 1.375 million cubic meters of construction materials, and procedural violations of Kenyan law regarding public participation and gazette notices.

The document introduces a set of 10 principles for communicating drought risks in a changing climate, developed as part of the DRY (Drought Risk and You) research project. This project investigates how the integration of science and storytelling can produce new decision-making tools for managing drought risks, noting that climate change may lead to the simultaneous occurrence of droughts and floods.

The document outlines a project focused on integrating climate model rainfall projections into flood risk assessments for Jamaican communities. It emphasizes the necessity of flood hazard maps that account for future climate change to support disaster management and climate compatible development. Key recommendations include providing ongoing geospatial data training for local government and parish-level disaster coordinators, and improving cooperation between academia and government bodies to ensure high-quality data informs life-saving policies.

The document details a CDKN-supported project (2013–14) that used Regional Climate Models (RCM) to assess future flood risks in Jamaica. Key findings include the high vulnerability of coastal tourism infrastructure in Negril to sea-level rise and the critical intersection of major roadways with high-likelihood floodplains. The study emphasizes that current risk assessments are hindered by low-resolution climate models (50 km) and a lack of high-quality topographical and hydro-meteorological data. It recommends the adoption of laser technology for terrain mapping and continuous GIS training for local government staff to improve disaster management.

The document evaluates the impact of planned hydroelectric expansion in Colombia's Magdalena River basin on the Mompox Depression, one of the world's largest wetland systems. Using an enhanced Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model, the study finds that while new dams may not prevent extreme floods, they could significantly alter seasonal and low flows, threatening biodiversity and ecosystem services. It also warns that reducing connectivity through flood-control structures like dikes could increase peak flow magnitudes downstream, potentially raising flood risks for urban areas like Barranquilla.

The study examines how climate variability affects freshwater fish fry production in 15 government hatcheries in Northern Thailand, identifying key constraints and proposing resilience strategies.

The report argues that social learning—learning embedded within social networks—is essential for developing the adaptive capacity required for community resilience. It distinguishes between single, double, and triple-loop learning, noting that deeper reflection is necessary for transformative change. Using case studies from the UK (floods and heatwaves) and Turkey (earthquakes), the document explores triggers for learning, such as the 'window of opportunity' following a disaster, and the role of 'mavens' or opinion leaders in diffusing knowledge. It highlights barriers including path dependence, power imbalances, and the risk of 'well-informed' individuals feeling a false sense of security. The report concludes that resilience should be viewed as a continuous process of 'bouncing forward' rather than a static end state.