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Goal A Support actionable climate science

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Priority

Make Decisions Based on the Best Available Climate Science

All Priority Goals

Progress Indicators

  • Scoping: Scoping and organizing action; collecting input and conducting community engagement.
  • Securing Funding: Securing funding; beginning project work.
  • Underway: Work underway; documentation and reporting in progress.
  • Nearing Completion: Work nearing completion.
  • Complete: Work complete; shifting to ongoing maintenance, monitoring, evaluation and assessment.
  • Ongoing Improvements: Ongoing advancements; continual improvements.

Actions

  • Action 1 Increase the state’s ability to anticipate and plan for climate impacts through implementation of the California Climate Change Assessments, which fund applied science, traditional knowledge, and tools that provide actionable insight into the impacts a changing climate has on California’s economy, ecosystems, and communities.

    Success Metric: Release of updated science, in the form of scientific reports and regional syntheses, that can be used in guidance for planning and decision-making.

    Timeframe: Five-year cycle for each Assessment

    Agency: Governor’s Office of Planning and Research – Strategic Growth Council | Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission

    For More Details: California Climate Change Assessments

    Progress Indicator: Underway

  • Action 2 Invest in science-based forest management.

    Success Metric: Creation of tools for spatial data, ground data, state demonstration, forest health project planning, and vegetation change tracking.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency

    For More Details: Natural Resources Agency Restoring Forest Health for Wildlife and Climate Resilience

    Progress Indicator: Ongoing Improvements

  • Action 3 Support utilization of emerging technologies and partnerships to improve forecasts of precipitation, seasonal snowpack, and runoff at all time scales.

    Success Metric: Experimental seasonal precipitation (including snowpack) forecasts are produced in partnership with the research community in each November for the coming wet season.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Water Resources

    For More Details: Water Resilience Portfolio

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Snowpack runoff forecasts are made with modern physically-based watershed models that can accommodate climate change impacts.

    Timeframe: Sacramento Valley forecasts in 2023, San Joaquin Valley forecasts in 2024, full implementation by 2030

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Water Resources

    For More Details: Water Resilience Portfolio

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

    Success Metric: Transition of successful atmospheric river forecasting tools and products from university partners to Department of Water Resources operations.

    Timeframe: Ongoing starting in 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Water Resources

    For More Details: Water Resilience Portfolio

    Progress Indicator: Complete

    Success Metric: Number of research-grade weather stations installed on state lands that contribute to the state’s climate modelling efforts.

    Timeframe: 2024

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife

    For More Details: Water Resilience Portfolio

    Progress Indicator: Underway

  • Action 4 Coordinate actionable research that informs climate resilient decarbonization, including development and application of climate projections that inform cost-effective, resilient design considerations for low-carbon energy systems.

    Success Metric: Delivery of climate projections.

    Timeframe: 2022

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission

    For More Details: Electric Program Investment Charge Research Development and Deployment Program; Natural Gas Research Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Launch of a data platform and analytics engine to make climate projections available to users.

    Timeframe: 2023

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission

    For More Details: Electric Program Investment Charge Research Development and Deployment Program; Natural Gas Research Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Deliver research to understand and enhance climate resilience in California’s clean energy transition.

    Timeframe: 2026

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission

    For More Details: Electric Program Investment Charge Research Development and Deployment Program; Natural Gas Research Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Use of valuation frameworks developed through EPIC-funded research by state and local agencies to incorporate societal benefits into electricity sector adaptation planning.

    Timeframe: 2024–2025

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission

    For More Details: Electric Program Investment Charge Research Development and Deployment Program; Natural Gas Research Program

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

    Success Metric: Use of Energy Commission-funded research results by utilities and other infrastructure providers to support vulnerability assessments as well as customer and grid-resilience investments and to inform their obligations to prioritize disadvantaged vulnerable communities in the context of climate change.

    Timeframe: 2024–2025

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Energy Commission | Public Utilities Commission

    For More Details: Electric Program Investment Charge Research Development and Deployment Program; Natural Gas Research Program; Climate Adaptation Proceeding; Energy Research Development and Deployment

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

  • Action 5 Work closely with federal agencies, tribal nations, businesses, and universities to better manage and protect California resources utilizing the latest available airborne and spaceborne climate monitoring data and data products, including low-cost sensors, hand-held devices, mobile survey vehicles, and sophisticated sensors set up on communication towers, drones, aircraft, and satellites.

    Success Metric: Use aircraft and satellite-based snowpack observations to support the Department of Water Resources’ transition to physically-based watershed models for estimating snowmelt runoff.

    Timeframe: Ongoing; a pilot effort for the Feather River Basin is beginning in Water Year 2022 to support the preliminary Sacramento Valley model-based forecasts to be made in Water Year 2023

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Water Resources

    For More Details: Memorandum of Understanding between the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Natural Resources Agency, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Food and Agriculture

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Department of Water Resources staff are trained to process Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar data from the pending National Aeronautics and Space Administration NISAR mission (launch expected in 2023), and perform subsidence monitoring to support Sustainable Groundwater Management Act implementation.

    Timeframe: After 2023

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Water Resources

    For More Details: Memorandum of Understanding between the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Natural Resources Agency, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Food and Agriculture

    Progress Indicator: Underway

  • Action 6 Coordinate across state agencies to advocate for federal support for climate adaptation science in California.

    Success Metric: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance obtained for climate-linked agricultural research.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Department of Food and Agriculture

    For More Details: Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation

    Progress Indicator: Scoping

    Success Metric: The State Water Resources Control Board Executive Director shall engage in dialogue with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), external experts, and interested stakeholders on how best to address meeting water quality standards given climate change impacts that contribute to or exacerbate degradation of water quality.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Environmental Protection Agency – State Water Resources Control Board

    For More Details: State Water Resources Control Board Resolution No. 2017-0012

    Progress Indicator: Scoping

  • Action 7 Invest in research, long-term monitoring/adaptive monitoring, and other efforts to improve nature-based climate solution decision-making.

    Success Metric: Number of funded projects that support restoration design, pre- and long-term post-restoration monitoring, and real-time decision making.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Water Resources, Delta Stewardship Council | Department of Food and Agriculture | Environmental Protection Agency – State Water Resources Control Board

    For More Details: State Water Resources Control Board 2021 Strategic Work Plan; Water Resilience Portfolio

    Progress Indicator: Ongoing Improvements

    Success Metric: Support research on climate indicators for California via the Indicators of Climate Change Reports and the Department of Water Resources California Hydroclimate Report.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Water Resources, Delta Stewardship Council | Department of Food and Agriculture | Environmental Protection Agency – State Water Resources Control Board

    For More Details: Indicators of Climate Change in California; Department of Water Resources California Hydroclimate Report; Delta Adapts

    Progress Indicator: Ongoing Improvements

    Success Metric: Number of Healthy Soils Demonstration Projects funded to test effects of nature-based climate solutions on agricultural lands.

    Timeframe: Annual

    Agency: Department of Food and Agriculture

    For More Details: Healthy Soils Demonstration Projects

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: In the Tahoe Basin, increased research to improve future projects and programs, such as future hydrology projections and greenhouse gas sequestration in meadows and forests.

    Timeframe: Ongoing

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Tahoe Conservancy

    For More Details: Tahoe Conservancy

    Progress Indicator: Underway

  • Action 8 Develop and utilize a rapid assessment climate vulnerability index assessment tool that is inclusive of tribal nations’ priorities and cultural resources.

    Success Metric: Engage tribal nations, along with stakeholders, to gain a more holistic understanding of the multiple values a site may possess.

    Timeframe: December 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – State Parks Office of Historic Preservation

    For More Details: State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Climate Action Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Create a values definition that is inclusive of tribal nations’ priorities and those of adjacent communities, to be used in a rapid assessment climate vulnerability index assessment tool.

    Timeframe: December 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – State Parks Office of Historic Preservation

    For More Details: State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Climate Action Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Conduct the rapid assessment considering the climate threats to the values a site possesses, modulate those threats for social and other factors, and conduct the rapid assessment.

    Timeframe: December 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – State Parks Office of Historic Preservation

    For More Details: State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Climate Action Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Create a toolkit so that others can utilize the tool- thereby increasing climate ambition by making the toolkit accessible on a global scale.

    Timeframe: December 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – State Parks Office of Historic Preservation

    For More Details: State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Climate Action Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Provide education, training, and technical assistance to potential users, in conjunction with partners working on similar frameworks.

    Timeframe: December 2021

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – State Parks Office of Historic Preservation

    For More Details: State Parks Office of Historic Preservation Climate Action Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

  • Action 9 Develop and update a suite of indicators that document the drivers and observed impacts of a changing climate across California over time.

    Success Metric: Release of Indicators of Climate Change in California reports and related online resources.

    Timeframe: 2022 and every four years thereafter

    Agency: Environmental Protection Agency – Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

    For More Details: Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Strategic Plan: 2018 Update; Indicators of Climate Change in California

    Progress Indicator: Ongoing Improvements

    Success Metric: New biodiversity-related indicators identified through successful implementation of the climate-biodiversity monitoring network on state lands.

    Timeframe: Identify any new metrics by the 2026 update of the Indicators Report

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife

    For More Details: Indicators of Climate Change in California

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

    Success Metric: Publicly accessible compilation of documented human health impacts of climate change on Californians.

    Timeframe: 2022, with updates at least every two years

    Agency: Health and Human Services Agency – Department of Public Health

    For More Details: Climate Change and Health Equity Section

    Progress Indicator: Scoping

  • Action 10 Develop state-of-the-science models to map wildfire fuels and carbon stocks and simulate the future of California’s natural and working lands.

    Success Metric: Launch model.

    Timeframe: Align with 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan

    Agency: Environmental Protection Agency – Air Resources Board | Natural Resources Agency – Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

    For More Details: Air Resources Board; Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

    Progress Indicator: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: Nearing Completion

    Progress Indicator: Environmental Protection Agency – Air Resources Board: Ongoing Improvements

  • Action 11 Understand climate vulnerabilities of wildlife areas, ecological reserves, and state-owned park units and marine protected areas along California’s coast and ocean.

    Success Metric: Percentage of state-owned park units with completed vulnerability assessments.

    Timeframe: 2026

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Parks and Recreation, Coastal Commission

    For More Details: State Parks Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Strategy; Coastal Commission Local Coastal Program Grant Program

    Progress Indicator: Underway

    Success Metric: Percentage of wildlife areas and ecological reserves with completed vulnerability assessments.

    Timeframe: By 2023, evaluate at least one third of currently Department of Fish and Wildlife-owned or managed areas

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife, Coastal Commission

    For More Details: Department of Fish and Wildlife Science Institute Strategic Action Plan; Coastal Commission Local Coastal Program Grant Program

    Progress Indicator: Scoping and organizing action; collecting input and conducting community engagement

    Success Metric: Development of plan and methodology for conducting vulnerability assessments for marine protected areas.

    Timeframe: 2024

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife, Ocean Protection Council

    For More Details: Ocean Protection Council Strategic Plan; Climate Resilience and California’s Marine Protected Area Network Report

    Progress Indicator: Ongoing Improvements

  • Action 12 Support accessible and actionable science to address the effect of climate change on species, habitats, and ecosystems.

    Success Metric: Support climate-related research on the impacts of climate change to sensitive species and at-risk ecosystems.

    Timeframe: 2024

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife

    For More Details: Department of Fish and Wildlife Science Institute

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

    Success Metric: Develop a multi-year Science Action Strategy that identifies clear scientific research, monitoring, and priorities, including those specific to climate change.

    Timeframe: 2023

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency – Department of Fish and Wildlife

    For More Details: Department of Fish and Wildlife Science Institute

    Progress Indicator: Securing Funding

    Success Metric: Wildfire resilience planning tool developed which integrates spatial data.

    Timeframe: 2023

    Agency: Natural Resources Agency

    For More Details: Natural Resources Agency Restoring Forest Health for Wildlife and Climate Resilience

    Progress Indicator: Nearing Completion