Climate change is here, and it’s already impacting the communities, economies, and environments of California. To help communities across California adapt to the impacts, OPR’s Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP) launched the Climate Resilience Plan Alignment Toolkit in 2022 to support local and regional climate resilience planning efforts.
The Toolkit is a suite of collaboration tools for local government staff and decision-makers, tribes and tribal-serving organizations, community members and non-profits, regional entities, and others to coordinate and align local and regional resilience planning efforts. The toolkit is designed to accelerate climate adaptation at the local and regional level, and provides a menu of tools and best practices for communities to use while meeting local planning requirements, balancing multiple planning priorities, conducting risk and vulnerability assessments, advancing equitable outcomes and community engagement, and seeking funding to plan and implement solutions.
The Toolkit includes:
- Printed plan alignment booklets, which can be ordered in advance by emailing icarp@opr.ca.gov with your mailing address to request a free physical copy. Booklets currently available focus on wildfire, flood-after-fire, and coastal hazards. PDF versions are also available for download.
- The online Toolkit, accessible on the State Adaptation Clearinghouse at https://resilientca.org/plan-alignment.
The online version features:
- The Plan Alignment Tool, an interactive decision-support tool for identifying alignment opportunities specific to a community or region. The tool allows users to filter different plans and hazards to create a unique, tailored plan alignment roadmap. The roadmap can be shared and printed to support strategic planning and collaboration.
- Interactive versions of the wildfire, flood-after-fire, and coastal hazard plan alignment guides.
- Introductory content for beginners on the landing page that offer information on how to foster greater coordination and integration across planning initiatives, including the big ideas, or overarching principles of alignment, best practices, and troubleshooting tips.
- Case Study examples of how different types of communities across California have integrated plans and processes.
- Community and Stakeholder Engagement tips and resources that can help facilitate equitable coordination and outreach during a plan alignment process.
The Toolkit was developed by OPR in partnership with local, regional, state, and federal agencies to support communities in developing and implementing more holistic and effective resilience plans and processes. The resources were also inspired by the original Coastal Hazard Resilience Plan Alignment Compass Guide (also known as the Coastal Compass), originally published on the Adaptation Clearinghouse in 2018. For more information, contact ICARP staff at icarp@opr.ca.gov.