Asheville Makes its Mark on the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit

When Vice President Joe Biden met with a task force of governors, mayors and tribal leaders, he unveiled the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit in response to their request for actionable information on climate adaptation at the state and local levels.

In doing so, he placed on display the work of a large team of Asheville-based climate scientists, technologists, designers and climate communicators, including many affiliated with UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC).

The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, developed by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) with content contributed by agencies across the federal government, offers information and data-driven tools to aid those making decisions about how to help communities prepare for impacts of climate variability and change. The toolkit also provides an easy-to-use website for the decision makers and the public to learn more about climate-related risks and opportunities to improve resilience to climate variability and change.

“While many people around the country played some part, this tool for the nation was basically created by our Asheville community, from the brainstorming stage, through design, content development and launch,” said Jim Fox, director of UNC Asheville’s NEMAC. “The national team is led by David Herring in NOAA’s Climate Program Office, and NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in downtown Asheville was integral to the project. Working with the NOAA team, NEMAC designed and built the website, developed its featured visualization tool—the Climate Explorer—and contributed much of the writing and editing. The website also features the work of Asheville videographers.”

Many UNC Asheville students and alumni played key roles from inception to launch, including Nina Hall, Caroline Dougherty, John Frimmel, Matt Hutchins and Ian Johnson of NEMAC, who contributed science writing/editing, web design, development, and programming; Steve Ansari, NCDC information technology manager; and programmer Jeff Hicks.

“There are many high-level skill sets involved, and it highlights the importance of the liberal arts approach,” said Fox. “There was great benefit to having the climate scientists at NCDC here, but there was a whole community of people working with their data to create this tool. It takes all of these disciplines working together to meet the challenges society is facing.”

NEMAC’s visualization tools are integral to toolkit.climate.gov but the site, and NEMAC’s contribution, goes much further. “Americans can see fellow Americans building resiliency—that’s the philosophy of the website and it’s what we brought to the table,” said Fox. “There is a whole set of taking-action case-study stories—a rancher in Texas, a restaurant owner in New Jersey, a farmer in Alabama, a surfer in California—using the same step-by-step process to build resilience to changes in climate. And their stories are linked to tools so ordinary people can use this climate data and put it to use in their communities.”

Taking steps to build resilience does not mean giving up on steps to reduce human impact on climate, according to Fox. “If you’re adapting to climate change, and you’re also mitigating at the same time, we’ve got less adaptation we have to do. If people can see others like themselves taking action, whether trying to reduce climate change or adapt to it, that builds the capacity for someone to say ‘oh, I can do that too.’ All of us working together can make a difference.”

For NEMAC student intern Jacob Radford, work on the toolkit was more than a job. “As an atmospheric sciences major, I’m acutely aware of the dangers posed to society by climate change,” said Radford. “Working with NEMAC, I’m proud to be a part of a team bringing awareness to these risks and promoting ideas and tools to respond positively to climate-associated adversities.”

Work will continue over the next six months to add more stories and content in the areas of ecosystem vulnerability, human health, energy, transportation, and water resources. “As we continue to work on the toolkit, we also consolidate the strong capacity and expertise in this community,” said Fox. “The new Collider space at the Wells Fargo Building downtown will bring people working on the climate issue together. I hope and expect NEMAC to be part of that—creating a center for resilience and building tools like this one we’ve built for the White House, while growing that sector of the local economy. Asheville continues to give birth to and attract organizations and businesses involved in this work.”

Asheville-based contributors to the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit include:

UNC Asheville’s NEMAC
· Jim Fox, content manager

· Mark Phillips, lead programmer

· Nina Flagler Hall, managing editor/science writer, currently enrolled in UNC Asheville’s Master of Liberal Arts and Sciences (MLAS) program

· John Frimmel, programmer/web developer, UNC Asheville graduate in computer science and mathematics

· Caroline Dougherty, designer/web developer, UNC Asheville graduate in new media and recipient of the Climate Change & Society graduate certificate from the MLAS program

· Ian Johnson, editor/science writer, UNC Asheville graduate in environmental studies

· Matt Hutchins, science writer, UNC Asheville graduate in environmental studies and recipient of the Climate Change & Society graduate certificate, currently enrolled in the MLAS program

· Jeff Hicks, programmer, UNC Asheville graduate in environmental studies

· Student intern: Jacob Radford

NOAA/NCDC
· John Keck, product manager, primary web design and programming lead

· Ned Gardiner, PhD, content strategist, executive director of the video production team

· Steve Ansari, information technology manager, UNC Asheville graduate in applied physics

· Michael Myers, programmer/web developer

· Charlie Roberts, system administrator

· Will Chatham, information technology security

· Michael Urzen, programmer

Video Production Team
· Kurt Mann, American Green Media, director, camera, editor

· Alicia Albee, producer

· Robert Klein, Klein Digital, motion graphics