Resources

Tools

  • About adaptation provides more information on, and examples of, Building adaptative capacity (BAC) and Delivering adaptation actions (DAA) and evaluation criteria.
  • A changing climate for business provides an introduction to climate change impacts and adaptation for a business audience and includes some key messages for business (pdf, 2.5 MB).
  • LCLIP provides guidance on how to assess your organisation’s vulnerability to current and recent past weather events.
  • Our searchable case study database contains examples of how some organisations are already adapting to climate risks, and help to illustrate what the various strategies could mean in practice.
  • UKCIP’s Costings methodology can be used to convert significant risks – and opportunities – into financial costs. Technical and relatively simple versions of the methodology are available, depending on the importance of this information to your decision-making.The simplified spreadsheet version can help you to cost and compare adaptation options. The London (pdf, 3.4 MB) and West Midlands (pdf, 7 MB) scoping studies both used the costing guidelines to develop outline costs for their case studies.

If you are based in the UK, familiarise yourself with the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) resources to explore how the climate of the UK is expected to change up to 2100:

  • See What is UKCP09? for the guiding principles for using UKCP09 before you begin. It is important that you understand the terminology and what the Projections can and cannot do.
  • Key findings describe the main changes we can expect for the UK, for projected temperature and precipitation changes for three time periods, three greenhouse gas emissions scenarios and a range of probability levels.
  • Maps & graphs pages are useful for visualising projected changes. There are downloadable versions for use in presentations and reports for the UK as a whole.

Reports & guidance cover the various components of UKCP09:

  • Briefing report: a summary of UKCP09 for the general reader.
  • Climate change projections report is a more in-depth look at the purpose and design of the UKCP09 methodology, and is written for a range of levels of expertise.
  • Weather Generator report outlines the needs for and principles of the UKCP09 Weather Generator, and describes how it can be used. This is a very technical element of UKCP09 and not recommended for a novice.
  • Output from the Weather Generator can be processed with the Threshold Detector using your own thresholds identified in Task 2.3. It will count occurrences where your threshold has been exceeded, resulting in downloadable data.
  • Marine & coastal report is an overview of changes in the marine environment around the UK, showing key findings and the science behind the results.
  • If you need information on any specific terms used in UKCP09, try the site Index.
  • Other customisable output is also available from the UKCP09 User Interface (registration required).
  • Alongside climate change scenarios, you should use socio-economic scenarios to develop your understanding of how these other risks may alter in the future (pdf, 670 KB). Also consider existing trends that might affect your operations, e.g. in the product or labour market, or changing technologies.
  • The Managing adaptation summary is a guidance note that examines key issues to consider when making the transition from awareness to action (pdf, 5.8 MB).

Publications

  • The work of the ESPACE partnership on change management provides useful insights into overcoming barriers to engagement.
  • Oursouthwest Managing Change publication provides useful insights into potential barriers to action, and how to overcome them, as well as a Change Management matrix, which is a particularly valuable tool for understanding change management.
  • Climate Trends Tableau is an interactive tool developed by Adaptation Scotland for investigating climate statistics produced by the Met Office National Climate Information Centre. Create graphs for any combination of 7 climate variables, 3 regions plus all of Scotland, and a choice of monthly, seasonal or annual averages.
  • The Met Office provides UK-wide maps of climate anomalies. Maps are available for monthly, seasonal and annual averages, to answer questions such as “when was it last as hot as this summer?”.
  • The Met Office Hadley Centre monitors a broad range of climate variables and indices worldwide for climate monitoring and climate modelling work. UK monthly summary and climate averages are available.
  • Guidance prepared by RIVM on assessing and handling uncertainty is recommended reading.
  • Measuring Progress (pdf, 1.6 MB) provides an overview of key climate risks based on results of regional and sectoral impacts studies conducted in the first seven years of UKCIP.
  • UK Resilience, a service of the Cabinet Office, has a wealth of information on risk assessment on its website.
  • Beating the heat (pdf, 7.4 MB) contains some good worked examples of adaptations to specific building types.
  • Section 10.3 of Preparing for local climate change provides examples of adaptation actions that might be taken by local authorities to meet sector specific adaptation objectives.
  • Climate Local, hosted by the local Government Association, – provides useful information for Local Authorities on adapting to climate change. Refer to this if you are from a Local Authority.
  • Adaptation Planning database is web-based guidance on the integration of biodiversity within adaptation planning, containing useful information and tools on how to adapt to climate change. It supports the integration of climate change impacts and response activities through implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.