Following is a list of recently released resources of interest available online:
- National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Services Seminar Series - The NWS Climate Services Division Seminar Series is a monthly series on climate-related topics developed to build capacity in NWS field offices. Recordings of past presentations are posted to the series website. Topics previously addressed include: sea level rise, climate risks and extreme weather, communicating climate change to the public and using social media to understand human interaction with extreme weather events. Speakers are university researchers and research scientists from NOAA.
- Coastal Resilience Network - The Coastal Resilience Network, a global effort of the Nature Conservancy released Coastal Resilience 2.0, an interactive suite of tools that help users visualize risks to coastal communities. The tool enables the user to build a map with several GIS layers, such as locations of critical facilities and local boundaries, storm surge and sea level rise. Coastal Resilience 2.0 is in various stages of development depending on the location of the country. It includes eight U.S. states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey) and two specific U.S. locations (Puget Sound, Washington and Ventura County, California). Partners supporting the effort in the U.S. include NOAA, USGS, EPA, and several municipalities and universities.
- Energizing Water Efficiency in California: Applying Energy Efficiency Strategies to Water - This Pacific Institute report focuses on market-based incentive and pricing policies and suggests that policies developed by the energy industry in California to improve efficiencies also have potential application in the water sector. The six report recommendations for advancing water conservation and efficiency in California are: update standards and codes, adopt a loading order for water, update water efficiency targets, improve pricing policies by employing tiered pricing or other pricing signals, increase efficiency investments and collect more and better water data. The report also suggests that utilities seek out opportunities for partnerships with energy companies to increase efficiencies in both water and energy.
- Water Quality Impacts of Extreme Weather-Related Events – This Water Research Foundation project (#4324) is a compendium of 46 case studies of extreme weather-related events and the observed water quality impacts of these events. The final product includes a 150-page report and a database tool that enables users to search the case studies based on parameters of interest, such as extreme weather event type, water quality impact, source water type or utility size.