Water: Climate
Climate Ready Water Utilities
Highlights
- Clean Water State Revolving Fund's Green Project Reserve
- Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool Exercise with North Hudson Sewerage Authority and New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (PDF)
- Adaptation Strategies Guide (PDF)
- New resources added to CRWU Toolbox
- Planning for Sustainability Handbook for Water and Wastewater Utilities (PDF)
Climate change impacts pose challenges to drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (water sector) utilities in fulfilling their public health and environmental missions. Extreme weather events, sea level rise, shifting precipitation and runoff patterns, temperature changes, and resulting changes in water quality and availability contribute to a complex scenario of climate change challenges that have potentially significant implications for the sustainability of the water sector.
EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative provides resources for the water sector to adapt to climate change by promoting a clear understanding of climate science and adaptation options and by promoting consideration of integrated water resources management (IWRM) planning in the water sector.
- For more information please see the CRWU Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 413K, About PDF)|Print-Ready Version (PDF) (2 pp, 478K, About PDF)
Background
Climate Ready Water Utilities Working Group
In fall 2009, EPA convened a CRWU Working Group under the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC). The final NDWAC report was delivered to EPA Administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, on January 14, 2011. The report includes eleven findings and twelve recommendations, an adaptive response framework to guide climate ready activities, and the identification of needed resources and possible incentives to support and encourage utility climate readiness.
- Final NDWAC CRWU Report (PDF) (76 pp, 1MB, About PDF)
- Short Overview of the NDWAC CRWU Report (PDF) (3 pp, 874K, About PDF)
- CRWU NDWAC Working Group page
Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT)
This software tool assists drinking water and wastewater utility owners and operators in understanding potential climate change impacts and in assessing the related risks at their utilities. CREAT allows users to evaluate potential impacts of climate change on their utility and to evaluate adaptive options to address these impacts using both traditional risk assessment and scenario-based decision making.
Climate Ready Water Utilities Toolbox
This searchable toolbox contains resources that support all stages of the decision process, from basic climate science through integration of mitigation and adaptation into long-term planning. The Toolbox contains: reports, articles, and other publications; information about grant programs that could support climate-related actions by utilities and municipalities; current activities; upcoming seminars, workshops, and training sessions; models and tools; and climate response materials that focus on mitigation and adaptive strategies.
Adaptation Strategies Guide
This interactive guide assists drinking water and wastewater utilities in gaining a better understanding of what climate-related impacts they may face in their region, and what adaptation strategies can be used to prepare their system for those impacts. A worksheet is provided to assist the user in the adaptation planning process. The guide also includes examples of utilities implementing adaptation options at their systems.
- Adaptation Strategies Guide for Water Utilities (PDF) (94 pp, 8MB, About PDF)
- Training Presentation for Adaptation Strategies Guide (PDF) (30 pp, 3MB, About PDF)
Climate Ready Water Utilities and Climate Ready Estuaries
EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities (CRWU) and Climate Ready Estuaries (CRE) initiatives are working to coordinate their efforts and support climate change risk assessment and adaptation planning.
- CREAT Exercise with North Hudson Sewerage Authority and New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program (PDF) (22 pp, 1MB, About PDF)
This report details a recent exercise where CREAT was used to support the collaborative process of identifying climate change threats, assessing potential consequences, and evaluating adaptation options for both a utility and for the overall watershed.
Other Climate Ready Water Utilities Resources
- EPA Climate Change
- EPA Climate Ready Estuaries
- EPA Clean Water State Revolving Fund's Green Project Reserve
- EPA Effective Utility Management
- EPA Office of Water Climate Change
- EPA State and Local Climate and Energy Program
- EPA Watershed Academy December 2nd, 2010 Webcast "Climate Adaptation Tools for Addressing Water Issues"
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Portal
- US Global Change Research Program
Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) Courses
Please allow sufficient time for videos to load.
CREAT 101
CREAT 101: An Introduction to CREAT (PDF) (54 pp, 4MB, About PDF) This training provides an overview of climate change impacts and the methodology and functionality of CREAT. |
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI |
Climate Change (Flash) (8MB) |
CREAT Introduction (Flash) (7MB) |
Getting Started (Flash) (5MB) |
Threats and Climate Science (Flash) (5MB) |
Risk Assessment (Flash) (4MB) |
Planning and Reports (Flash) (7MB) |
CREAT 201
CREAT 201: Overview of the setup & climate science information in CREAT (PDF) (46 pp, 2MB, About PDF) This training uses an example utility to demonstrate how to input utility information, identify threats, and access the climate information in CREAT. |
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI |
Introduction (Flash) (5MB) |
Utility Setup (Flash) (3MB) |
Asset Inventory (Flash) (3MB) |
Identifying Threats (Flash) (4MB) |
Identifying Threats (cont’d) (Flash) (5MB) |
Adaptive Measure Inventory (Flash) (6MB) |
CREAT 202
CREAT 202: Overview of the analysis & reporting functions within CREAT (PDF) (49 pp, 2MB, About PDF) This training demonstrates how to complete an assessment, develop an implementation plan, and generate reports. |
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI |
Introduction (Flash) (6MB) |
Baseline Analysis (Flash) (5MB) |
Resilience Analysis (Flash) (5MB) |
Wildfire/Watershed Example (Flash) (5MB) |
Implementation Planning (Flash) (3MB) |
Results & Reports (Flash) (4MB) |
Live Webcasts
No webcasts scheduled at this time.
For more information on the CRWU program please contact us at CRWUHelp@epa.gov (crwuhelp@epa.gov).