The training courses here can help you acquire the tools, skills, and knowledge you need to manage your climate-related risks and opportunities. All courses are free of charge, and are offered in at least one of three formats: online audio-visual presentations ("Online, Self-Guided" and "Tool Tutorial"), training webinars ("Online, Scheduled Lecture Series"), and residence training courses ("Onsite, Instructor-Led"). Each training module is accompanied with a test to help you evaluate your knowledge. These courses feature scientific information adapted from authoritative sources, prepared by recognized subject matter experts. The courses have been pilot tested with users and other subject matter experts and may be updated periodically, as needed.
Information in this short course summarizes the state-of-the-art science for natural resource managers and decision makers regarding climate variability, change, projections, and ecological and management responses. The course includes video lectures, interactive quizzes, literature citations, and links to further information. The lectures were videotaped at a 2008 workshop that included U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Geological Survey scientists, as well as U.S. Forest Service resource managers.
This three-day residence training course provides advanced knowledge in climate modeling, downscaling, attribution of extreme weather and water events to climate, and approaches and tools for developing local climate studies.
These two videos serve as an introduction to the Downscaled Climate and Hydrology Projections website. This website, the result of a collaboration between several federal and non-federal partners, provides access to downscaled climate and hydrology projections for the contiguous United States and parts of Canada and Mexico, derived from contemporary global climate models. In the first video, a hydrologic engineer at the Bureau of Reclamation's Technical Service Center, in Denver, introduces the website and provides an overview of the MetEd lesson: Preparing Hydro-climate Inputs for Climate Change in Water Resources Planning. This lesson provides background information needed to use the projections site effectively to retrieve climate and hydrology projections data for impacts analysis. In the second video, another lecturer steps through the process of retrieving projections data using the website.
Individuals in health, public health, and emergency management leadership roles are faced with many challenges when their organizations are activated in response to a disaster. Although mechanisms and processes are in place to support these responses, the abrupt change in focus from normal operations to disaster response operations and the intensity of these devastating events increase the level of urgency and stress for the entire organization. This free, interactive, and effective online course helps leaders at any level understand and address their staff’s stress risks and reactions and create a resilient workplace. The training is based on the principles of Psychological First Aid, which is an evidence-informed approach for assisting children, adolescents, adults, families, and responders in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency event. Organizations that work in emergency or disaster-related areas—such as public health, emergency response, hospitals and other healthcare organizations, or even voluntary organizations that are active in disasters—will find this course useful. Supervisors and leaders will gain skills that will help build a resilient workforce, which will in turn lead to less staff turnover, fewer work conflicts, increased productivity and effectiveness in service to the mission, and overall enhanced workforce development.
CanVis is a tool for visualizing coastal changes and potential climate adaptation strategies. Users will learn: (1) to recognize how visualizations can change behavior; (2) the four steps for creating visualizations using CanVIS; and (3) potential applications of the software. Both instructor-led and self-guided options are offered online.
Climate Academy is a five-month online course designed for natural resource managers and conservation professionals that covers the fundamentals of climate science, provides tools and resources for climate adaptation, and increases climate literacy and communication. The course is conducted annually via webinars held every other week for five months, for a total of ten sessions. Class resources and discussion forums are accessed through Moodle, a distance-learning platform. Course participants develop a final product (such as a report or presentation) addressing climate change in their management of natural resources. There is no tuition for employees of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, or the Bureau of Land Management. For participants from other agencies and organizations, there is a tuition charge of $200.00.
An instructor-led course that helps participants develop the following five capabilities: (1) recognize the changes and variability in climate; (2) identify opportunities to leverage governance; (3) examine methods for vulnerability assessment; (4) evaluate strengths and weaknesses of strategies; and (5) apply communication research in coastal community adaptation planning.
EPA’s Climate Adaptation Training for Local Government helps local officials, municipal staff, and community leaders understand the changing climate and threats posed by climate change to local government services. The module covers climate impacts to water and wastewater services, air quality, public health, contaminated site management, and emergency response. The training also highlights some communities that have taken adaptation actions and provides a list of resources to support climate adaptation planning and implementation in local communities.
This module discusses how a changing climate can lead to changes in extreme weather events on the local scale. The role of natural variability is also explained. The module describes how climate change can have both positive and negative effects, depending on the situation, location, and the vulnerability of the population. While research on the relationships between climate change and extreme events is still relatively new, the module discusses what changes scientists think are likely to happen if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.
This module is an overview of the different effects climate change produces in different regions of the United States. In addition to discussing impacts already being experienced, the module presents information on how climate scientists use specialized models and statistical techniques to estimate how regional climates are likely to change in the future.
This module looks at how increasing temperatures due to climate change have affected sea level rise and what effects scientists expect in the future, given rising greenhouse gas emissions. The various mechanisms of sea level rise are discussed, as well as the tools and research used to study this topic. The module also discusses how countries and communities are preparing for future increases in sea levels
This educational module provides a brief overview of current and projected climate change effects on water resources, vegetation, wildlife, and disturbances, specifically geared towards forest and grassland ecosystems. A friendly and neutral approach provides animations, examples, and outward links to more information. There is a 10-question activity at the end of the module, and users who complete the activity will receive a printable certificate with their name and the date completed.
This educational module provides a brief overview of the climate system, greenhouse gases, climate models, current climate change impacts, and future projections. A friendly and neutral approach seeks to demystify and remove the charge from climate change. There is a 14-question activity at the end of the module, and users who complete the activity will receive a printable certificate with their name and the date completed.
This three-day course is designed to guide conservation and resource management practitioners in two essential elements in the design of climate adaptation plans. Specifically, it provides guidance in identifying which species or systems are likely to be most strongly affected by projected changes, and understanding why these resources are likely to be vulnerable, including the interaction between climate shifts and existing stressors. Participants should have a basic knowledge of principles of conservation biology. The course is also available as an online, self-paced course through the National Conservation Training Center's website at http://nctc.fws.gov/courses/alc/alc3184/resources/self-paced-course.html.
This module discusses global climate change and the role of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. It also covers signs of climate change, how scientists study climate, scientists’ current thinking on future changes, and what can be done to minimize the effects.
This module examines relationships between climate variability phenomena—such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, Pacific North American Oscillation, and Madden-Julian Oscillation—on tornado and early season freezes in Florida using statistical analysis methods.
This site offers 13 recorded presentations from the 29 July–2 August, 2013 offering of the Climate Variability and Change Virtual Course (CVCVC). This five-day live facilitated online course provided an extensive background on a range of climate variability and change topics with an emphasis on developing communication skills for challenging climate topics. The topics covered in this course, while aimed primarily at NOAA operational climate services delivery staff will also be helpful for others who already possess a basic level of understanding of climate science.
This two-day instructor-led course offers a combination of lectures and hands-on exercises to give students a better understanding of coastal inundation issues and mapping methods using a geographic information system (GIS). This course has been designed to: understand the types of inundation; learn about products and terminology; access data; perform datum conversions; understand interpolation methods and create DEMS; explore water level data; and map inundation using GIS. In hands-on exercises, students connect to web map services, access elevation data, convert between vertical datums, create and manage digital elevation models, map inundation model output, develop inundation zones, and map sea level rise using modeled tidal surfaces.
This guide helps users with planning and decision making on 12 key coastal management topics, including climate change, shoreline erosion and wetland restoration. Each topic includes a set of expert-designed questions to help teams ask the right questions and get the right data and information. The interactive format makes it easy to customize and share questions and to collaborate with others. Use this guide to get teams on the same page, facilitate planning meetings, assign tasks, and write grant proposals.
This workshop process—developed through The Nature Conservancy's Coastal Resilience network (coastalresilience.org)—fosters collaboration with and among community stakeholders to advance education, planning, and ultimately implementation of priority resilience actions. The freely downloadable Workshop Guide provides instructions on how to lead your community towards resilience, illustrating the essentials of the process as well as “before” and “after” workshop steps to help ensure that immediate goals, outcomes, and strategic direction are realized within your community. Also available from the website are workshop support materials, including a risk matrix, invitation language, community survey questions, and suggestions for participant affiliations.
This is an active, hands-on training to help natural resources managers incorporate climate change considerations into their own real-world ecosystem management projects (not only forests). Participants are guided through the steps of the Adaptation Workbook to define their management objectives, identify relevant regional and local effects of climate change on forest ecosystems, identify challenges and opportunities for management, and develop actionable steps to adapt ecosystems to changing conditions. Participants are encouraged to access post-training support from the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, and to share their stories online as “adaptation demonstrations” at www.forestadaptation.org.
This short course is designed for land managers who want to understand how forests and grasslands store and release carbon, how management can affect carbon storage and release, and the emerging market contexts. Fifteen presentations are included, accompanied by references and links, and a set of quizzes on the material. Each speaker is an expert in the subject matter presented, and each talk was reviewed by a group of scientists and managers to help improve the clarity and content of the final recording.
Communities experiencing increasing incidents of coastal flooding are looking for relief. This online guide shows spatial analysts how to incorporate nature-based solutions, or green infrastructure, into their GIS work. A GIS work plan is provided, along with examples, process guidance, case studies, and templates.
Thousands of workers are affected by heat illness each year—environmental heat is a recognized hazard. Workers have the right to receive information and training about hazards and their prevention, and it is the employer's responsibility to provide this. In a training, it is important to include the health effects of heat, how and when to respond to symptoms, and how to prevent them from occurring. This OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Training Guide, in PDF format, includes information in short, interactive lesson plans that can be completed in a tailgate or toolbox talk. Training should be in a language that the worker can understand.
Climate change interpretation can occur in many venues and formats. This modular self-study curriculum was designed by the National Park Service's Interpretive Development Program to hone knowledge and skills for interpreting climate change, and can be completed at the user's own time and pace. There are several ways to engage with the material—either in-depth with each of the study guides, or accessing information as and when needed. The training includes four modules: (1) Introduction to Interpreting Climate Change; (2) Knowledge of the Resource Issue; (3) Knowledge of the Audience; and (4) Appropriate Techniques and Strategies. Each module contains a Study Guide that provides activities, questions, and links to additional resources, as well as a Learning Companion, the content document developed by a subject matter team.
During this full-day introductory workshop, participants will learn fundamental green infrastructure concepts and practices that can play a critical role in making coastal communities more resilient to natural hazards. Local speakers will share expertise on local and regional ecosystems, existing green infrastructure projects of various scales, and ways in which green infrastructure has been integrated into planning processes.
This module explains how climate models work. Because the modeling of both weather and climate share some similarities, the content throughout this module compares and contrasts the two, explaining how and why climate models differ from weather models. The module discusses how models are built to simulate climate and generate the statistics that describe it, and concludes with a discussion of how models are tuned and tested.
The Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) is a technical tool that can be very powerful if used appropriately. Appropriate and inappropriate applications of LCAT are essential knowledge for all LCAT users. This training module introduces opportunities for correct LCAT applications and warns of erroneous ones. This module may require the download of additional plug-ins before viewing.
This training module instructs on the use of the Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) for climate-sensitive decision-support services. The module demonstrates LCAT applications in studying drought, extreme heat, and winter temperature and precipitation relationships to El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. This module may require the download of additional plug-ins before viewing.
The Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) uses time-series analysis, trend-fitting techniques, and assesses the rate of change in local climate variables. Part 1 introduces the LCAT methods of trend-fitting techniques and explains their strengths and limitations in applications for various climate variables.
The Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) uses time-series analysis, trend-fitting techniques, and assesses the rate of change in local climate variables. Part 2 explains how the trend ensemble and rate of local change are computed.
The Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) uses composite analysis to identify relationships between local climate variables and climate variability signals. Part 1 introduces the methods and explains its strengths and limitations in applications for various climate variables.
The Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) uses composite analysis to identify relationships between local climate variables and climate variability signals. Part 2 explains how to adjust to the existing trend in the data.
This module provides an introduction to the Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT), its purpose, main functions, and navigation options. LCAT allows climate variability and change analysis of local variables such as temperature, precipitation, degree days, drought, and others.
This module reviews the source data of climate variability indices, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation, and others.
This module reviews the sources for the Local Climate Analysis Tool (LCAT) regional climate data, and discusses their quality and format—including forecast regions and climate divisions.
