Why should emergency management be concerned about climate adaptation.

1. Zach Smith
Guilford County Emergency Management
June 11, 2013

3.  Climate includes patterns of temperature,
precipitation, humidity, wind and seasons.
 Affects more than just a change in the weather, it
refers to seasonal changes over a long period of
time.
 These climate patterns play a fundamental role
in shaping natural ecosystems, and the human
economies and cultures that depend on them.

4.  Natural Hazards are of significant interest to EM
 Potential increase in frequency and an increase
in severity of selected natural hazards
 Climate change will likely impact all four phases
of emergency management
 The impact climate change may have on the
HIRA process

5.  May create risks that are more regional in nature
 Affect broader geographical areas
 Require resources from a larger community of partners
 Requires multiple communities to work together
 Advantageous to consider "climate change
adaptation”
 Integrated planning and action to build resilience to expected
climate change impacts on hazards.

6.  That’s why we are here today..
 To gain situational awareness of the issue
 Understand how it could potentially affect the work we do
 Discuss future actions we can take to become more resilient

7.  That’s why we are here today..
 To gain situational awareness of the issue
 Understand how it could potentially affect the work we do
 Discuss future actions we can take to become more resilient

8.  FEMA Lessons Learned Information Sharing
 LLIS.gov
 Climate Change Adaptation and Emergency Management
 Strategic Foresight Initiative (SFI)
 Facilitated by FEMA (“Climate Change” in FEMA Library)
 Launched so the EM community can seek to understand the
future of EM
 Various scholarly articles
 Search “climate change and emergency management”