One of the multiple reasons for conducting the National Climate Assessment is to support decisions related to adaptation and mitigation.  Recently, the Council on Environmental Quality, in partnership with the Office of Science and Technology Policy and NOAA issued a report (http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/adaptation) to the President on ways to encourage climate adaptation within the federal government broadly.  One of the recommendations in that report was to initiate an adaptation science program within USGCRP.

Adaptation is the process of preparing for and building resilience to climate change, as well as responding to unavoidable impacts. Adaptation science is characterized by interdisciplinary studies that bridge across disciplines (e.g. physical, natural, social, economic sciences), as well as the integration of observations, models, research, and decisions across local-to-national scales.  There is currently an unmet demand for science to inform adaptation decisions, and this demand will only increase as additional sectors, and society as a whole, act on the challenges posed by climate change.  For this reason, a new Strategic Program on Adaptation Science has been formed at UGSCRP.This activity will help to ensure that science produced by the USGCRP informs and supports adaptation decisions. 

Adaptation requires sustained, ongoing dialogue, and feedback between scientists, decision makers, and information users throughout the research and implementation processes.  Therefore, USGCRP will provide critical coordination functions and facilitate collaboration between Federal agencies and their non-Federal partners (i.e. local, state, tribal, and regional entities, non-profit organizations, private sector, universities) on science in support of adaptation.

Tom Armstrong from the Department of the Interior has been appointed as the Vice Chair for Adaptation at USGCRP to lead the new Adaptation Science initiative.  Working with him are Claudia Nierenberg from NOAA and Laura Petes, a AAAS Fellow also at NOAA.  The mission of Adaptation Science at USGCRP is to ensure that the Federal Government’s science enterprise informs and empowers adaptation decisions at a range of scales for a diversity of users.