Climate Wizard
ClimateWizard enables technical and non-technical audiences alike to access leading climate change information and visualize the impacts anywhere on Earth. The first generation of this web-based program allows the user to choose a state or country and both assess how climate has changed over time and to project what future changes are predicted to occur in a given area. ClimateWizard represents the first time ever the full range of climate history and impacts for a landscape have been brought together in a user-friendly format.
With ClimateWizard you can:
- view historic temperature and rainfall maps for anywhere in the world
- view state-of-the-art future predictions of temperature and rainfall around the world
- view and download climate change maps in a few easy steps
US Forest Service CarbonPlus Calculator
http://www.itreetools.org/forestcarboncalculator/
Do you need to know the size of your unit’s carbon footprint? This calculator is designed to let you collect the various sources of emissions from your operations and calculate the total carbon dioxide equivalents you generate. This calculator is based on the structure of the EPA Personal emissions calculator. The default parameters for the FS CarbonPlus Calculator have been adapted from a set of data initially calibrated for New England. If you are able to identify your local emission factors based on information from your utilities and energy suppliers, your calculations will be more accurate.
Adaptation Workbook
http://adaptationworkbook.org/aw-home
The Adaptation Workbook is a step-by-step process designed to help you consider how climate change might affect your forest management and conservation goals. Using the Workbook will help you develop your own custom plan to adapt and prepare for changing conditions. The Workbook is not intended to provide specific guidance or recommendations about how you should adapt to climate change. Rather, you will rely on your judgment and experience to develop your own custom adaptation plan.
AgroClimate
http://agroclimate.org/tools/rainfall-and-temp-monitoring/
A 5-year project funded by USDA NIFA (grant no. 2011-67003-30347). The project aims at increasing the climate literacy of Extension faculty and producers in combination with an open discussion among stakeholders, extension and research faculty about climate and agriculture. The results of this project will lead to an effective engagement of stakeholders in the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies that are scientifically sound and economically feasible.
ECO Cities
http://www.ppgis.manchester.ac.uk/ecocities/tool.html
The project focuses on the response of urban areas to the impacts of climate change, looking particularly at how we can adapt our cities to the challenges and opportunities that a changing climate presents. The spatial portal is designed as a platform to display spatial data and provide information to improve understanding of these issues in Greater Manchester, to facilitate climate change adaptation planning and decision-making, and aid spatially targeted adaptation responses.
The spatial data and information included in the portal helps to build the evidence base available to decision makers and other stakeholders when developing climate change adaptation plans and strategies. The spatial portal is for all stakeholders, including community members, to visualize vulnerability, exposure and climate hazards within a particular location, thus raising awareness, aiding decision-making and facilitating community and stakeholder participation in formulating appropriate adaptation responses.
Surface Temperature and Runoff (STAR) Tools
http://maps.merseyforest.org.uk/grabs/
The STAR tools allow users to assess the potential of green infrastructure in adapting their areas to climate change. They include a surface temperature tool and a surface runoff tool. The tools can be used at a neighbourhood scale (in the North West of England and beyond) to test the impact of different land cover scenarios of greening and development on surface temperatures and runoff, under different temperature and precipitation scenarios.
Outputs of the STAR tools can be used to inform policy, strategy, and development. They are of use to a range of professionals and organisations with an interest in understanding more about the influence of urban greening on their local climate. This includes planners, developers, masterplanners, local authorities, urban forestry initiatives, NGOs and academics.
Water Supply Stress Index Model
http://www.wassiweb.sgcp.ncsu.edu/simulation/setup
Ecosystems and natural resources across the United States have been increasingly stressed over the past decades, mainly due to population growth and climate change and variability. Quantifying changes in ecosystem processes and ecosystem services under a changing environment is critical for management decisionmaking. Eastern Threat Center scientists are developing an integrated model to estimate ecosystem water and carbon balances and the interactions among ecosystem evapotranspiration (water use), productivity, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity at the continental scale by coupling the key processes of the hydrologic and carbon cycles. This integrated, water-centered modeling system is being built upon previous water supply and demand research that resulted in a Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) model, which can be used to examine potential impacts of climate, land use, and population changes individually or in combination.
NOAA- Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts
https://coast.noaa.gov/digitalcoast/tools/slr
Allows you to move a slider between Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) and up to 6 ft of sea level rise. There are “layers” for confidence (high and low), socioeconomic vulnerability (high, med, low), flood frequency, marsh impacts, water depth. Just a viewer. The data and maps in this tool illustrate the scale of potential flooding, not the exact location, and do not account for erosion, subsidence, or future construction. Water levels are relative to Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) (excludes wind driven tides). The data, maps, and information provided should be used only as a screening-level tool for management decisions. As with all remotely sensed data, all features should be verified with a site visit. The data and maps in this tool are provided “as is,” without warranty to their performance, merchantable state, or fitness for any particular purpose. The entire risk associated with the results and performance of these data is assumed by the user. This tool should be used strictly as a planning reference tool and not for navigation, permitting, or other legal purposes.
Forest Planner
http://forestplanner.ecotrust.org/
Ecotrust has created the Forest Planner to give forest management scenario planning capacity to all Oregon and Washington land managers. Users will be able to visualize alternative management scenarios on your lands and receive immediate feedback on how decisions might pay off in terms of timber harvests and financial returns, as well as public benefits like carbon storage and ecosystem services. With the Forest Planner, users can:
- Find and map their property with helpful map layers such as tax lots.
- Map out the forest stands and management units on their property with helpful map layers such as riparian buffers and steep slopes.
- Define and map out the type of trees found in each of their stands (species, diameter class, trees per acre).
- Choose from a spectrum of harvest practices and apply them to the management units they choose.
- Create customized management scenarios that represent the combination of management practices assigned across the property.
- Quickly compare different management scenarios with graphs and maps; see outputs like timber yields and stocking, carbon storage, and more.
- Securely and confidently store and manage data about their property and management scenarios they have run.
Stabilization Wedges Game
http://cmi.princeton.edu/wedges/game.php
The Stabilization Wedges Game is a team-based exercise that teaches players about the scale of the greenhouse gas problem, plus technologies that already exist to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions and get us off the path toward dramatic and damaging climate change. Players pick eight carbon-cutting strategies to construct a carbon mitigation portfolio, filling in the eight wedges of the stabilization triangle. http://cmi.princeton.edu/wedges/pdfs/gameboard.pdf The game has been used with players from variety of groups, from university researchers to industry professionals to high school students.
Climate Challenge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/index_1.shtml
You become president of the European Nations and must tackle global climate change from 2000 to 2100. You choose Europe’s policies and try to persuade competing regional blocs to reduce their carbon emissions. You choose policies from several categories: National, Trade, Industrial, Local, and Household. Each policy shows a public opinion approval rating, cost, and amount of emissions (I suspect the amount of emissions you will be reducing by, but I’m not 100% sure). You have a monetary budget and a given amount of stored energy, food and water. And enter negotiations with other countries who express their concerns and limitations. You have the opportunity to subsidize other countries commitment to the policies agreed to at the climate summit. You decide if Europe will commit to the targets, then get the results of the other countries’ commitments. Then the cycle continues. You can lose or win elections depending on your actions. At the end of your presidency results are given.
NAT GEO’s Plan it Green
http://www.planitgreenlive.com/en/play
Gamers act as the planners of a city to revitalize it to become a greener town through energy retrofits, clean energy jobs, and green building.
Might have some interesting tools, but you have to get pretty invested in building your city before you get to the greening aspects such as waste/water grid modernization, insulation, hydropower, bike paths, biofuels, wind/solar, charging stations, mass transit
My 2050
http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk/#/home
Can you help reduce our CO2 emissions to 20% of 1990 levels and help avoid dangerous climate change? An interactive game to determine a scenario for the UK to lower its CO2 emissions 20% below 1990 levels by 2050. The user can select from adjustments in sectors from energy to transit. The UK is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. For this to happen, we need to transform the UK economy while ensuring secure, low-carbon energy supplies to 2050. The 2050 Calculator is an award-winning, user-friendly model that lets you create your own UK emissions reduction pathway, and see the impact using real scientific data. The Calculator helps everyone engage in the debate and lets Government make sure our planning is consistent with this long-term aim. http://my2050.decc.gov.uk/
Stop Disaster
http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html
Your role in this game is to plan and construct a safer environment for your population. You must assess the disaster risk and try to limit the damage when natural hazards strike. The available scenarios for this game are tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, flood, and wildfire. With your help, we can reduce human, physical and financial cost of disasters by understanding the risks and applying the best methods of prevention and mitigation. At the beginning of the game prompts are displayed with the villages population and introduces you to the mission challenges (eg. Provide accommodation for 400 people, build a hospital and a school. “It is important to protect the water towers located around the area.” “You have a budget of $50,000 and around 25 minutes to work.”) Each scenario provides 15 key facts –clues on how to accomplish the mission goal by keeping the most people alive/uninjured.