Methods for assessing climate change exposure for national park planning

Runyon AN, Gross JE, Schuurman GW, Lawrence DJ, Reynolds JH. 2024. Methods for assessing climate change exposure for national park planning. Park Resource Report. NPS/PRR—2024/02. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2302720

Climate change is already threatening resources, assets, operations, and visitors in national parks. As park managers cope with existing challenges and adapt to a rapidly changing climate, demand is growing for products that characterize how climate is projected to change in the future (‘climate exposure’). To meet this demand, the National Park Service Climate Change Response Program has developed park-specific summaries of climate exposure for all parks in the conterminous U.S. to help inform and support a broad range of climate assessments and adaptation efforts and activities. This report describes methods to assess historical climate trends, develop and select relevant, divergent climate futures, and calculate metrics used in the climate future summaries.

Type
Published Report
Authors
Runyon, Amber; Gross, John; Schuurman, Gregor; Lawrence, David; Reynolds, Joel
Date of Issue
2024-03
Publisher
National Park Service
DOI
10.36967/2302720
Units
CCRP , NRSS
Keywords
change adaptation, climate change, climate change adaptation, climate futures, climate impacts, climate projections, climate risk, climate-resource scenarios, exposure, natural resources, planning, scenario planning, scenario-based climate, sensitivity, vulnerability assessment

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