Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program

Many communities are already vulnerable to extreme events, and many of these vulnerabilities will increase with climate change. Identifying and better understanding critical thresholds for extreme events is key to developing effective community responses to climate change. In this project, researchers will test a methodology for using a participatory process to define critical thresholds for extreme events and use these thresholds to customize climate projections to community-­‐specific needs. This project brings together Adaptation International, CLIMAS and SCIPP, two of NOAA’s RISA programs, ATMOS Research, and ISET International to address this critical need.

Climate and its impacts extend across the U.S.-Mexico border, affecting many economic activities, including the management of natural resources, agriculture and ranching, and public health. This project aims to (a) provide information on climate and the environment for the binational border region, and (b) assess the effectiveness of social media for building the capacity to convey and us climate information in decision making.

Previously, this project was called Transborder Climate: Adaptation Without Boundaries. Transborder Climate was a newsletter with reports on research and forecasts related to climate and its impacts in the transboundary United States-Mexico border region. Transborder Climate provided information for resource management and policy, with a special emphasis on information relevant to adaptation to climate variations and trends. It was produced in English and Spanish.

Currently, the project is focused on the borderlands within the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo transboundary river basin encompassing the New Mexico, Texas, and Chihuahua borders. The first Rio Grande/Bravo Climate Impacts & Outlook was produced during winter 2013-14. This was the first of multiple experimental quarterly binational/bilingual climate outlooks designed to provide climate information to stakeholders in this region. The product is produced on behalf of the North American Climate Services Partnership, a collaboration between the weather services of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This is also part of a NIDIS pilot project for the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo transboundary region.
http://drought.gov/media/pgfiles/Rio-Grande-Bravo-Climate-Outlook13.pdf
http://drought.gov/media/pgfiles/Rio-Grande-Bravo-Climate-Outlook-spani…