adaptation planning

The National Park Service followed a five-step scenario planning process for Joshua Tree National Park.

Why Joshua Tree?

Visitors from around the world are drawn to California’s Joshua Tree National Park, with its iconic namesake plants and massive, rugged rock formations.

This figure illustrates conceptual relationships between climate variability and change, vulnerability, and adaptation. Under a variable climate systems and organizations develop a capacity to adapt that is relatively static. As the climate changes, past capacity to adapt may not be sufficient to avoid greater vulnerability.

With the use of Geographic Information Systems, researchers were able to create this map and others of the California coastline that show how areas succeptible to coastal flooding will expand as sea level rises.

In the Southwest, projected impacts of climate change, such as drier winters, less snowpack, and more frequent droughts, will likely have significant consequences for the environment, the economy, and quality of life in the region.

When planning for the future, government, community, and business leaders are increasingly acknowledging the need to consider changes to the climate, like warmer temperatures and more extreme weather.