Climate Change Tools to Protect Public Health and the Environment
EPA is developing tools and other resources for states, tribes, local organizations and others to prepare and respond to the impacts of climate change. The tools can be used to better understand the impacts of climate change to public health and the environment and provide information to help communities adapt and become more resilient.
A list of popular tools and resources is provided below. For a full list of all of models, tools, and databases developed by EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD), visit our searchable inventory of research products, Science Models and Research Tools (SMaRT) Search.
On this page:
- Future Scenarios Development
- Adaptation and Resilience
- Water Quality
- Energy Systems
- Grants & Publications
- Events & Engagement
Future Scenarios Development
EPA Dynamically Downscaled Ensemble (EDDE) is a collection of complex 3D physics-based models reflecting the potential changes over time to weather, extreme weather events, and regional climate across much of North America out to the year 2100. EDDE includes data that are driven by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios and global-scale models. The regional datasets within EDDE are created using state-of-the-science numerical models that consider the physical interactions of the atmosphere, soil, and water. The output in EDDE is archived at the regional model’s spatial scale and at hourly increments over historical and future periods that span multiple decades. These data were prepared by EPA to support assessment, adaptation, and resilience activities to protect human health and the environment.
Global Change Explorer (GCX) offers a collection of web tools that visualize, compare, and provide access to spatial data and describe potential future environmental change. These data can serve as a starting point when assessing the vulnerability of air, water, ecosystems, and human health to climate change, land use change, and other large-scale environmental stressors.
Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) is a tool that produces spatially explicit projections of population and land-use that are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) scenarios and pathways. Climate and land-use change are major drivers of global environmental change. Impact assessments frequently demonstrate that interactions between climate and land-use change may create serious challenges for aquatic ecosystems, water quality, and air quality. In many cases, it is impossible to assess the impact of climate change without consideration of population dynamics, land-use dynamics, or both.
LASSO guides users step-by-step through the process of identifying and downloading climate change scenarios—or projections—that are relevant to their interest or research question. At each step you will define criteria that will subset climate change information from a much larger archive, with LASSO providing helpful information and suggestions along the way. At the end of the process you will have the option to download maps, figures and GIS-ready spatial data, or use an interactive scatterplot widget to customize or change your choices.
Adaptation and Resilience
Adaptation Design Tool (ADT) supports better management to protect ecosystems from the impacts of climate change by advancing the practice of assessment and decision making science and informing higher level strategic planning. Natural resource managers have communicated a need for improved methods and tools for effective adaptation of ecosystem-based management activities in the context of extreme events and rapid environmental change. In response, an inter-agency team led by the EPA developed ADT that uses a structured approach to break down the complex adaptation process into tractable steps.
Adaptation Organon (AO) for Resilient Natural Resources is a system for considering climate change and other environmental information to inform adaptation and improve natural resource management for resilience and sustainability.
Adaptation Resource Center (ARC-X) offers local government officials and community leaders with resources to anticipate, prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. After users select areas of interest, they will find information about: the risks posed by climate change to the issues of concern; relevant adaptation strategies; case studies illustrating how other communities have successfully adapted to those risks and tools to replicate their successes; and EPA funding opportunities.
Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) tool that is an application that supports communities in resilience planning with a focus on equity. It engages users in a guided process to inclusively assess local hazards, equity, and the resilience of built, natural, and social environment systems. It then uses the results to collaboratively prioritize actions to build community resilience in an equitable way.
Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) simulates the dominant processes involved in wetland conversions and shoreline modifications during long-term sea level rise. Map distributions of wetlands are predicted under conditions of accelerated sea level rise, and results are summarized in tabular and graphical form.
Water Quality
The 20 Watersheds Tool contains summaries of watershed simulation results as a supplement to the EPA report "Watershed Modeling to Assess the Sensitivity of Streamflow, Nutrient, and Sediment Loads to Potential Climate Change and Urban Development in 20 U.S. Watersheds" (EPA/600/R-12/058F). Future warming temperatures and changes in precipitation will have direct and cascading effects on water quality. Effects will vary in different regional and watershed settings, and in some locations are anticipated to lead to an increased risk of water quality impairment.
Energy Systems
GLIMPSE is a decision support modeling tool being developed by EPA that will assist states with energy and environmental planning through the year 2050. Users of GLIMPSE can explore the impacts of energy technologies and policies on the environment. GLIMPSE is a decision support modeling tool being developed by EPA that will assist states with energy and environmental planning through the year 2050. An exciting feature is that users can specify energy, air quality, and water use goals within GLIMPSE, which then identifies cost-effective strategies for meeting those goals. For example, states could use GLIMPSE to develop air quality management strategies that also meet renewable electricity targets, energy security objectives, and factor in how droughts could affect power plant operations.
City-based Optimization Model for Energy Technologies (COMET) is an energy-environment-economic optimization model designed to capture the whole energy system at the city level for a user-defined analyses timeline--from the introduction of the energy sources to conversion into useful energy to meet end-use energy service demands. COMET allows users to examine the next 40-50 years of energy technology evolution. The model provides long-term prospects for practical and applicable energy policy solutions, especially for cities that aim to achieve emissions reduction targets.
Grants & Publications
- Climate Research Grants
- Climate Change Research Publications in the Science Inventory
- Fifth National Climate Assessment