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TNC’s Knowledge Base for Climate Change Adaptation

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)

DoD is the U.S. federal department allocated the largest level of budgetary resources and charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the United States armed forces. The Department is the major tenant of The Pentagon building near Washington, D.C. and includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, as well as many non-combat agencies such as the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency. The Secretary of Defense is the principal defense policy advisor to the President and, under the direction of the President, exercises authority, direction, and control over DoD.

DoD is America's oldest and largest government agency. With our military tracing its roots back to pre-Revolutionary times, DoD has grown and evolved with the nation. Today, the Department is not only in charge of the military, but it also employs a civilian force of thousands. With over 1.4 million men and women on active duty, and 718,000 civilian personnel, DoD is the nation's largest employer. Another 1.1 million serve in the National Guard and Reserve forces.

The DoD mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country and advance the nation's interests. The Department engages in war-fighting, humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, disaster relief and manages an inventory of installations and facilities in providing homeland security and safety to Americans. The Department's physical plant is huge by any standard, consisting of more than several hundred thousand individual buildings and structures located at more than 5,000 different locations or sites. When all sites are added together, DoD utilizes over 30 million acres of land.

DoD recognizes that climate change will shape the operating environment, roles, and missions that it undertakes. The 2010 DoD Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) highlighted for the first time the importance to the Department of a strategic approach to climate change and energy; these issues must be addressed because of their significance to national security and mission readiness. The QDR states "the Department is developing policies and plans to manage the effects of climate change on its operating environment, missions, and facilities" and " the Department must complete a comprehensive assessment of all installations to assess the potential impacts of climate change on its missions and adapt as required."

The first DoD Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, spanning 2010 through 2020, was developed to comply with the requirements of Executive Order 13514 and beyond. Comprehensive yet streamlined and strategic, the Plan embraces a wide range of factors for continuously improving sustainability and enhancing ability of DoD to achieve its mission. One key area addressed in the plan is maintaining readiness in the face of climate change. The Department's Legacy Resource Management Program and Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program are funding projects to assess climate change impacts and develop strategies to respond to climate change, in regard to installations and sensitive plants and animals and other natural resources on DoD lands.

  • http://www.defense.gov/, for DoD homepage and links to About DoD, Top Issues, News, Military/DoD Websites and other selections. Type ‘climate change' in search window for links to related information. This website is the single, unified starting point for finding military information online; the site mission is to support the overall mission of DoD by providing official, timely and accurate information about defense policies, organizations, functions and operations.
  • http://www.defense.gov/pubs/dod101/, for DoD 101 page and an introductory overview of DoD; with links to News, Press Resources, Publications, Military/DoD Websites, and other pages

 

> Strategic Plan  

The FY 2011 DoD Strategic Management Plan (SMP) lays out the Department's business strategic aims and actions (goals, objectives, measures, and initiatives)*, is aligned with the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and the FY 2011 Performance Budget, and advances the Department's performance management activities. The SMP describes a structured approach for establishing common management goals for business operations driven by the Department's overarching strategic goals and objectives. It is the highest-level plan for improving DoD business operations.

*business goals, objectives and measures contained in this document represent the strategic guidance for DoD

 

> DoD Programs, Resources, Products

DoD Sustainability

The FY 2010 Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan (the Plan) charts the path DoD will take over the coming decade to improve sustainability across all aspects of the Department. It applies to all DoD mission and program areas, with the objective of incorporating sustainability principles into DoD's daily operations. This comprehensive plan, with eight goals and 21 sub-goals, ranges from energy and water reduction, to solid waste, chemical management and procurement of sustainable products and services.

The Department's vision of sustainability is to maintain the ability to operate into the future without decline - either in the mission or in the natural and manufactured systems that support it. DoD embraces sustainability as a means of improving mission accomplishment. This, the first Departmental sustainability plan, lays out goals and performance expectations for the next decade, establishing the path by which DoD will serve as a model of sustainability for the nation while enhancing the ability of DoD to achieve its mission. 

The Department recognizes that many key issues facing DoD can be addressed through smart investments that improve sustainability, such as energy efficiency, energy management, renewable energy, water use efficiency, the reduced use of toxic and hazardous chemicals, and solid waste management. In the 2010 QDR, DoD highlighted the importance of climate change, citing energy security and climate change as one of four specific issues for which it is imperative that the Department reform how it operates. The QDR recognizes that a strategic approach to climate change and energy is a high priority for the Department. Our military's heavy reliance on fossil fuels creates significant risks and costs at a tactical as well as a strategic level. These costs are measured in lost dollars, in reduced mission effectiveness, and in U.S. soldiers' lives.  The Department must plan for and act in a sustainable manner now in order to build an enduring future; as such, the Plan is a critical enabler in the performance of our mission. The linkages between sustainability and the DoD mission are strong and direct. The Plan addresses four key areas of intersection that form priorities for the Department: 1) Energy and Reliance on Fossil Fuels; 2) Chemicals of Environmental Concern; 3) Water Resources Management; 4) Maintaining Readiness in the Face of Climate Change.

Plan Section I.1.D, "Maintaining Readiness in the Face of Climate Change", discusses the primary impacts of climate change on the DoD mission, facilities, operating environment and military capabilities and outlines the Department's initial efforts at assessing potential vulnerabilities and risks. Section I.5, "Climate Change Risk and Vulnerability" describes how the Department intends to strategically address the risks posed by climate change to its fixed military installations, ranges, and facilities. DoD's ability to sustain operations at its installations and facilities is critical for maintaining military readiness. DoD plans to follow a three-phase approach to ensure that over time its installations and facilities are resilient to the potential impacts of climate change. The three phases include: 1) Development of a Decision Framework, 2) Climate Change Impact Assessments, and 3) Climate Change Adaptation Planning. To accomplish these phases, DoD will take advantage of the science, models, and tools developed by other federal agencies, as well as leveraging the work of its own Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the efforts of the individual Military Departments.

 

DoD Response to Climate Change

The effects of climate change on DoD installations are becoming increasingly significant and have the potential to impact the military mission. Installations across the country require diverse landscapes with healthy ecosystems to successfully contribute to core training missions and ensure military readiness.

DoD is responsible for managing 30 million acres of land and hundreds of square miles of air and sea space to conduct missions vital to national security. The same land, air, and sea space provides habitat for a great diversity of plants and animals, many of which are found only on DoD lands. DoD harbors more sensitive (threatened, endangered, at-risk) species per acre than any other federal land managing agency, and extreme weather events can alter these habitats and the species that depend on them. Because the planet will experience changes in climate for decades and centuries to come, the importance of working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate impacts to our water, wildlife, and other natural resources is evident.

DoD is a leader among organizations that are funding projects to assess climate change impacts and determine the best strategies available to respond to climate change. DoD is committed to providing tools and guidance to help its natural resources personnel manage for anticipated climate change impacts in ways that reduce potential negative consequences. Through the Legacy Resource Management Program and Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), the Department is implementing several strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts on DoD installations. Several of these efforts are highlighted in an animation that describes a handful of DoD-funded projects and an overview of DoD's conservation funding programs.

 

Natural Resources Conservation Program (NR Program)

The NR Program supports the military's testing and training mission by protecting its biological resources.  It provides policy, guidance, and oversight for management of natural resources on approximately 30 million acres of military land, air, and water resources owned or operated by DoD. The NR Program's goal is to support the military's combat readiness mission by ensuring continued access to realistic habitat conditions, while simultaneously working to ensure the long-term sustainability of our nation's priceless natural heritage. One area the Program is focusing on is the impacts and implications of adapting to global climate change. It is working to address issues such as threats to endangered species, the spread of invasive species, and the loss of coastal areas. The NR Program includes the Legacy Resource Management Program.

 

Legacy Resource Management Program (Legacy Program)

In 1990, Congress passed legislation establishing the Legacy Resource Management Program to provide financial assistance to the Department of Defense (DoD) efforts to preserve our natural and cultural heritage. The program assists DoD in protecting and enhancing resources while supporting military readiness. It provides funding to natural and cultural resource projects that have regional, national, and/or multi-Service benefits. A Legacy project may involve regional ecosystem management initiatives, habitat preservation efforts, archaeological investigations, invasive species control, Native American consultations, and/or monitoring and predicting migratory patterns of birds and animals. DoD Legacy projects include: 1) Guidelines for assessing specie and habitat vulnerability to climate change; 2) Sea level rise risk assessment for coastal installations; 3) Modeling climate change impacts on sensitive bird and vegetation species on military lands.

 

Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP)

SERDP is DoD's environmental science and technology program, planned and executed in partnership with DOE and EPA, with participation by numerous other federal and non-federal organizations. The program invests across a broad spectrum of basic and applied research, as well as advanced development. It focuses on cross-Service requirements and pursues solutions to the Department's environmental challenges. SERDP identifies, develops, and transitions environmental technologies that relate directly to defense mission accomplishment. The development and application of innovative environmental technologies will reduce the costs, environmental risks, and time required to resolve environmental problems while, at the same time, enhancing and sustaining military readiness.

SERDP projects include: 1) Assisted migration as a management tool in ecosystems threatened by sea level rise; 2) Use of multi-scale scale models, data and scenario projections to reduce risk of climate change effects and human disturbances on distribution of plovers on military installations; 3) Forecasting the relative and cumulative effects of multiple stressors (incl. climate) on at-risk populations: using a modeling tool to conduct risk assessments for imperiled species on military lands; 4) Assessing interactions between non-native invasive species, fire regimes, and the impact of climate change on ecological systems: using predictive models to inform land managers of potential future resource conditions and to help modify management strategies; 5) Investigating climate change impacts on intermittent and ephemeral stream systems and their important habitats. 

  • http://www.serdp.org/, for the DoD Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) page

 

Workshop, "Climate Change Tools for Adapting Management Strategies"

The DoD Natural Resources Conservation: Legacy Program sponsored this workshop at the 2010 National Military Fish and Wildlife Association Annual Meeting. This workshop provided information on useful tools to help personnel whose work relates to DoD natural resources issues adapt management strategies in light of climate change impacts. Presenters provided education and instruction on the application of various tools.

  • http://www.dodworkshops.org/CC-Animation.html, for the DoD Natural Resources Conservation Program, Climate Change Tools for Adapting Management Strategies page; with links to 1) workshop presentations, 2) useful climate change resources, websites and training tools, 3) climate change animation (chapters from the full video), 4) DoD's Response to Climate Change fact sheet

 

> Other Programs, Resources, Products

U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAPs)

USGCRP is a Congressionally-authorized consortium of 13 federal agencies responsible for various aspects of global change research, including coordinating climate change research activities of the agencies. It has produced important products related to climate adaptation for wildlife and ecosystems and maintains a comprehensive website with a variety of climate change science resources and publications. Research aims to provide science-based applications and tools for sustainable natural resource management. USGCRP is steered by the Subcommittee on Global Change Research and was known as the U.S. Climate Change Science Program from 2002 through 2008. DoD continues a history of participation in USGCRP through sponsored research that concurrently satisfies the national security goals of USGCRP.

  • http://www.globalchange.gov/, for the USGCRP homepage; with links to Federal Agencies and their roles in climate research and to news, publications and resources; also links to Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation Options, Extreme Weather and other pages; includes October 2010 ICCATF progress report to President Obama 
  • http://www.globalchange.gov/resources/educators/toolkit, for the USGCRP resources page and "Climate Change Wildlife and Wildlands, A Toolkit for Formal and Informal Educators"

USGCRP released a series of 21 Synthesis and Assessment Products (SAPs) from 2006 to 2009. The SAPs aimed at providing current assessments of climate change science to inform public debate, policy, and operational decisions. These reports also are intended to help USGCRP develop future program research priorities.

USGCRP's guiding vision is to provide the nation and global community with the science-based knowledge needed to manage the risks and capture the opportunities associated with climate and related environmental changes. The SAPs are important steps toward achieving that vision and help to translate USGCRP's extensive observational and research database into informational tools that directly address key questions being asked of the research community.

Of particular interest for wildlife and ecosystem adaptation are SAP 4.3 The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversityin the United States and SAP 4.4 Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources. Also of interest is the June 2009 USGCRP report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, mostly based on the 21 SAPs and providing an extensive evaluation of climate change impacts at the regional level. It was (and largely still is) the most comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of climate change information on a range of scientific topics for the nation at the time.

The U.S. Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires USGCRP to report and interpret the findings of research conducted by the agencies every four years as National Climate Assessment reports. In 1997 the program began a national assessment of the impacts of climate variability and change on the Nation's resources, and in 2000 the first National Assessment report was released. USGCRP has not regularly produced these assessments (2000 was the last formal assessment); however, a new report is planned for release in 2013. National climate assessments "act as a status report on climate change science and impacts" and "will help evaluate the effectiveness of our mitigation and adaptation activities and identify economic opportunities that arise as the climate changes."

 

Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force (Task Force): meetings, reports

The Task Force is a pan-federal and pan-sectoral group co-chaired by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and NOAA with senior level participation from over 20 departments and agencies. It is comprised of over 200 federal agency staff, broken into various workgroups that conducted public listening sessions throughout the country during summer 2010. Five working groups of the task force are examining in greater detail select aspects of adaptation: 1) functional science inputs, 2) government planning processes, 3) water, 4) international, and 5) insurance.  Additional working groups may be organized. Listening sessions engaged internal and external groups and individuals on a myriad of issues involved in the broad spectrum of adaptation, ranging from built infrastructure to ecosystem-based approaches.

The goals of the task force are three-fold: 1) To deliver recommendations for a national adaptation strategy that identifies priority focus areas and highlights means to ensure interagency coordination; 2) To build adaptation capacity within the federal government, including building awareness of adaptation, fostering integration between agencies, and developing structures for interagency coordination; and 3) Continue to build "engaged communities."  By executive order the CEQ Chair, following consultation with the agencies and Task Force, provided a progress report in October 2010 to President Obama on agency actions in support of the national adaptation strategy and outlining recommendations for how Federal Agency policies and programs can better prepare the United States to respond to the impacts of climate change.

 

Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESU) Network

The CESU national network has been established with an overarching goal of improving the scientific base for managing federal lands by providing high-quality scientific research, technical assistance, and education to resource and environmental managers. It is a nationwide consortium of federal agencies, universities, conservation organizations, and other partners working together to support agency missions and informed public trust resource stewardship. One objective is to build capacity and enhance coordination of climate change management and adaptation efforts among management agencies.

CESUs are based at host universities and focused on biogeographic regions of the country. To date the nation had been divided into 17 biogeographic regions, each served by a distinct CESU that is structured as a working collaboration among partners. Each regional unit operates independently and in association with one national network and is directed by specific mission, vision, goals and objectives and a strategic plan. DoD is a member of 12 units of the national network.

  

Guidance Document, "Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment"

This 2011 document is a product of an expert workgroup on climate change vulnerability assessment convened by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in collaboration with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The workgroup draws from state and federal agencies, non-governmental conservation organizations, and universities. Financial support for the publication was provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, DoD Legacy Resource Management Program, and several other organizations and agencies.

Vulnerability to climate change, as the term is used in the guide, has three principle components: sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity. The document focuses on providing practical guidance to practitioners for assessing climate change vulnerability of species, habitats and ecosystems in the U.S. It includes 1) an overview and basics of climate change vulnerability assessment; 2) methods and tools available for combining climate change exposure and species/system sensitivity in developing an assessment of climate change vulnerability (incl. types of data and models that can be used for vulnerability assessments); 3) measures to deal with uncertainty in these assessments; 4) specific case studies of vulnerability assessments; and 5) a reference section on climate change vulnerability assessment resources (publications, web-base tools).

Currently sufficient guidance is available on the likely physical change that will occur due to climate change and on developing climate change adaptation strategies and actions. However, little guidance is available on assessing the vulnerability and sensitivity of biological systems to the physical changes. This document fills a gap in available guidance, will be useful to TNC and its partners, and will nicely complement the TNC "Climate Change Project-Level Guidance" document.

 

 
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