The Colorado Climate Preparedness Project was undertaken by the Western Water Assessment for the State of Colorado. The primary purpose of this project is to assist Colorado in continuing to prepare itself for climate variability and change by providing a catalog of climate vulnerabilities and current activities, including personnel, products and projects from Colorado and other appropriate entities. The project focuses on five sectors: agriculture, electricity, forests/wildlife/ecosystems, tourism/recreation, and water.  

This database is an important component of the project. It is a searchable collection of information about groups and individuals actively engaged in climate adaptation work in Colorado and relevant to state adaptation efforts. It contains four linked sections:

1.    Organizations are entities actively involved in climate preparedness and include key contacts in those organizations. Examples include NGOs with a specific climate change mission such as the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization; groups of elected officials with a broader mission but which have addressed climate change such as the Western Governor’s Association; university programs that are relevant to one of the sectors in this project such as CSU’s Colorado Climate Center; as well as consulting firms that have authored major reports in the database.

2.     People incudes authors of key reports and plans as well as personnel within government agencies, NGOs, consulting firms, and academia identified by the project team as having expertise relevant to climate preparedness efforts.

3.     Projects includes programs within larger organizations with a climate preparedness connection such as the Colorado Climate Project and the City of Aspen Canary Initiative.

4.     Products includes reports, studies, websites, major meetings and other relevant material outputs. In addition to climate change adaptation plans and studies, we have included selected natural hazard mitigation plans which can serve as a resource for climate preparedness planning by illustrating measures already in place to adapt to climate variability. Assessments such as the Colorado Statewide Forest Resource Assessment are included because of their discussion about climate impacts on one of the sectors in the project. Reports such as Colorado’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy and Colorado's Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) illustrate state agency recognition of the impact of climate on resources and efforts to integrate climate change response into state agency strategic thinking.