Welcome to the Carpe Diem West Academy Discussion Forum. This feature allows Academy users to share information, thoughts, questions and suggestions with each other creating virtual conversations between water manager on water-climate issues in the American West. We hope this feature facilitates the richessness of peer-to-peer learning and interaction and creates a venue to build relationships and connections.
Training Tools
While the workshop lays a foundation in science, it primarily focuses on actions that can be taken to prepare and adapt to the anticipated impacts of climate change. A foundational component of this workshop was the authoritative guidebook "Preparing for Climate Change: A Guidebook for Local, Regional, and State Governments," co-authored by two of the original instructors of this workshop.
This short course is aimed at planning practitioners engaged in policy development and decision-making at all levels of government and to those who will be working within these frameworks.
This University of Arizona site presents the essential steps in building scenarios and reviews options for simple or complex scenario building.
see module: Climate change fitting the pieces together. This is a basic level lecture on climate and climate change. (Others modules on this page may also be helpful.)
Basic, intermediate and advanced level training in hydrology. Several modules could be useful.
This module is part of the COMET-MetEd program (developed and maintained by the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research's Community Program, sponsored by NOAA and others) and describes the process of selecting the best available climate projection information and using it to develop “climate-adjusted weather” inputs to be used for modeling climate change impacts. These modeled impacts can be used for planning of future water resources. Specific steps of this process include: 1) Recognizing the general science and terms associated with Atmosphere-ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs); 2) Making AOGCMs more regionally applicable through bias correction and downscaling; 3) Determining climate change scenarios based on climate projections and selecting specific projections to inform each scenario; and 4) Developing climate-adjusted weather inputs associated with each climate change scenario.
NOTE: You must register to obtain access to module. Registration is FREE.
NOAA Coastal Services has developed an online self-guided course which introduces coastal management professionals to needs assessments and how to conduct one. By systematically assessing target audience needs, coastal programs can determine a focus and direction and make better-informed decisions about program or project objectives.
The distance learning curriculum utilizes e-learning technology to clarify graphs and concepts from the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Summary for Policy Makers with content intricately linked to the Essential Principles of Climate Literacy. The Regional Climate Change unit might be particularly useful here.
Training tools involve online courses and/or certifications related to climate change planning.
Your Guide. Your Water. Your Decision.
"Our customizable guide can help you move local policymakers from awareness to action." This tool was created by Source Water Collaborative, an organization comprised of federal, state and local partners. The fact sheet, or guide, is designed to effectively deliver a lot of information in a small space. It takes only a couple of minutes to create once you have all your content lined up.
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