A spatially explicit framework for climate adaptation

Abstract

Cities increasingly confront climate change-related problems of flooding, urban heat island effects, and the impact of drought on vegetation. There is a need for urban water and infrastructure planners to be able to identify vulnerable areas and to design, compare and evaluate interventions to address these problems. In response to this need, we developed the Integrated Climate Adaptation Model (ICAM), which is a Web-GIS tool based on a spatially explicit framework. ICAM has a user-friendly interface for use by a wide range of urban planning and design professionals. The tool is built on high-resolution spatial datasets, allowing users to identify critical areas that may be impacted by sea-l..