The Climate Adaptation Academy provides municipalities with information and tools to help them adapt to a changing climate.

Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) are partnering with researchers, consultants and others to work with municipalities and relevant professionals on climate adaptation through the Climate Adaptation Academy (CAA). There are many complex and important climate related issues that are challenging both coastal and inland communities now and into the future. Identifying these issues and impacts in the near term will help advance the effort to fully determine the magnitude of each and implement adaptive responses. This will be a long-term process and, to be effective, will require participation of a wide range of individuals, institutions and governmental agencies.

We recognize that the needs of communities with regard to climate adaptation are changing, as well. Many communities have vulnerability assessments and resilience plans and are now working toward implementation of adaptation projects - bringing a new array of challenges from finding grants to working with contractors.

An important component of all CAA presentations is an opportunity for participants to share the challenges they face and ways they have developed to adapt to the impacts of climate change. We don’t know all the answers. The CAA is designed to be a continuous process by which the complex and emerging climate adaptation issues facing municipalities are identified and innovative solutions are shared. Recent CAA activities have been focused on the legal aspects of climate adaptation, living shorelines, emergency preparedness and identifying what information and tools communities need most to address the challenges of our climate change.