Understanding and Using Climate Adaptation Related Spatial Data in Regional Conservation Planning

Climate-driven shifts in species and ecosystems are complicating efforts to conserve biodiversity at the landscape scale. Recognizing this challenge, agencies and non-governmental organizations are increasingly searching for tools and information that allow identification of areas that are key to enhancing resilience and adaptation potential of natural systems under climate change. AdaptWest is a spatial database for conservation planning that helps fill that information need by providing seamless high-resolution data on a variety of climate-related metrics. We will present an overview of the spatial datasets available on adaptwest.databasin.org and how they can be used in climate adaptation planning. Compared to the last webinar held a year ago, we will focus especially on how the different metrics should be interpreted in the context of your particular planning process. We will also describe new information added to AdaptWest in the last year. Datasets available on AdaptWest include downscaled climate data, climate velocity, location of refugia for species and climate types, environmental diversity and land facet data, and data on key areas for connectivity areas under climate change. Three data explorers are also available that allow users to quickly summarize data by watershed, ecoregion, or protected area. A 30 minute presentation will be followed by 15 minutes of informal questions and discussion.