Climate change is increasingly impacting our community. Projected local impacts include more severe flood and wind events, higher temperatures and heat waves, and biological impacts from invasive species, vector borne disease, and harmful algal blooms. Many of these impacts will disproportionately impact vulnerable and historically disadvantaged communities. Erie County has an important role in planning and taking actions to make the community more resilient to climate change.
Climate Vulnerability Assessment
The Erie County Climate Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) is an assessment of the threat of climate change to our community, the sensitivity of the community to those hazards, and the adaptive capacity of the County government to respond to those threats. The CVA was conducted in partnership with a research team at the University at Buffalo led by Dr. Susan Clark and with input from our community stakeholders on the Community Climate Change Task Force.
The CVA supported the work of the Community Climate Change Task Force as it developed the Community Climate Action Plan (CCAP), and climate resilience strategies are woven throughout the CCAP. The CVA is also a foundation for the County's extreme temperature planning project and other resilience initiatives.
This project is funded by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Climate Smart Communities program.