Actionable Science in Practice: Co-Producing Climate Change Information for Water Utility Vulnerability Assessments. Four Case Studies from the Water Utility Climate Alliance

Abstract:

The Piloting Utility Modeling Applications (PUMA) project featured four water utilities - New York, Tampa Bay, Seattle, and Portland - from the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) who worked in collaboration with local climate science consortiums to hand-pick or develop locally appropriate tools, projections, and approaches to understand the impact of climate change on drinking water supplies. These utilities pursued customized approaches based on specific utility needs and learned important lessons in conducting assessments that may be of interest to the wider adaptation community. In addition, these projects are examples of succesfull environments in which utility managers worked collaboratively and iteratively with climate scientists to understand both utility concerns and the ability or limitations of today’s climate science to respond to those concerns. Broader lessons that cut across the pilots are presented in a closing chapter.