Adapt Virginia
The Adapt Virginia Portal
CCRFR, the Center for Coastal Resources Management (CCRM) at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the former Virginia Coastal Policy Center (VCPC), the Public Policy Program at William & Mary and Wetlands Watch originally launched the Adapt Virginia portal. In 2024, The W&M’s Virginia Coastal Resilience Collaborative (VCRC) subsumed VCPC. This portal is now maintained by CCRFR, the CCRM at VIMS, and W&M’s VCRC. The portal provides a one-stop shop of evidence-based planning tools and resources to respond to changing climate conditions.
Adapt Virginia is an information gateway on climate change adaptation for individuals, local programs, and agencies. ADAPTVA integrates best available science, legal guidance, and planning strategies. Visitors will find short and long-term sea level curves and maps, flood mapping and decision-support tools, legal and policy resources, and stories that explain adaption through maps and pictures.
Adapt Virginia facilitates robust decision-making for adapting to a changing climate. Portal users across the Commonwealth of Virginia now have easy access to integrated information based on the best available science, legal guidance, and planning strategies to address both short- and long-term climate change issues like sea-level rise and recurrent flooding. Adapt Virginia’s tools, information, and analyses are presented in a variety of ways to effectively communicate complex topics. The design and content is maintained as a dynamic gateway for information and resources.
Adapt Virginia provides forecasts, adaptation case studies, risk assessment and guidance tools, maps and data, and access to comprehensive planning information. The portal’s Planning and Policy section contains information for local planners, elected officials, and researchers. as it provides detailed information on social vulnerability rankings for communities, recommendations from the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS), ready access to state and local policy, and information on existing legislation.
New information and developer toolsets are planned for the site, as project partners receive feedback from local government officials and citizen users. We are expanding collaboration to add client-driven products, new data, new topic areas, and additional technical analyses. Future subject areas to be added and expanded include storms, precipitation and temperature, plus analyses on how these events affect local economies, natural resources, and opportunities to integrate multiple benefits into adaptation strategies.
Citations for Source Content
Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. (2017) Adapt Virginia: A New Web Portal about Climate Change Adaptations. Rivers & Coast, Summer 2017, Volume 12. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary. http://publish.wm.edu/reports/700
