This project addresses the urgent challenge many small and mid-sized cities in the united states face: how to adapt meaningfully to climate change with limited available resources and capacity

Significant investment in CO-produced actionable knowledge, including knowledge resulting in decision-support tools (DSTS), holds promise for increasing widespread adaptation. Yet, there is little information available to know how DSTS, including the hundreds of planning tools found on the climate resilience toolkit, are usable and actionable for practitioners in small cities making adaptation decisions. Drawing from robust evidence developed in the team's past work and engagement with cities, the project will evaluate how significant existing investment in CO-produced decision-support tools can be leveraged to increase widespread adaptation action by smaller cities. Supporting adaptation action across many smaller cities simultaneously could increase actionable knowledge and move cities more quickly and efficiently to the implementation phase. The project will: 1. Develop new knowledge about planning DSTS on the climate resilience toolkit by developing a typology of planning tools and measuring tools by features that could make them usable; 2. Evaluate differences in DST use and adaptation planning within small and mid-sized U.S. Cities by developing a ?tool testbed?; and 3. Explore strategies to increase the adoption of planning DSTS in new markets of small and mid-sized cities to advance widespread adaptation. To meet these objectives, the project takes an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach centering on engagement with tool developers and city practitioners, including eight small and mid-sized U.S. Cities in the west coast, great lakes, and gulf coast regions.