There is a lack of publicly available data that describes climate adaptive capacity in rural communities in the united states few studies have been conducted and none with a national scope

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded a $299,848 Project Grant to Headwaters Economics Inc. under the Climate and Atmospheric Research program. The grant will fund the development of a validated Rural Climate-Adaptive-Capacity Index for the entire United States. Headwaters Economics will use mixed methods to calibrate and validate an index of climate adaptive capacity for rural communities. Notably, the research aims to distinguish social vulnerability from adaptive capacity. Methods will improve and expand on a previous study identifying factors representing climate impacts on local communities. The final products will include an online mapping tool displaying index results and contributing insights to the academic literature. The research aims to address gaps in publicly available data describing climate adaptive capacity in rural areas nationally.

This scientific GAP creates additional challenges for rural communities attempting to demonstrate their fiscal need for resources to funding agencies. Concurrently, agencies lack data to make more equitable fiscal decisions. The goal of this study is to develop a validated rural climate-adaptive-capacity index for the entire united states and display the results in an online mapping tool while also contributing insights to the academic literature. This research project will use a mixed-methods approach to calibrate and validate an index of climate adaptive capacity for rural communities, noting that social vulnerability and adaptive capacity are not synonymous. Methods will be applied to improve and expand a previous study that identified factors thought to represent and impact loca