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Climate Change: Resilience and Adaptation in New England (RAINE)

Learn about Resilience and Adaptation in New England (RAINE)

On this page:

Find out about the database

New England communities are taking action to adapt to the impacts of climate change in new and creative ways. This database catalogs what is happening so we can learn from these experiences, share lessons being learned, discover how to better assist municipalities, and promote collaboration. RAINE provides information about actions at the state, regional or local level. It not only includes links to web pages, reports and plans but also examples of presentations that communities use to engage their citizens, what tools they used to identify their vulnerabilities and who funded their projects.

The results from RAINE include:

  • Quick maps
  • Graphs of top ten topics, impacts, partners, tools and funding that are found in the database
  • Lists of states, municipalities, organizations or waters that meet your search criteria, these can be downloaded into an excel spreadsheet
  • Links to the products or plans
  • Reports for each state, municipality, organization or water body of interest and detailed reports with information about a specific document or product
  • Spotlights that highlight unique adaptation and resilience efforts

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How RAINE can be used

Communities can use the RAINE database to share what they have done and learn from others. They can find examples of products and plans and read about what neighboring communities are doing to be resilient and adapt for climate change.

Planning agencies can identify where work has been conducted and where gaps may exist. The database can be used to target vulnerable areas that have yet to plan for climate change.

The database can be used to support collaboration. Communities can see how plans and products have been funded and who has partnered on different resilience and adaptation projects.

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Commonly asked questions about the database

How do you define 'community'?

The word 'community' is used to describe any group of people working on or planning for climate change adaptation. This can include municipalities, cities, towns, states, specific New England waters, regional planning commissions, and other groups.

How do I use the search function?

  • The search function allows you to filter results based on a defined set of keywords.
  • Searches can be conducted by filtering by state, population size, or type of community.
  • These can be further narrowed down by choosing Topics, Impacts, Programs, Partners, Funding, Programs or Plan or Spotlights.
  • You do not need to choose a particular state, community, or population size to run a search.
  • You can look for unique examples of climate change adaptation by choosing 'Yes' under Spotlight Community, and can further narrow these results by choosing a topic or impact of particular interest.
  • To start a new search you can use the “clear all button” next to the green search bar.

What happens if my search yields no results?

  • You may have forgotten to clear the parameters from a previous search. Click the 'Clear All' button Clear All Button to clear all previously selected fields, and try your search again.
  • You may have chosen too many parameters, and no communities fit that specific search. Try broadening your search by selecting fewer parameters.
  • You may be looking for a specific type of plan and end up without finding any communities meeting your criteria, clear the search and try looking for a similar concept by search in 'topic.' For example, if you want to find a flood damage prevention ordinance you may not find it looking for that type of document, but you might find it using the topic bylaws/ordinances/codes.

How do I search to find out if information about my community is included in the database?

Using the search feature, select your state and then town or organization or waterbody, run the search and it will produce a map and list of communities currently in the database. If that doesn’t yield results we might not have anything about your community, please contact us if you know of a plan or product we should include in the database.

What is the source of the data for RAINE?

Products and plans for the RAINE database were originally identified through web searching and personal knowledge. These are tagged to identify relevant topics, impacts, programs, partners and funding. We will continue to add data to the database from our web searches and personal knowledge. In addition, we'll add data that New England communities send us via our Contact Us page.

How did we identify communities entered into the database?

Communities were identified through web searching and personal knowledge. Information about their published plan(s) or product(s) on the web that include climate change resilience and adaptation was added to the database. Also, if a community is a participant in an adaptation or resilience program, but has not published any documents or webpages, it is still included in the database. For example, a town that has participated in the FEMA Community Rating System program, but does not have written plans for climate change adaptation, is included in the database.

What is a "spotlight"?

Spotlights highlight unique, and/or innovative practices being implemented in New England to help communities be more resilient and adapt to climate change.

The spotlight reports include:

  • a short description of the project
  • cost information if available
  • benefits and lessons learned

Spotlights include examples of specific practices as well as the use of incentives, collaborations, ordinances or bylaws, and planning and communication efforts.

Can I print and/or save the reports generated?

  • Community reports can be printed from the web page in the same way you can print from any web page – from the File → Print option in the upper left hand corner of your browser. You may save the report by selecting the entire report and pasting it into a Word document and saving that version. You may also be able to 'print' to a PDF writer to create a PDF of the report.
  • All lists generated in the tool are exportable to Excel. You can do this by clicking the icon at the bottom of the list: Export to Excel icon

How are we updating the information?

As new information is identified it is uploaded to the database. We will update the site on a quarterly basis.

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Definitions

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Climate Change: Resilience and Adaptation in New England (RAINE)