Weadapt Network – Googling Adaptation

The Stockholm Environment Institute, as part of the weADAPT network, is working with Google Earth to map worldwide climate adaptation work onto Google maps.

The Adaptation Layer is a layer in Google Earth which enables browsing of projects, videos, downscaled climate data and experiences of adaptation by location, providing an instant idea of what is going on where. This development aims to begin to address the paucity of tools and established methodologies currently available to the adaptation community to understand the nature of the risk.

There is a vast amount of data available on climate change and climate variability, but non-technicians have neither the time to track down such data sources nor the expertise to reformat, re-project and load them into appropriate information system tools. There has been a serious bottleneck in delivering information, much of which is spatial in nature, to decision-makers in a manner that allows them to turn climate change results into effective climate adaptation decisions and policies.