Building on the Cal-Adapt Platform to Deliver Actionable Information in Support of Electricity Sector Resilience

Cal-Adapt provides a way to explore peer-reviewed data that portrays how climate change might affect California at the state and local level. This project has built on the Cal-Adapt webapplication (https://cal-adapt.org) to make such data developed as part of California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment more accessible and actionable for electricity stakeholders. 

As a key component of this research, a user-oriented approach was implemented and coordinated closely with the California Energy Commission, the state’s investor-owned utilities, a technical advisory committee, state agency partners, and other energy-sector stakeholders to identify what new data services, visualizations, and features would be most helpful for users to plan for and adapt to in a future climate. 

In recognition of stakeholder needs, the team redesigned the Cal-Adapt web application to make it easier for new and existing users to learn about climate data, understand the tools and features on Cal-Adapt, and connect with other state resources available for climate adaptation and resiliency planning. Existing Cal-Adapt tools were redesigned to streamline and standardize the user experience of exploring and accessing climate data. A new data download tool was developed that allows users to access some of the available advanced features to customize data extraction without requiring any code. Custom analytical tools were also developed that depict climate-related risks from a range of stressors on California’s electricity infrastructure, using data and new understanding from California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment. 

The tools provided improved data services and access to new datasets with a focus on wildfire projections, sea-level rise models, and a new extreme weather tool that enables users to explore observed data from specific meteorological stations.