National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change

The National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change is a national sectoral strategy of the United States of America. Its main vision is: Despite the ongoing effects of climate change, the National Water Program will continue to achieve its mission to protect and restore our waters to ensure that drinking water is safe; and that aquatic ecosystems sustain fish, plants, and wildlife, as well as economic, recreational, and subsistence activities.
More specifically, it aims to build the body of information and tools needed to incorporate climate change into planning and decision making; support Integrated Water Resources Management to sustainably manage water resources; identify, protect, and maintain a network of healthy watersheds and supportive habitat corridor networks; incorporate climate resilience into watershed restoration and floodplain management; watershed protection practices incorporate Source Water Protection to protect drinking water supplies; EPA incorporates climate change considerations into its wetlands programs, including the Clean Water Act 404 program, as appropriate; improve baseline information on wetland extent, condition, and performance to inform long term planning and priority setting that takes into account the potential added benefits for climate change adaptation and carbon sequestration; collaborate so that information and methodologies for ocean and coastal areas are collected, produced, analyzed, and easily available; support and build networks of local, tribal, state, regional and federal collaborators to take effective adaptation measures for coastal and ocean environments through EPA’s geographically targeted programs; address climate driven environmental changes in coastal areas and provide that mitigation and adaptation are conducted in an environmentally responsible manner; protect ocean environments by incorporating shifting environmental conditions and other emerging threats into EPA programs; protect waters of the United States and promote management of sustainable surface water resources; as the nation makes decisions to reduce greenhouse gases and develop alternative sources of energy and fuel, work to protect water resources from unintended adverse consequences; collaborate to make hydrological and climate data and projections available; incorporate climate change considerations in the implementation of core programs, and collaborate with other EPA offices and federal agencies to work with tribes on climate change issues on a multi-media basis; tribes have access to information on climate change for decision making; communicate, collaborate, and train; track progress and measure outcomes; and identify climate change and water research needs.