Climate Adaptation Strategies for National Critical Functions

by Liam Regan, Susan A. Resetar, Andrew Lauland, Joie D. Acosta, Rahim Ali, Edward W. Chan, Richard H. Donohue, Liisa Ecola, Timothy R. Gulden, Chelsea Kolb, et al.

In January 2021, President Biden issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to "consider the implications of climate change in the Arctic, along our Nation's borders, and to National Critical Functions." National Critical Functions (NCFs) represent "the functions of government and the private sector so vital to the United States that their disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof." The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) asked the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC), a federally funded research and development center operated by the RAND Corporation, to develop a risk management framework and to assess the risk of climate change to higher-vulnerability NCFs.

This tool presents a set of climate adaptation strategies that were identified to mitigate the risks posed by climate change from a prior risk assessment. Climate adaptation strategies were categorized according to the climate driver (drought, extreme cold, extreme heat, flooding, sea-level rise, severe storm systems, tropical cyclones and hurricanes, and wildfire) and impact mechanism they address. Impact mechanisms characterize how climate change causes a risk of disruption to an NCF and include: (i) physical damage or disruption, (ii) input or resource constraint, (iii) workforce shortage; and (iv) demand change. For each climate adaptation strategy, we also include an assessment of its effectiveness and feasibility.

Research conducted by

This research was sponsored by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and conducted by the Infrastructure, Immigration, and Security Operations Program within the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC).

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