Climate Ready DC wins Bloomberg Cities4Tomorrow award!

The District of Columbia announced that it was just awarded a prestigious "top 10" designation by Bloomberg Philanthropies for its adaptation planning efforts.

The annual Bloomberg C40 awards recognize US and global cities for leading action on climate change. This year, Washington, DC was among the 10 winners out of 174 applications from 92 cities. Climate Ready DC, the District's adaptation plan, took the Cities4Tomorrow category for "the most ambitious adaptation plans and programmes."

The plan sets specific goals and implementation actions for improving resilience in Transportation & Utilities, Buildings & Development, Neighborhoods & Communities, and Governance. The goals demonstrate strong political leadership, and the actions have a solid technical foundation. They are targeted to address findings of an integrated vulnerability assessment that identified impacts to built infrastructure, community resources, and vulnerable populations. The assessment took into account the influence of climate change on extreme heat, rain-induced flooding, and coastal flooding from sea level rise and storm surge.

The District's Department of Energy and Environment led Climate Ready DC with consultant support from Kleinfelder, Perkins+Will, AREA, and Atmos. Kleinfelder led the establishment of Climate Projections and Scenarios and the Vulnerability and Risk Assessment that underpin the plan, in addition to advising on resilient design guidelines and adaptation strategies.