As coastal communities work to move toward a climate-resilient future, the lessons learned from existing adaptation efforts are a valuable resource to assess what is working, and why. In recognition of the widespread need for tools to track and evaluate adaptation progress and success, five National Estuarine Research Reserves - Tijuana River, Kachemak Bay, Jacques Cousteau, Hudson, and Wells - came together in 2015 through the Successful Adaptation Indicators and Metrics project to explore and collaboratively develop tools to assess adaptation progress. To share lessons learned with other reserves and coastal decision makers in their own conversations about successful adaptation, this follow-on Catalyst project refined, compiled, and leveraged the wealth of knowledge and tools generated by those initial reserve participants.
The project created a web-based toolkit, called Resilience Metrics, designed to complement other climate adaptation planning tools. The toolkit provides a rationale for how monitoring and evaluation support climate adaptation as well as guidance for how to envision adaptation success and then identify, prioritize, and track appropriate indicators and metrics.