United States
                   Environmental Protection
                   Agency
Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool Version 2.0
          A Climate Risk Assessment Tool for Water Utilities
Purpose
The Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (GREAT), developed under EPA's Climate Ready Water Utilities
initiative, assists drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater utility owners and operators in assessing risks to utility
assets and operations. Extreme weather events, sea-level rise, shifting precipitation patterns, and temperature changes
will affect water quality and availability. Managing these events will pose significant challenges to water sector utilities
in fulfilling their public health and environmental mission. Version 2.0 of GREAT provides access to the most current
scientific understanding of climate change, including downscaled climate model projections, that will increase user
awareness of projected changes in climate, related impacts, and potential adaptation options.

GREAT has a flexible and customizable risk assessment framework that organizes available climate data and guides
users through a process of identifying threats, vulnerable assets, and adaptation options to help reduce risk. GREAT
supports utilities in considering impacts at multiple locations, assessing multiple climate scenarios, and documenting
the implications of adaptation on energy use. To support more robust decision-making, GREAT encourages users to
compare the performance of adaptation options in multiple time periods across climate scenarios.
  FEATURES
     ^
Scenarios of climate change are provided at local
scales to support identification of threats that
affect utilities.

Pre-loaded data contains libraries of drinking
water and wastewater utility assets (e.g., treatment
plants, reservoirs, pump stations) and customizable
adaptation strategies for implementation.

Climate change information and data at
regional and local levels is included to support
the assessment of threat likelihood and potential
asset, environmental, community and economic
consequences.

Results support implementation of climate
change adaptation options and assessment of their
effectiveness in reducing risk to climate change
impacts.

Reports on climate data, risk reduction, and costs
can be generated from the tool to evaluate various
adaptation options.

Data and process can be customized over time
as new  information becomes available, enabling
updates to adaptation strategies in the future.
                                                           Process: Adaptation, Planning & Use
                                                           In GREAT 2.0, water utility owners and operators
                                                           use information about their utility to identify
                                                           climate change threats, assess potential
                                                           consequences, and evaluate adaptation
                                                           options. This approach allows utilities to assess
                                                           impacts based on established thresholds when
                                                           utility operations are disrupted and assets are
                                                           impacted. Complementing other tools and
                                                           resources already employed in risk management
                                                           practices (e.g., models of hydrology and
                                                           projected demand), utilities can use climate
                                                           science data to evaluate the plausibility of
                                                           climate-related impacts and how soon these
                                                           impacts may affect the utility.    continued on page 2

-------
     Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool Version 2.0 - A Climate Risk Assessment Tool for Water Utilities  page 2
              Setup
     Regional and Local
     Historical & Projected
     Climate Information
                  !==
 Threats
 Assets
   Baseline
   Analysis
   Resilience
   Analysis
  Adaptive
  Measures
Adaptation
 Planning
                                              Results and Reports
    GREAT Process: Application of climate information and utility knowledge to assess risks and challenges presented by
    climate change.
The GREAT 2.0 framework incorporates available qualitative regional and quantitative (downscaled) local climate
information to help inform the utility planning process. The software does not attempt to forecast climate change
(e.g., temperature and precipitation changes), but offers a range of potential conditions to consider. Users can consider
these scenarios of projected climate change to help identify related impacts important to operations, maintenance,
and management.
                                 Monthly Total Precipitation
                         Sin
                            J  FMAMJ   JASO   ND
           24-hour Precipitation Events

         | Projected
         ]H
     5-yr   10-yr   15-yr   30-yr  50-yr  100-yr
  GREAT provides
 data and plots for
  comparing local
historical conditions
 with downscaled
  climate model
projections for each
    grid cell.
 For More Information: GREAT 2.0 is available for download at
     I MATE READY www-ePa-gov/cl'matereadyutilities.
       I/ATER UTILITIES  For more information, email
                       CRWUhelpiaepa.qov.
  Example: Projected changes in intense
  precipitation will likely increase the frequency
  of flood events and the peak influent flows
  into collection systems following storm
  events. GREAT provides pre-loaded historical
  precipitation data and projected changes based
  on model outputs to help users understand
  how these events will differ as climate changes.
  Utility experience regarding how storms have
  impacted utility assets and operation in the
  past is key to interpreting the potential impact
  of these changes in the future. GREAT guides
  the user through a detailed risk assessment
  including the selection of adaptation options
  to reduce consequences from floods and
  higher peak influent flows. By evaluating
  benefits (i.e., reduction in  risk) of different
  adaptation options, users  can develop
  effective adaptation plans to prepare for
  projected changes in storm conditions.

Benefits of GREAT
GREAT helps utilities organize and communicate
risks from climate impacts and potential gains
from adaptation to decision makers, stakeholders
and citizens. Incorporating GREAT results with
overall utility planning builds customer confidence
that a utility is being proactive in identifying
significant risks or gaps where additional planning
maybe needed.
              Office of Water (4608-T)  EPA 817-F-12-011  www.epa.gov/watersecurity  December 2012

-------