RESILIENCE METRICS FOR NATURAL RESOURCES
Resilience Benefits of Natural Resources
Natural resources also help us adapt to the effects of climate change and boost our climate resilience by absorbing floodwater, reducing storm-related erosion, and reducing urban heat island effects.
For example, Fairfax County’s existing trees are estimated to intercept 7.3 billion gallons of rainfall per year, helping us to avoid 945 million gallons of stormwater runoff, and saving us $8.4 million in stormwater mitigation, according to iTree. Trees also greatly reduce the Urban Heat Island effect, keeping our communities cooler during extreme heat. Similarly, healthy wetlands and living shorelines help to absorb storm surge and other types of flooding.
The Resilient Fairfax Plan includes several strategies to protect and restore natural resources for climate resilience purposes. These strategies include protection of sensitive land, tree plantings and reforestation, green infrastructure, living shorelines, wetland and floodplain restorations, stream restoration, regenerative agriculture, and more.
Vulnerabilities of Natural Resources
To get these benefits from our natural resources, they need to be protected and made more resilient. Natural resources are themselves vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They are often severely damaged or weakened by severe storms, heat waves, and flooding.
A summary of these vulnerabilities to natural resources can be found in the table below. These vulnerability scores are based on a combination of exposure (how exposed is the resource to the hazard, and is the hazard increasing or decreasing?), sensitivity (is the resource damaged by the hazard?), and adaptive capacity (can the resource adapt to this hazard?). For a detailed description of vulnerabilities, please see the Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment. An interactive map of these natural resources and certain climate hazards can be found in the Resilient Fairfax Interactive Map Viewer.
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