Climate Hazards Data Integration and Visualization for the Climate Adaptations Solutions Accelerator through School-Community Hubs

Community engagement in planning is essential for effective and just climate adaptation. However, historically underserved communities are often difficult to reach through traditional means of soliciting public input. The Climate Adaptation Solutions Accelerator (CASA) through School-Community Hubs project identifies public schools as promising sites for building both community engagement and community capacity for climate adaptation. To serve in this role, schools need information about the intersecting threats climate change poses to the communities they serve. The Climate Hazard Dashboard for California Schools is a platform that maps the current and future risks associated with five climate hazards, including wildfire, extreme heat days, wildfire extreme precipitation, flooding, and sea level rise, for the nearly 10,000 public schools serving Kindergarten through Grade 12 students in California. Each hazard is mapped and visualized at the school level, providing an accessible way for administrators, teachers, students, and neighborhoods to explore data reflecting the climate hazards they face, at a scale relevant to their communities. The dashboard also provides an aggregate summary hazard metric.

Methods
Data for extreme heat and extreme precipitation were retrieved using API requests from the caladaptr package. The data retrieved to calculate extreme heat days were historical observed daily maximum temperature for 1961-2005 and projected daily maximum temperature for 2006-2064. The data retrieved to calculate extreme precipitation days were historical observed daily precipitation totals for 1961-2005 and projected daily precipitation totals for 2006-2064. Data for wildfire, flooding, and sea level rise were downloaded directly from their sources and stored in a remote server for use.

All data were processed in R Studio using Quarto Docs. Tabular data for extreme heat and precipitation first used the retrieved historical data to calculate a threshold value to classify an extreme event. The threshold was determined to be the 98th percentile value of observed historical data for California. For extreme heat, this is 98°F. For extreme precipitation, this is 0.73 inches. Then, projected daily values exceeding these thresholds were assigned a 1, and those not exceeding assigned a 0. The count of projected extreme days within each year from 2005-2064 was then assigned to each California public school.

Spatial data was mainly processed to serve mapping purposes in the dashboard. The wildfire raster was clipped to the boundaries of California and reclassified. The mean wildfire hazard potential score for each school area was also derived and attached to each school. The original FEMA flood polygons have many different classifications, which were reclassified into three categories: high risk, moderate to low risk, and undetermined risk. The percentage of each school area that falls within a high risk flood zone was also attached to each school. The sea level rise polygons simply describe the extent of flooding under a 0.8 feet sea level rise scenario and a 100-year coastal storm. The polygons were simplified to decrease map load times in the dashboard. The percentage of each school area affected by the sea level rise scenario and a 100-year coastal storm were also attached to each school.

To read a more detailed description of data processing, please refer to the "Summary of Solution Design" section in the CASAschools Technical Documentation: https://bren.ucsb.edu/projects/climate-hazards-data-integration-and-visualization-climate-adaptation-solutions