Water Utility Climate Alliance
Focus Areas
WUCA develops research, reports, and trainings to help water and wastewater utilities to understand climate modeling and uncertainty, understand climate risks, plan for enhanced resilience, implement climate solutions, and build internal capacity.
Understanding Climate Modeling and Uncertainty
Understanding climate models and their application in the water sector is central to WUCA's mission. As new climate models are developed and released regularly, many WUCA member utilities rely on downscaled climate projections to support planning, risk assessments, and long-term decision-making. Maintaining an up-to-date understanding of the latest climate science and its implications is essential for water utilities. WUCA seeks to track the evolution of climate models and identify both the opportunities and challenges associated with their application in the water sector.
Understanding Climate Risks
Water utilities face growing challenges in anticipating and managing the risks associated with climate change. Alongside natural climate variability, it contributes to more extreme events such as heat waves, wildfires, droughts, and floods. These hazards can disrupt utility operations and create cascading impacts across critical systems. Developing an enterprise-wide understanding of climate-related exposures, vulnerabilities, and opportunities enables utilities to prioritize actions and integrate climate considerations into everyday planning, decision-making, and asset management.
Adaptation and Resilience Planning
Implementation
Leading Practices
For more than 10 years, the Water Utility Climate Alliance (WUCA) has been at the forefront of strengthening the field of climate adaptation. WUCA members have uncovered ways to build adaptive capacity and incorporate new climate science into water management, planning, investments, and actions. To share what worked, WUCA has compiled climate adaptation practices that have been tested, leveraging WUCA members' experiences to build a shared knowledge base and illustrate not-always clear directions forward. This collection of leading practices in climate adaptation covers a suite of climate adaptation actions and is intended to broadly promote collaborative learning.
