Climate Change Impacts Assessment for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory: A Pathfinding Contribution to NASA’s Climate Adaptation Science Investigators (CASI) Activity

The Climate Adaptation Science Investigators Workgroup (CASI) initiative is a partnership between NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) and the Office of Strategic Infrastructure (OSI) aimed at enhancing climate resilience at NASA Centers. CASI leverages Earth science research contributions from multiple NASA centers to support efforts in characterizing climate change impacts to help NASA facilities managers develop long-term plans to address increasing climate risks to both NASA operations and the health and safety of its employees.

For this project, we are developing a Climate Change Impacts Assessment report that characterizes JPL’s vulnerabilities to climate change and provides decision-support information for adaptation and mitigation efforts. This assessment includes considerations regarding both the Laboratory as well as the Greater Los Angeles region where the JPL workforce lives. By integrating CASI-developed climate change research with JPL/NASA-led climate and environmental observations, we aim to contextualize the findings for the Laboratory’s Master Planning needs, driven largely by OSI, and bearing in mind related information needs and adaptation efforts of relevant city, county and state adaptation efforts. JPL Facilities plans to work with JPL Earth Sciences and CASI to incorporate the data generated by the CASI Workgroups into JPL’s Facilities planning. Our objective is to develop a prototype report relevant to JPL planners and its workforce, and, in concert with CASI, utilize it as a template for climate change impact assessments for other NASA Centers.