An assessment of the climate-related needs of stakeholders in Oklahoma

The Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program is conducting a weather and climate needs assessment in Oklahoma as part of the National Climate Assessment. Semi-structured interviews are being carried out with various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies across the following sectors: agricultural production, ecosystems, energy, health, transportation, water resources, and public safety. The data will reveal the most significant climate-related issues that Oklahoma stakeholders are currently facing and anticipate they will face in the future, the spatial and temporal scales in which they make decisions, and their need for climate information, education, and decision-support tools. Preliminary results reveal that most agencies within Oklahoma have just begun to recognize climate change as an issue. This assessment provides a foundational understanding of the impact of weather and climate across the State on which future adaptation work can be built. A similar assessment is being conducted along the western Gulf Coast states.