What can Vermonters learn from Tropical Storm Irene, in order to be better prepared for flooding in the future?

Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) Climate Change Team released an interdisciplinary look at Irene’s many impacts and challenges.

This new report, “Lessons from Irene: Building Resiliency as We Rebuild,” points out that flood re­siliency may be a critical part of Vermont’s adaptation to climate change, given that 1) many Ver­mont communities are built along rivers and 2) climate change pre­dictions call for more intense storms and precipitation events in Vermont over the coming decades.

The report illustrates the vul­nerability of our river valley com­munities and natural resources to intensive flood disasters, begins to count the costs associated with that vulnerability, and poses some of the hard questions the state and its communities will need to an­swer in order to build flood resil­iency.

The ANR Climate Change team has been working to promote both mitigation of greenhouse gas emis­sions and adaptation to a changing climate.

To see the new report, visit anr. state.vt.us/anr/climatechange.