Army Corps of Engineers
The Army Corps of Engineers (ACE; http://www.usace.army.mil/) is the steward of the lands and waters at Corps water resources projects, and also has regulatory management authority for authorizing permits under the Clean Water Act. Understanding the potential impacts to both natural and man-made systems is critical to the Corps, especially as the agency plans for water resources that will be sustainable in the future and makes permit decisions that will affect development trends and the waters of the United States. The most important influences of climate change on Corps missions are changes in temperature; changes in precipitation quantity, intensity and form (snow vs. rain); and changes in sea levels, winds and wave patterns. The entire portfolio of ACE Civil Works water resources infrastructure and programs, existing and proposed, could be affected by climate change and adaptation to climate change. This affects design and operational assumptions about resource supplies, system demands or performance requirements, and operational constraints. Both droughts and floods can affect the operations of these projects. Numerous regulatory decisions made by ACE will need to be informed by climate change impacts and adaptation considerations throughout the U.S., especially in western states. In 2010, the ACE Water Resources Center published the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Adaptation to Climate Change (http://chl.erdc.usace.army.mil/dirs/events/319/11%2087th%20CERB%20Olsen.pdf).
