Funded by the Caltrans Adaptation Planning Grant and working with the Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office, we are assessing potential vulnerabilities from climate change to sites and resources of significance to the Chumash people, as well as impacts to transportation infrastructure that is needed to access them.

Through research and community outreach with various bands of the Chumash, we are identifying places and resources of importance. Using climate change projections and GIS, we are able to analyze and map the specific impacts of climate change to cultural sites and resources and transportation routes. We are coordinating with Regional Transportation Planning Agencies to identify existing or planned adaptation projects in order to determine the current adaptive capacity. The objective of this vulnerability assessment is to guide climate change adaptation planning efforts and identify specific adaptation strategies to increase resilience in the tribal community.