Welcome to the World Bank Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools

Climate and Disaster Risk Screening represents a proactive approach to considering short- and long-term climate and disaster risks in project and national/sector planning processes.

  • Screening is an initial, but essential, step to ensure these risks are assessed and managed to support mainstreaming of climate and disaster resilience into key development policies, programs, and projects.
  • Considering climate change and disasters in today’s plans and projects, can increase the long-term success of development efforts, while realizing other co-benefits today.

Climate change and disasters pose a growing threat to development progress.

  • Over time, changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, and sea level will further threaten development.
  • For example, higher sea levels can flood coastal infrastructure, more frequent heat waves can threaten human health, and changing rain patterns can reduce agricultural yields.
  • Other hazards such as landslides, tsunamis, and extreme storms endanger communities, disrupt services, and damage property, setting back development progress.

Recognizing the challenges posed by climate and disaster risks to development progress, the World Bank is taking action.

  • The Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) commits to increasing the climate related share of the World Bank’s portfolio to 28% by 2020.
  • As of July 2014, all operations funded by the International Development Association (IDA) must consider climate and disaster risks and address them as appropriate.
  • The screening commitment will continue under the new IDA18 replenishment.
  • As of July 1, 2017 the screening commitment also extends to all operations financed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) as called for by the CCAP.

As part of the 17th IDA replenishment, IDA Deputies agreed to integrate climate change and disaster risk management into country planning, strategies, and financing. Specifically, they agreed that:

  • All IDA Country Partnership Frameworks (CPFs) should incorporate climate and disaster risk consideration into the analysis of the country’s development challenges and priorities and, when agreed with the country, incorporate such considerations in the content of the programs and the results framework; and
  • All new IDA operations should be screened for short- and long-term climate change and disaster risks and, where risks exist, appropriate resilience measures should be integrated in the project design.

This screening commitment will continue under the 18th IDA replenishment beginning July 1, 2017.

The World Bank Climate Change Action Plan 2016-2020, endorsed in April 2016, commits risk screening to be extended to IBRD operations in early 2017, after a review of existing tools and the lessons drawn from application to IDA countries.

The Action Plan also reconfirms the World Bank’s commitment to increase the climate- related share of its portfolio from 21 to 28 percent by 2020 in response to client demand, with total financing (including leveraged co-financing) of potentially $29 billion per year by 2020.

The Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools available on this website, can be used by development practitioners for high-level screening at an early stage of national level planning processes or project design:

  • An end-to-end sector specific guidance on how to use the screening tools can be found for the following sectors: Agriculture (click here to download), Water (click here to download), Energy (click here to download) , Health (click here to download) , Transportation (click here to download) and National/Policy Level (click here to download).
  • The tools link to climate projections, country adaptation profiles, and disaster risk data sources from the World Bank’s Climate Change Knowledge Portal.
  • The data, combined with the user's understanding of the subject matter and country context, generates a characterization of risks to help inform dialogue, consultation, and planning processes at the project and program level. These tools can be applied to a range of development sectors in support of a) national plans and strategies and b) project level investments.
  • The greatest value of these tools is that they provide a self-paced, structured and systematic process for understanding climate and disaster risks to programs and investments.
Please note:
  • The ratings, while instructive, should be seen as informing further consultations and dialogue and as helping to determine the need for further studies in the course of project design or planning at the national/sector level.
  • The tools do not provide a detailed risk analysis, nor do they suggest specific options for increasing the project’s resilience.
Application of these tools will help:
  • Learn about the climate trends and key geophysical hazards relevant to a specific country, or project.
  • Flag potential impacts and risks from climate and geophysical hazards in a systematic, consistent, and transparent way.
  • Inform the dialogue, consultation and planning processes at the project and program level.
  • Recognize the need for further detailed assessment during project preparation and or planning processes.
  • Identify other resources and tools to complement your assessments.

The tools apply an Exposure–Impact–Adaptive-capacity framework to assess risks.Click here for Methodology

Climate and disaster risk screening is most useful when carried out at an early stage of national level planning processes or project design.

The following are required to use the tools:

  • Project concept: For the project-level tools, the user should have some initial understanding of the project components and location.
  • Subject matter expertise: The tools rely on an understanding of the country or project context as well as professional expertise, knowledge, and judgment to evaluate the impacts and risks of climate change and disaster. The users of the tool are not expected to have specialized knowledge of climate change and disasters. Users will be able to access relevant climate and disaster information through the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP).
  • Consultations: Where needed, we recommend users engage in a consultative process with relevant sector and country specialists.
  • Time: Time requirements will vary depending on the user’s knowledge and consultations. On average, the rollout of the tool is estimated to take about 30 minutes for the Rapid Screening Assessment and about 2 hours for the In-depth Screening Assessment.

The tools are being offered as an open resource for development practitioners worldwide. Click here for additional screening tools that can complement the World Bank’s Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools, or click here for additional useful resources.

Information on climate and disaster risk.

Information on the climate and disaster risk screening process

Training:

Climate Help Desk. Users can contact the Climate Help Desk at climatescreeninghelpdesk@worldbankgroup.org for support in the following areas:

  • IT assistance: Support with IT problems and glitches in the tools.
  • Feedback: We welcome your feedback on the tool.

Several enhancements have been made to the Climate and Disaster Risk Screening tools for Agriculture, Energy, Health and Water projects, including:

  • Two new screening tools:
    • a Rapid Screening Assessment and
    • an In-Depth Screening Assessment
  • Links to new sector specific climate information in the Climate Change Knowledge Portal
  • Sector screening guidance notes for an end-to-end roadmap of the screening process
  • Updated complementary resources

The original National, General, Coastal Flood Protection, Roads and Transport tools are still available for relevant projects.

Both the new screening tools and original screening tools use the same Exposure–Impact–Adaptive capacity framework to assess risks.

Provides a lightweight, rapid assessment of current and future climate and disaster risks. It requires around 30 minutes to complete. The rapid screening assessment produces a summary report of selected risk ratings. Click here for a sample report. The rapid screening assessment is a good option for users who already have knowledge on the climate and disaster risks that may impact their project/program or for screening projects in sectors that mainly include non-physical components.

Provides a more in-depth assessment of current and future climate and disaster risks. It requires around 2 hours to complete. The in-depth screening assessment produces a more detailed project risk report. Click here for a sample report. The In-Depth Screening is a good option for users who may need additional guidance on the climate and disaster risks that may impact their project/program.

For national plans, multisector and sector-wide strategies, Development Policy Financing, Systematic Country Diagnostics, and Country Partnership Frameworks, please use the National Policy In-Depth Screening Assessment.

Provides a guided and comprehensive assessment of current and future climate and disaster risks. The tool produces a project risk report. Click here for a sample report

The tools apply an Exposure–Impact–Adaptive-capacity framework to assess risks. The framework incorporates elements of the risk analysis framework adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the framework for vulnerability assessment used by the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s), with some modifications.

National/Policy Level Tool Methodology:

The national/policy level tool is designed to walk users through a series of steps to understand the level of risk posed by climate and other natural hazards at an early stage of planning and design of national or sector-wide strategies, development policy, institutional strengthening and/or reforms. The tool does this by making data on climate change (historic, projected) available in an accessible manner. The tool helps the user connect this information to the broader development context at the sector level. The tool includes an Institutional Readiness Scorecard (IRS), which provides a rapid assessment framework to score current client institutional and adaptive capacity at the national/sector level. There are four distinct, but interrelated, stages that users follow.
  • First, the user identifies priority sectors required to achieve country goals, which the user will rate for risk in the rest of the tool.
  • Second, the user gathers information on climate and other hazards in the country and rates the potential impact of the hazards on each priority sector.
  • Third, the user rates the institutional readiness, which is a measure of the country’s ability to respond successfully to the hazards.
  • Fourth, the user determines overall risk by jointly considering the potential impacts and institutional readiness, along with the larger economic and social context that could influence the level of risk.

For detailed information, click here to download the full methodology document for the national/policy level tool.

Project Level Tool Methodology:

The project tools are designed to walk users through a series of steps to understand the level of risk posed by climate and other natural hazards at an early stage of project design. The tools do this by making data on climate change (historic, projected) available. The tools help users connect this information to project components and allow users to account for non-physical components such as institutional capacity and the larger development context. Through this process they help users arrive at the risk to the outcome/service level intended from the project.

There are four distinct, but interrelated, stages that users follow.

  • First, the user evaluates the extent to which their project/location will be exposed to each hazard.
  • Second, the user combines this information with their understanding of the project’s physical components to assess potential impact from each hazard.
  • Third, the user examines how relevant non-physical factors, such as institutional capacity and the larger economic and social context, influence the level of risk posed to the project.
  • Fourth, based on these considerations, the user rates the overall risk to the project outcome. A PDF of the overall project risk profile is produced.

For detailed information, click here to download the full methodology document of an illustrative example of the approach of a project-level tool, the Roads tool.

Key Terms:

Adaptive capacity: The ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences of hazards.1
Climate hazard: A physical process or event (hydro-meteorological or oceanographic variables or phenomena) that can harm human health, livelihoods, or natural resources. A hazard is not simply the potential for adverse effects.2
Exposure: The presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, environmental services and resources, infrastructure, or economic, social, or cultural assets in places that could be adversely affected by a hazard.1
Geophysical hazard: Natural land processes and events with the potential to cause harm to human health, livelihoods, systems, or natural resources. In this tool, "hazard" refers to the physical event itself, not its potential for adverse effects.2
Potential impact: The potential effects of hazards on human or natural assets and systems. These potential effects, which are determined by both exposure and sensitivity, may be beneficial or harmful.
Resilience: The capacity of a social-ecological system to cope with a hazardous event or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain its essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation.1
Risk: The potential for consequences where something of human value (including humans themselves) is at stake and where the outcome is uncertain.1 This tool defines climate risk as a combination of hazard exposure, sensitivity to impact, and adaptive capacity. It does not define risk as the product of the probability of hazardous events and the consequences of those events, as is frequently used.
Sensitivity: The degree to which a system, asset, or species may be affected, either adversely or beneficially, when exposed to climate variability or change or geophysical hazards.1

1 Definitions adapted from IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014) (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/)
2 N. Brooks, “Vulnerability, Risk and Adaptation: A Conceptual Framework” Working Paper No. 38 (Tyndall Centre, 2003) (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200032746_Vulnerability_Risk_and_Adaptation_A_Conceptual_Framework)

Below are some additional resources that provide information on climate data, climate change impacts and adaptation, and other useful information that can help you better understand climate and disaster risks to your national- or project-level activities. The resources are organized by tools.

Climate data resources

The screening tools rely largely on the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP) which provides historical and future climate and climate-related datasets. The CCKP data draw on global, quality-controlled data sets and are continually updated as new data becomes available. In some cases, the CCKP is supplemented with other sources of information.

Think Hazard!, is a web-based tool enabling non-specialists to consider the impacts of disasters on new development projects. Users can quickly and robustly assess the level of river flood, earthquake, drought, cyclone, coastal flood, tsunami, volcano, and landslide hazard within their project area to assist with project planning and design.

Working Group I’s contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report presents the latest in observed climate changes and future climate projections.

National/Policy Level tool resources

Resources to help identify a country’s main development goals and priority sectors:
Climate change impacts to sectors at the national level:

Agriculture tool resources

Climate Change Impacts on the Agriculture Sector:

a. Climate change impacts on Agriculture and Natural Resources
b. Climate change impacts on Water and Future Irrigation Needs
  • World Bank’s Prospects for Irrigated Agriculture paper examines predicted future irrigation needs and how to meet global food production in a water-constrained future.
  • Water and Climate Change: Understanding the Risks and Making Climate-Smart Investment Decisions by the World Bank illustrates how climate change will affect hydrology and the resulting stress on and vulnerability of the water systems. The climate change dimension is also placed within the context of the impact of other factors outside the water sector. The analysis is intended to inform the World Bank water sector investments on climate issues and climate-smart adaptation options.
  • The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) World Water and Climate Atlas gives irrigation and agricultural planners rapid access to accurate data on climate and moisture availability for agriculture including applications for determining how much irrigation is needed in relation to what the climate provides and extracting climate inputs for crop modeling.
  • AQUASTAT developed by the FAO Land and Water Division is a global information system on water and agriculture. The database contains information on water resources, water uses, and agricultural water management with an emphasis on countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • CROPWAT is a piece of software designed for the calculation of the right amount of water needed for the irrigation of crop fields.
  • IWMI’s Online Irrigation Benchmarking Services provides background and guidelines to the benchmarking process and indicators, as well as options to add data online and view results by categories of irrigation system.
c. Climate change Impacts on Water Resources
d. Climate change impacts on Water Resources and Adaptation Strategies
Production methods and Policies addressing Climate Change impacts on Agriculture
  • Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Call to Action by the World Bank makes the case for climate-smart agriculture, and provides case studies of countries implementing these practices.
  • Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Profiles: seven country profiles (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Mexico and Peru) were developed by a joint World Bank-CIAT-CATIE team with regional LAC funds. Each country profile provides a detailed national context, and spells out the key facts on agriculture and climate change.
  • "Climate-Smart" Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Financing for Food Security, Adaptation and Mitigation by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) uses case studies to outline a range of practices, approaches, and tools aimed at increasing the resilience and productivity of agricultural production systems in developing countries. The paper also surveys institutional and policy options available to promote the transition to climate-smart agriculture at the smallholder level.
  • The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) report on Climate, Agriculture, and Food Security examines the impacts of climate change on agriculture, describes the existing knowledge on managing weather variability in agricultural systems, and identifies research gaps in building adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector.
  • CGIAR’s Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security Program Baseline Surveys include information on farmers’ current adaptive practices.
  • The Adaptation and Mitigation Knowledge Network (AMKN) is a map-based platform for sharing knowledge on agricultural adaptation and mitigation from CIGAR and its partners.
  • The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change report on Achieving food security in the face of climate change provides seven recommendations and practical policy actions to secure sustainable agriculture.
  • The U.S. National Fish, Wildlife, and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is designed to help public and private decision makers address the impacts that climate change is having on natural resources.
  • The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), created by the USAID is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on acute food insecurity.
Adaptation Strategies for the Agriculture Sector
Information on water drainage
  • The Center for Global Environmental Research at the National Institute for Environmental Studies has developed a Global Drainage Basin Database (GDBD) that provides basic information to a variety of water-related fields.
  • The FAO Natural Resources and Environment Group document, Chapter 10. Surface Hydrology: Water Bodies, Water Point, Drainage and Watersheds outlines data supporting the representation or analysis of surface hydrological features including surface water bodies (SWB) and water points; surface drainage, rivers, and flow routing database; and watershed delineations and models.
Information on crop threshold capacities, including amount of water needed
  • The EcoCrop database is a tool to identify plant species for given environments and uses. It provides information on crop threshold capacities.
Climate Change, Agriculture and Gender

Coastal Flood Protection tool resources

Climate change impacts on coasts:
How to assess coastal climate vulnerability:

Energy tool resources

Climate Change Impacts on Energy Systems:
  • U.S. Department of Energy’s U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather examines current and potential future impacts of climate change on the U.S. energy sector. It identifies activities underway to address these challenges and discusses potential opportunities to enhance the climate resilience of U.S. energy system.
  • The IPCC Working Group III’s Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation includes discussion on the potential impact of climate change on renewable energy resources.
  • Addressing Climate Change-Driven Increased Hydrological Variability in Environmental Assessments for Hydropower Projects – scoping study” details the context of hydrological variability, a changing climate and hydropower/reservoir operation
  • Addressing Climate Vulnerability for Power System Resilience and Energy Security by USAID Global Climate Change Office and its Resources to Advance LEDS Implementation (RALI) Project, explains how climate change affects hydropower and other power generation infrastructure and resources using a four step approach: assess climate risks and vulnerabilities; identify, evaluate, and prioritize options to address climate risks; integrate climate change into project implementation, power planning, operations and maintenance; and monitor, evaluate, and adjust plans over time.
Adaptation Strategies for the Energy Sector:

Other sector tool resources

Climate change impacts and adaptation strategies for the different sectors/ sub-sectors under this tool:
a. Multiple sectors
b. Non-Road Transportation
c. Urban Areas
d. Mining and Metals
e. Natural Resources (Forestry, Fisheries, and Biodiversity)

Health tool resources

Climate change impacts on health:
  • The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change is an international, multi-disciplinary research collaboration between academic institutions following on from the 2015 Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change, which emphasized that the response to climate change could be “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century”.
  • The Atlas of Health and Climate by the World Health Organization and World Meteorological Organization, provides scientific information on the connections between weather and climate and major health challenges, including infections, emergencies arising from extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and demographic aging.
  • The World Health Organization’s report, Protecting Health from Climate Change: Connecting Science, Policy and People, presents an overview of the links between climate change and human health and outlines priority actions to reduce vulnerability.
  • The Health Dimension of Climate Change by the World Bank focuses on the health impacts of climate change that are relevant for ECA countries, assessing the vulnerability of health sectors to these impacts, and providing insights into building health-specific adaptive capacity. The impacts of climate change on health is detailed and analyzed at various levels, in relation to an increased frequency and/or intensity of extreme weather events as well as those due to a progressive increase in temperatures entailing expanded disease vector distribution and other climate-sensitive factors. The report is divided into three main sections: (i) discussion of climate change events and their health impacts in ECA; (ii) a country-level climate change-health vulnerability assessment; and (iii) adaptive strategies for optimizing health outcomes in the face of climate change.
  • Risk Expands, But Opportunity Awaits: Emerging Evidence on Climate Change and Health in Africa by USAID presents evidence on the effects of climate change risks on the health sector in Africa. It illustrates climate threats to health and development investments and highlights opportunities to achieve health targets in Sub-Saharan Africa in the face of climate change. Included in the report is information on the basics of climate forecasting in Africa, climate change and health vulnerabilities, details of health risks (i.e. undernutrition and vector-borne diseases), response opportunities (i.e. policy response and frameworks for action), and information on future efforts.
  • Climate Change and Health Impacts: How Vulnerable is Bangladesh and What Needs to be Done? Is a study jointly undertaken by the Climate Change and Health Promotion Unit of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and the World Bank. This study had two broad objectives: (1) to assess national vulnerability and impact on major diseases of increased climate variability and extreme events in Bangladesh; and (2) to assess existing institutional and implementation capacity, financial resources at the local level, and existing public programs targeted at climate-sensitive diseases.
  • A Human Health Perspective on Climate Change by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)-led Interagency Working Group on Climate Change and Health identifies major research areas that need to be further explored and understood. These include the following: Asthma, Respiratory Allergies, and Airway Diseases, Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke, Foodborne Diseases and Nutrition, Heat-Related Morbidity and Mortality, Human Developmental Effects, Mental Health and Stress-Related Disorders, Neurological Diseases and Disorders, Vectorborne and Zoonotic Diseases, Waterborne Diseases, Weather-Related Morbidity and Mortality.
  • The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment by the U.S. Global Change Research Program provides an assessment of climate-related health burdens in the United States. Acknowledging the rising demand for data that can be used to characterize how climate change affects health, this report assesses recent analyses that quantify observed and projected health impacts. Each chapter characterizes the strength of the scientific evidence for a given climate–health exposure pathway or “link” in the causal chain between a climate change impact and its associated health outcome. The overall findings underscore the significance of the growing risk climate change poses to human health in the United States.
  • Improving Capacity to Correlate Climate Change and Environmental Health Outcomes in Mozambique by The World Bank presents the results of a geospatial regression analysis that aims to identify future trends in health vulnerability as a result of extreme events and future climate change in Mozambique. The goals of this analysis are as follows: i) To develop an understanding of the relationship between environmental/climate variables and the distribution of diseases. ii) To use that relationship to predict future trends in disease distribution across Mozambique and to identify specific districts that will be more vulnerable to various diseases in the future.
Health management measures to address climate change impacts:
  • Lessons Learned on Health Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change: Experiences Across Low- and Middle-Income Countriesby the World Health Organization first reviews and synthesizes the first five years of implementation (2008–2013) of projects on health adaptation to climate variability and change in low- and middle income countries worldwide. The second part of the report presents results of qualitative research undertaken to document lessons learned and good practice examples from health adaptation projects to facilitate assessing and overcoming barriers to implementation and to scaling up.
  • The World Health Organization’s report, Protecting Health from Climate Change: Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment, provides guidance on making vulnerability assessments of health risks due to climate change as well as guidance on policies and programs that could increase resilience.
  • The World Bank’s Reducing Climate-Sensitive Disease Risks assesses known interventions to reduce risk. The report also looks at ways to help practitioners reduce the risks of key climate-sensitive infectious diseases by strengthening risk management systems for disease outbreaks.
  • Climate Effects on Health Factsheets by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) give a snapshot of how climate hazards can impact health as well as prevention and management measures. Issues covered include extreme precipitation and drought, warmer water and flooding, air quality, extreme heat, and vector-borne diseases.
  • Health and Disaster Risk Reduction within the Global Framework for Climate Servicesis a report that resulted from a meeting organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). The purpose of the meeting report was to develop recommendations for the implementation of a platform to enhance the applications of climate information and products in the health and disaster risk reduction sectors.
Climate change, health and gender:
Additional tools relevant to health:
  • USAID Climate Risk and Management Tools including a Health Annex. These tools are meant to support climate risk screening and management in strategy, project and activity design. Excel templates enable the user to record results.
  • The WHO UNFCCC Climate and Health Country Profiles Project aims to provide Ministers of Health, health decision-makers and advocates with country-specific, evidence-based snapshots of the climate hazards and health risks facing countries. They present opportunities for health co-benefits though mitigation actions and provide a global platform to track national progress in policy response and implementation.
  • The Health and Climate Change Toolkit for Project Managers by the World Health Organization is a one-stop resource containing key resources that address climate change and health issues. It is intended for planners, policy makers, and those working at the policy/practice interface. Publications are sorted by eight topics, by type, geographic focus and year of publication. These eight topics are Health Impacts of Climate Change, Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments, Early Warning Systems, Building Resilience of Health Systems, National Adaptation Strategies and Plans, Monitoring and Evaluation of Health Adaptation, Engagement with Other Sectors, and Health Co-benefits and Climate Action.
  • The Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal, from the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is a knowledge management tool for locating the most relevant scientific literature on the health implications of climate change. It provides access to a database of studies from around the world, published between 2007 and 2014.

Transportation tool resources

Climate change impacts on transportation systems:
Case studies on climate change impacts and vulnerabilities to a country’s transportation system:
Evaluating climate change vulnerability to transportation systems:

Water tool resources

Climate change impacts on the water sector:

a. Climate change impacts on general water resources and management
b. Climate change impacts on built water supply and sanitation systems:
Additional tools that are relevant to water:
  • The Water Rapid Screening Assessment Framework, by the World Bank, is meant to provide a consistent, credible, and repeatable process for project managers to use to assess climate risks in such a way that effort expended remains proportional to the climate sensitivity of each project. Phases 1 through 3 (climate screening, climate risk assessment, and climate risk reporting) provide elements of risk assessment, while Phase 4 shifts to risk management (Climate Risk Management Plan). Each phase specifies a product demonstrating that climate risks have met assessment according to an approved procedure. In each analytical phase, either the process ends because the climate risks have proved adequately addressed or the process proceeds to the next phase to address remaining concerns.
  • Water Security for All: The Next Wave of Tools, is a 2013/14 Annual Report by the Water Partnership Program, which includes the World Bank and the governments of the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Austria. Chapter 2 covers innovative solutions and tools related to disaster risk management, remote sensing, cold weather sanitation, and results-based financing.
  • USAID Climate Risk and Management Tools including a Water Supply and Sanitation Annex. These tools are meant to support climate risk screening and management in strategy, project and activity design. Excel templates enable the user to record results.
  • Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas by the World Resources Institute is a global water risk mapping tool that helps companies, investors, governments, and other users understand where and how water risks and opportunities are emerging worldwide. The Atlas uses a robust, peer reviewed methodology and the best-available data to create high-resolution, customizable global maps of water risk.
  • Flood Management in a Changing Climate - WMO and GWP Tool. The central theme of this tool is to bring the different aspects of climate variability and climate change as it affects flood risks with the aim to show possibilities of how they can be managed successfully. It addresses the needs of practitioners and allows them to easily access relevant guidance materials.
  • The SIASAR Initiative: An Information System for More Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Services, by the World Bank, is an innovative platform designed to monitor the development and performance of rural Water Supply and Sanitation services. Through this simple tool, data collection and analysis becomes more accessible, more precise, and comparable across countries. The system generates performance indicators that are aggregated at several geographic levels. SIASAR automatically produces rankings and summary reports that detail the performance of communities, infrastructure systems, service providers, and technical assistance providers.
  • The Thirsty Energy Initiative, by the World Bank, is meant to help countries integrate water constraints into the energy sector and better address water and energy challenges. It does so by preparing countries for an uncertain future by: (i) Identifying synergies and quantifying tradeoffs between energy development plans and water use; (ii) Piloting cross-sectoral planning to ensure sustainability of energy and water investments; (iii) Designing assessment tools and resource management frameworks to help governments coordinate decision-making and enhance sustainable development; and (iv) Providing capacity building and knowledge transfer.

Other resources

Online data sources on gender:

  • World Bank: Gender Equality Data and Statistics. This gender data portal is a one-stop shop for gender information, catering to a wide range of users and providing data from a variety of sources. The portal has indicators related to five dimensions of gender equality: economic structures and access to resources; education; health and related services; public life and decision-making; and human rights of women and girl children.
  • FAO:Gender and Land Rights Database. This portal highlights the major political, legal, and cultural factors that influence women’s ability to claim their land rights throughout the world. It includes 84 country profiles, land tenure statistics disaggregated by gender, and a Legislation Assessment Tool for gender-equitable land tenure.
  • FAO:Agri-gender Statistics Toolkit. This toolkit supports increased collection and analysis of sex-disaggregated agricultural data. It includes a compilation of gender-sensitive questions, questionnaire components, and tables. The database is structured around nine items related to agriculture: agricultural population and households; access to productive resources; production and productivity; destination of agricultural produce; labor and time use; income and expenditures; membership in agricultural or farmer organizations; and food security poverty indicators.
  • World Economic Forum: Annual Global Gender Gap Report. The Global Gender Gap Index 2015 ranks 145 economies according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool, based on economic, educational, health-based, and political indicators.
  • World Bank: Women, Business and the Law. Getting to Equal measures legal and regulatory barriers to women’s entrepreneurship and employment in 173 economies. It provides quantitative measures of laws and regulations that affect women’s economic opportunities in seven areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, going to court, building credit, and protecting women from violence.
  • UNDP: International Human Development Indicators. The Human Development Report Office releases five indices each year: the Human Development Index (HDI), the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Development Index (GDI), the Gender Inequality Index (GII), and the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
  • UN Statistics: The World’s WomenThis portal highlights differences in the status of women and men in eight areas: population and families; health; education; work; power and decision making; violence against women; environment; and poverty.

Other tools that can be used for initial screening

The list of project-level tools below covers an illustrative subset of existing screening tools, intended for early-stage identification of climate risks. These tools meet some, but not all, of the features of the World Bank Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools: simple and streamlined; publicly available; low data requirements; globally applicable with a focus on developing countries; and sector-specific.

World Bank Tools
  • The World Bank Urban Risk Assessment is a flexible approach that project and city managers can use to identify feasible measures to assess a city’s risk. The primary level of the assessment helps cities identify hazard-prone areas and capacity for disaster preparedness and response.
  • The World Bank Rapid Assessment Tool for Energy and Climate Adaptation (ATECA) Quick View is designed to screen a country’s renewable energy sector for climate vulnerability. It may be completed in under two hours. Please contact the World Bank for additional information.
  • The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) Hands-on Energy Adaptation Toolkit is a stakeholder-based, semi-quantitative risk-assessment approach to prioritize hazards and risks to a country’s energy sector. The tool also helps identify adaptation options.
Other Tools

These tools could be used to cross-check or complement the analyses using the World Bank tools.

National-level
  • Several guidance frameworks for assessing climate impacts, vulnerability, and readiness at a national level are available, but interactive tools were not identified. One example is USAID’s “development-first” approach, Climate-Resilient Development – A Framework for Understanding and Addressing Climate Change, which includes a five-step process for assessing and addressing climate-related development challenges. Another type of framework is the World Resources Institute’s National Adaptive Capacity Framework, which describes a set of institutional functions that are necessary for adaptation.

Other tools that can be used for subsequent analysis

The World Bank Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools address the first phase of the climate risk management process. Risk screening is critical, but it is only the first step in the process. The World Bank screening tools may be supplemented by tools that facilitate subsequent stages of climate risk management, including detailed risk assessments, design and implementation of adaptation actions, and monitoring and evaluation.

The tools listed below are just a few of the existing tools available that can be used as a follow-on analysis after risk screening. Some of the related tools that can be used for risk screening, listed on the Screening Analysis tab, can also be used for further stages of analysis.

World Bank Tools
Other Tools

These tools could be used to cross-check or complement the analyses using the World Bank tools.

Outreach materials

Why did the World Bank develop these screening tools?

The International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 77 poorest countries. As part of the IDA 17 Replenishment of $52 billion in December 2013, IDA Deputies agreed to the following policy commitments: (i) all IDA Country Partnership Frameworks (CPFs) incorporate climate and disaster risk consideration into the analysis of the country’s development challenges and priorities and, when agreed with the country, incorporate such considerations into the content of the programs and the results framework; and (ii) to screen all new IDA operations for short- and long-term climate change and disaster risks and, where risks exist, integrate appropriate resilience measures.
The Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools have been developed as a direct response to support these two discrete but interlinked IDA 17 policy commitments, which became effective on July 1, 2014.
The tools have broader application beyond the IDA countries and their investments and are being offered as an open resource to all development practitioners.
While these tools are not mandatory (task teams can use other screening tools or approaches as relevant to their sector), these have been widely applied. Specifically, around 500 projects across sectors and regions used the screening tools between July 2014 and December 2016.

Who are the screening tools for?

The tools are designed to be used by development practitioners, including World Bank Staff, who are designing or working on:
  • National strategies and diagnostics (e.g. poverty reduction strategies, systematic country diagnostics (SCDs), Country Partnership Frameworks (CPFs), and development policy operations (DPOs);
  • Sector-wide strategies and development policy reforms; or
  • Project investments in key sectors.
The tools may also be used for awareness raising and for general training and capacity building, in particular for better understanding the relevance of climate and disaster risks in development planning and the design of investments.

What do the tools do?

The tools provide a structured and systematic way to undertake due diligence and flag potential risks at the national/policy level and at the project level (covering seven key project areas). At all of these levels the tools follow a user-friendly step-by-step approach so that users can understand the potential risks to which programs and investments may be vulnerable. It should take about two hours, on average, to apply each of these tools.

Have the tools been updated?

Yes. The Climate and Disaster Risk Screening tools have been updated for four pilot sectors: Agriculture, Water, Health and Energy. These updates include: a) two new screening tools, one Rapid Screening Assessment and In-Depth Screening Assessment; b) links to new sector specific climate information; c) sector screening guidance notes for each of the four sectors; d) updated complementary resources and e) inclusion of gender and migrants/displaced populations considerations.

The original tools are still available for the remaining sectors and for the National and General tool.

What do I need to apply the tools?

The following are required to use the tool:
Project concept: For the project-level tools, the user should have some initial understanding of the project components and location.
Subject matter expertise: The users of the tool are not expected to have specialized knowledge of climate change and disasters. However the tools rely on an understanding of the country or project context as well as professional expertise, knowledge, and judgment to evaluate the impacts and risks of climate change and disasters. Users will be provided with relevant climate and disaster information through the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP).
Consultations: Where needed, we recommend that users engage in a consultative process with relevant sector and country specialists.
Time: Time requirements will vary depending on the user’s knowledge and consultations. On average, the tool is estimated to take roughly two hours.

Which tool should I use?

The national/policy level tool targets national plans, sector-wide strategies, development policy, and institutional strengthening and reforms.
The project level tools target a range of sectors. Once inside of the tool, you will be prompted to select the relevant subsectors that apply to your project.
Select the tool that your project predominantly covers. Each investment should require the application of no more than one tool. If your project is multisectoral, select the tool that covers the predominant work of your project. If you cannot find your project’s subsector within a one of the specific project level tools, use the General Tool, which covers a range of sectors. You will be invited to select the relevant sector once you commence using the General tool.

How can I learn more about the tools without actually using them?

You can browse the tools and see sample reports within them to help you get started.

To browse the tools, please log in using the information below. The demo profile cannot be used for actual assessment of projects, as it will not save your inputs.

Login: Demo

Password: Demo1

You can also view a sample report of the tools to see what you can get out of them. The tools generate a PDF report, which includes summary matrices of the exposure, impacts, and risks to key selected priority sectors/project components for current and future (2050) conditions. The output highlights some of the key drivers underlying climate and disaster risks. The national/policy level tool also provides an overview of some of the institutional needs and gaps with respect to climate and disaster risk management based on an institutional readiness score.

Click on a tool below to view a sample report.

Is there a way to get trained in using the tools?

You can take the self-paced Climate Change and Disaster Risks in Development Projects eLearning course , or contact the Climate Help Desk at climatescreeninghelpdesk@worldbankgroup.org for additional guidance.

What other tools are available for climate and disaster risk assessment?

There are many tools available within and outside of the World Bank that can support the climate and disaster risk screening process. Click here to learn about the types of tools that can complement the World Bank’s Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools.

What should I do after screening?

Project teams should articulate climate and disaster risk vulnerabilities wherever relevant in project documents. Project teams can also use screening results to inform further consultations and dialogue and help determine the need for further studies in the course of project design or planning.

Do I have to create a log in account?

Not if you are with the World Bank and using the internal site https://wbclimatescreeningtools.worldbank.org/, as you will be automatically logged into your user account.
If you are using the external site http://climatescreeningtools.worldbank.org/, then yes, to begin to apply the tools, you must register and create your own user name and password, which is your user information. You will not be required to provide any other personal information and indeed you are not encouraged to do so. You are encouraged, however, not to add any sensitive information to the Tool, since there is no absolute guarantee of security on any website.

Who else will have access to my account information?

Your application information and other information submitted will only be accessible to you and the World Bank as Administrator of the account; and the World Bank will comply with the provisions of the World Bank Data Policy with respect to your user information. Your user information, but not the content provided, may be used by the World Bank to generate statistics of usage and coverage of the screening tools. User information will not be disclosed by the World Bank to third parties, nor will it be used for any purpose other than in connection with the screening tools.

What are the tool’s privacy settings?

To use the tools you will need to register and create your own user name and password which will protect the information you enter. All of the application information you enter into the tools will be password protected. You will not be required to enter any personal or sensitive information. Iindeed, you are encouraged not to do so, since there is no absolute guarantee of security on any website. Your application information and other information submitted will only be accessible to you and the World Bank as Administrator of the account; and the World Bank will comply with the provisions of the World Bank Data Policy with respect to your user information. Your user information, but not the content provided, may be used by the World Bank to generate statistics of usage and coverage of the screening tools. User information will not be disclosed by the World Bank to third parties, nor will it be used for any purpose other than in connection with the screening tools.The PDF inputs will not be stored beyond 30 days.

What should I do if have trouble using or completing a tool?

See the useful resources here. You may also email the help desk if you encounter specific technical difficulties in applying the tools at climatescreeninghelpdesk@worldbankgroup.org

How should the tools be referenced?

The tools should be referenced as follows:
World Bank Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools. climatescreeningtools.worldbank.org

Disclaimer

User Information and Use of Tools and Linked Resources: To begin to apply the tool, you must register and create your own user name and password , which is your “User Information”. No other personal information is collected. All of the project information entered into the tool will be password protected. You are encouraged not to add any sensitive information to the Tool, since there is no absolute guarantee of security on any website. User and Project Information submitted will only be accessible to you and the World Bank as Administrator of the account. The World Bank will comply with the provisions of the World Bank Privacy Policy with respect to your User Information. The Word Bank may use your User Information, but not project information, to generate statistics of usage and coverage of the screening tools. User information will not be disclosed by the World Bank to third parties, nor will it be used for any purpose other than in connection with the screening tools,and in accordance of the World Bank Data and Privacy Policy.

You understand and agree that the use of the screening tools website is at your own sole risk. The World Bank provides the tools, and linked data resources from the Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP), “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE.” Under no circumstances shall the World Bank, any other member of the World Bank Group, or any other content provider, be liable to you for any loss, damage, liability or expense incurred or suffered which is claimed to result from use of or in connection with any activity in relation to the Screening Tools or the CCKP or as a result of the transmission or disclosure of confidential or partially disclosed data or information (including, without limitation, anything – including any tools made available through the tools or the CCKP – that may personally identify you or your location) through the access to or use of the screening tools or otherwise provided thereby, including without limitation, any fault, error, omission, interruption or delay with respect thereto as well of any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, unauthorized distribution, modification or destruction of content or information provided or transmitted by you, or by forging of your e-mail or user information. You can Browse the tool to get familiar, or for general awareness.

Output Reports: The output reports of the World Bank’s Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools will be generated and delivered in a .pdf format(see sample reports).These reports are yours to keep and use as you wish. The World Bank will not retain a copy of the reports, so please save it as necessary. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the reports are those of the individual who applied the tool and should be in no way attributed to the World Bank, to its affiliated institutions, to the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The information, interpretations and conclusions presented in the output reports are for informational purposes only and shall not be used or relied on by the user, including defining or declaring a climate disaster in any formal way. Nor shall the tool or the output reports be construed as providing investment advice. Although the World Bank makes reasonable efforts to ensure all the information presented in the tool and the CCKP is correct, its accuracy and integrity cannot be guaranteed. Use of this tool is at the user`s own risk and under no circumstances shall the World Bank be liable for any loss, damage, liability or expense incurred or suffered which is claimed to result from the use of this tool and any output reports resulting from use of the tool. This tool and the data it contains do not imply any opinion, judgment or endorsement on the part of the World Bank, and the findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in the data are those of various contributors.

Acknowledgements

The World Bank Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools are a result of contributions from a wide range of sector and thematic specialists across the World Bank Group. We thank everyone who contributed to the design, approach, content, as well as the testing and validation at various stages of the tool development.

The Climate and Disaster Risk Screening Tools were developed by the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Vice-Presidency Unit. The Bank team, led by Kanta Kumari Rigaud, and a core team comprised of Ana Elisa Bucher, Raffaello Cervigni, Nathan Engle, Varuna Somaweera, Tobias Baedeker, Kazi Ahmed, Catherine Nakalembe, and Meerim Shakirova worked under the supervision of Jane Ebinger and Geeta Sethi. Advice on disaster risk component and datasets was provided by Sofia Bettencourt and Alanna Simpson. Rosina Bierbaum provided strategic and technical advice throughout the project. We would like to thank Maarten Van Aalst and all of the members of the Technical Advisory Team of the Climate Change Knowledge Portal, who guided the improvement of climate data access and visualization within the Portal.

Management oversight was provided by Rachel Kyte, James Close, Mary Barton Dock, Fionna Douglas, Marianne Fay and Karin Kemper. The team also received guidance from Sector Board management, including Jose Luis Irigoyen and Juergen Voegele. Robert Bisset, Bianca Adam, Stacy Morford, Annika Ostman, and Venkat Gopalakrishnan supported communication and outreach efforts to partners and the media. Samrawit Beyene, Patricia Braxton, Perpetual Boateng and Maria Cristina Sy provided valuable support to the team.

We acknowledge with gratitude ICF International and REI Systems for their contributions towards the development of the Climate and Disaster Risk Screening tools. The design of the tools benefited greatly from inputs from World Bank Group colleagues, including Anjali Acharya, Mitsuyoshi Asada, Pierre Audinet, Julie Babinar, John Baffes, George Banjo, Laura Bonzanigo, Benoit Bosquet, Henrike Brecht, Julia Bucknall, Mirianna Budimir, Ashley Camhi, Jack Campbell, Jean-Christophe Carret, Vikas Choudhary, Louis Croneberg, Christophe Crepin, Richard Damania, Andreas Dietrich Kopp, Hari Bansi Dulal, Irina Dvorak, Milen Dyoulerov, Svetlana Edmeades, Asif Faiz, Erick Fernandes, Armin Fidler, Marc Forni, Luis Garcia, Elisabeth Goller, Roger Gorham, Stephane Hallegate, Stephen Alan Hammer, Ellen Hamilton, Nagaraja Harshdeep Rao, Valerie Hickey, Astrid Hillers, Ross Hughes, Habiba Gitay, Yoshiyuki Imamura, Gabrielle Izzi, Michael Jacobsen, Robert Jauncey, Pravin Karki, Yoonhee Kim, Jolanta Kryspin-Watson, Camilla Israel Lema, Vanessa Lopes, Dahlia Lotayef, Catherine Lynch, Marcelino Madrigal, Marilia Magalhaes, Pier Mantovani, Muthukumara S. Mani, Montserrat Meiro-Lorenzo, Jean Baptiste Migraine, Carolina Monsalve, Laurent Msellati, Stephen Muzira, Maria Margareta Nunez, Samuel Oguah, Elisa Portale, Christopher Pusch, Jumana Qamruddin, Tamer Samah Rabie, Kulwinder Rao, Liana Razafindrazay, Robert Reid, Markus Repnik, Diego Rodriguez, Giovanni Ruta, Daniel Mira Salama, Artessa Saldivar-Sali, Maria Sarraf, Kavita Sethi, Jitendra Shah, Tara Shirvani, Iain Shuker, Vladimir Stenek, Michael Vaislic, Sonam Sultanali Velani, Milen Vollen, Pieter Waalewijn, Xiaoping Wang, Monika Weber-Fahr, Samuel Wedderburn, Marcus Wijnen, Marcus Wishart, and Carmen Yee.

We would like to thank dozens of other World Bank staff who participated in training sessions for their useful feedback and suggestions. We are also grateful to numerous University of Michigan graduate students for their valuable contributions at key stages of this work.

Finally, the tools benefited from contributions of other Multilateral Development Banks and Bilateral partners through the two workshops on Climate Screening and Risk Management convened by the World Bank and the German Government in March and November 2014.

The Help Desk can provide support in the following areas:

  • IT assistance: Support with IT problems and glitches in the tools.
  • Feedback: We welcome your feedback on the tool.

To reach the Help Desk contact: climatescreeninghelpdesk@worldbankgroup.org