Global Climate Change
ABOUT LSA
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Environmental Analysis
Biology and Wetlands
Habitat Restoration
Water Quality
Air Quality
Global Climate Change
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Cultural Resources and
Paleontology
GIS/GPS
PLANNING
Community and Land Use Planning
Resource Planning and Management
Transportation
In California and throughout the world, climate change has rapidly emerged as a key environmental concern. LSA has the breadth and depth of expertise to help our clients anticipate and meet the challenges created by this emerging issue. Strategies utilized by local, regional, state, and federal governments to assess and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint of development are evolving, as is the science of understanding global climate change itself.
In the wake of Assembly Bill 32 – the California Global Warming Solutions Act – and the guidance from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, a localized approach to analyzing global climate change has predominated while State-wide standards and thresholds are being developed. LSA has qualified staff and the technical tools to conduct climate change analyses (including analysis that supports LEED certification). LSA works with clients to develop a customized approach to global climate change analysis that reflects client and community needs within current regulatory expectations.
Our services start with a broad outlook. As State and federal standards and protocols are being formulated, we look to recent case law and the professional literature from the various disciplines affected by climate change (e.g., air quality, energy, hydrology, hazards) to direct appropriate procedures for evaluating and mitigating climate change impacts. Next, we integrate this process with our understanding of both the local political environment and community expectations for global climate change analysis. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a planning and analytical approach to global climate change assessment that fits the place and the project, while ensuring that the research, analysis. and recommendations have a defensible legal foundation.
SERVICES INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
- Climate change analyses for planning documents and development projects
- Plan and project effects on the environment
- Adaptation of projects and communities to the effects of climate change - Identification and calculation of project-specific energy reduction measures, off-site mitigation, and trip reduction features
- Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions using the latest methods, models, and data including the following:
- California Climate Action Registry Protocol
- California Air Resources Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission factors
- Community, metropolitan planning organization, and air district inventories of greenhouse gas emissions
- U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, energy consumption data
- Urban Emissions (URBEMIS) 2007
- Emission Factors (EMFAC) 2007
- Off-Road Emissions (OFF-ROAD) 2007
- Clean Air and Climate Protection Software (STAPPA and ALAPCO)
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