The ART Program uses assessment questions to systematically and efficiently gather information about existing conditions, and the causes and components of vulnerability and consequences for a wide variety of assets. The ART Program team has tested and refined the questions in projects of various scopes and scales. Reviewing the assessment questions and guidance for this step will help you quickly develop and get agreement on an assessment approach that is appropriate to the needs of your project.

For example, the agreed upon approach should explicitly define the scale, or degree of detail, of the assessments conducted for each type of asset or sector. The assessment scale can range from asset-specific analyses, to a broad, sector-wide review. For sectors with numerous, similar assets, a detailed look at a few representative assets is an appropriate approach to take.

The other important component of this step, the selection of climate scenarios, can be shaped by multiple factors: the climate impacts being evaluated; the availability of data and mapping; the planning objectives of the project team and working group; and the project resilience goals. The ART Supplies provide guidance and recommendations that simplify a task that many find challenging.

Outcomes of this step

• An approach for answering assessment questions that identifies who is responsible for gathering data and information; the assessment scale for each asset or sector; and how assessment answers will be organized and shared with working group members
• A non-technical summary of the proposed climate scenarios that describes the basis for their selection and use in the exposure analysis

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