Glossary

The assessment team has developed this glossary to help readers understand key terms that are used throughout the assessment, particularly if they have detailed or nuanced definitions or if the assessment uses them in ways that might differ from conventional usage. The definitions presented here have largely been adapted from authoritative sources such as the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Original or modified definitions reflect input from a team of Technical Workgroup members who collaborated to inform this glossary, as well as working definitions from state agency partners. Many additional terms are defined briefly within the assessment’s technical chapters. 

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Adaptation

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate and its effects. (USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment) Alternatively, it is the process by which a system moves toward resilience.

Armoring

Concrete, rock, sill, timber, or other structures such as groins, jetties and breakwaters, designed to slow erosion; or bulkheads, dikes, revetments and seawalls, designed to manage the erosive effect of waves on property or landward infrastructure. (New York State Sea Level Rise Task Force definition for “Hard shoreline protection, shoreline hardening, shoreline armoring, or hard engineering methods”)

Built environment

The human-made or modified structures that provide people with living, working, and recreational spaces, encompassing the buildings we live in, the distribution systems that provide us with water and electricity, and the roads, bridges, and transportation systems we use to get from place to place. (Adapted from U.S. EPA) 

Carbon sequestration

The storage of carbon through natural, deliberate, or technological processes in which carbon dioxide is diverted from emissions sources or removed from the atmosphere and stored biologically in the ocean, terrestrial environments, underground, or in geological formations. (Adapted from USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment) 

Climate equity

The principle that all residents have a fair and just opportunity to live, learn, work, and play in a safe, healthy, resilient, and sustainable environment, even as the climate changes. (Adapted from Public Health Institute’s Center for Climate Change and Health) 

Climate justice

The promotion of individual and collective capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate events as well as the fair treatment, meaningful involvement, and the absence of discrimination in the creation of policies, programs, and projects that both address the disparate impacts of climate change and the transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy. (NYSERDA) 

Climate model

A mathematical model that simulates the climate system based on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of its components, their interactions, and feedback processes and accounting for some of its known properties. (Adapted from USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment)​

Climate projection

Simulated response of the climate system to a scenario of future emissions or concentration of greenhouse gases and aerosols, generally derived using climate models. Climate projections are distinguished from climate predictions by their dependence on the emission/concentration/radiative forcing scenario used, which is in turn based on assumptions concerning, for example, future socioeconomic and technological developments that may or may not be realized. (IPCC) 

Colonialism

A form of domination in which at least one society exerts power to exploit one or more other societies in order to gain some set of goods it perceives as valuable to the fulfillment of its economic, social, and cultural development. Settler colonialism is a type of domination in which a colonizing society seeks to obtain valuable goods by permanently inhabiting the territories that one or more other societies (e.g., Indigenous Peoples) already inhabit. Many settler colonial processes involve attempts by the colonizing society to erase the presence and history of the Indigenous Peoples.

Communities

Connected or organized groups of people who share a common geography, jurisdiction, set of characteristics, or interests and goals—not just a particular racial or ethnic group or ZIP code. (Association of Science and Technology Center’s Community Science Initiative)

Confidence

The robustness of a finding based on the type, amount, quality, and consistency of evidence (e.g., mechanistic understanding, theory, data, models, expert judgment) and on the degree of agreement across multiple lines of evidence. (IPCC) 

Critical infrastructure

In the United States, critical infrastructure is ​defined as ​the physical and information technology systems and assets that are so vital to our communities that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on our physical or economic security or public health or safety. Critical infrastructure provides the essential services that underpin society.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has identified 16 Critical Infrastructure sectors or industry groupings to frame the protection and resilience of the missions. The sectors are:

• Chemical 
• Commercial facilities 
• Communications 
• Critical manufacturing 
• Dams 
• Defense industrial base 
• Emergency services 
• Energy 
• Financial services 
• Food and agriculture 
• Government facilities 
• Healthcare and public health 
• Information technology 
• Nuclear reactors, materials, and waste 
• Transportation systems 
• Water and wastewater systems 

(New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services) 

Distributional justice

The perceived justness of the principles and rules that regulate resource distribution (e.g., effort, need) and to evaluation of the actual outcomes of the distribution in relation to expected outcomes. (Sabbagh and Schmitt, 2016)

Diversity

Socially, diversity refers to the wide range of identities. It broadly includes race, ethnicity, gender, age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, veteran status, physical appearance, etc. It also involves different ideas, perspectives and values. (University of Washington)

Downscaling

Downscaling is a method that derives local- to regional-scale​​​​ information from larger scale models or data analyses. Two main methods exist: dynamical downscaling and empirical/statistical downscaling. 

• The dynamical method uses the output of regional climate models, global models with variable spatial resolution, or high-resolution global models.  
• The empirical/statistical methods [are based on observations and] develop statistical relationships that link the large-scale atmospheric variables with local/regional climate variables. 

In all cases, the quality of the driving model remains an important limitation on quality of the downscaled information. The two methods can be combined, e.g., applying empirical/statistical downscaling to the output of a regional climate model, consisting of a dynamical downscaling of a global climate model. (IPCC)

Emerging issues

Specific to this assessment, issues that are important to acknowledge in this assessment, but that might have limited data at this time for various reasons—for example, an impact that is indirect, not yet well understood, or only recently identified. (Definition developed for this assessment) 

Energy insecurity

The inability of households to meet basic household energy needs. (Hernández, 2016) Energy insecurity encompasses several dimensions: 

• Economic: Unaffordable energy bills; arrearages, financial spiral. 
• Physical: Inferior housing and energy-related conditions.  
• Behavioral: Trade-offs, vigilant energy consumption, alternative heating strategies, foregoing comfort. (NYSERDA PowerPoint (PDF)) 

Energy security

The goal of a given country, or the global community as a whole, to maintain an adequate, stable, and predictable energy supply. Measures encompass safeguarding the sufficiency of energy resources to meet national energy demand at competitive and stable prices and the resilience of the energy supply; enabling development and deployment of technologies; building sufficient infrastructure to generate, store, and transmit energy supplies; and ensuring enforceable contracts of delivery. (IPCC) 

Environmental justice

The fair and meaningful treatment of all people, regardless of race, income, national origin, or color, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Environmental Justice allows for disproportionately impacted residents to access the resources and tools to address environmental concerns. (NYSDEC)

Environmental racism

Any environmentally related policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (where intended or unintended) individuals, groups, or communities based on race. (Bullard, 2018) 

Equity

The fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while at the same time striving to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent the full participation of some groups. The principle of equity acknowledges that there are historically underserved and underrepresented populations and that fairness regarding these unbalanced conditions is necessary to provide equal opportunities to all groups. (University of Washington)

Exposure

The presence of people; livelihoods; species or ecosystems; environmental functions, services, and resources; infrastructure; or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected. (IPCC)

Federal Indian trust responsibility

A legal obligation under which the United States “has charged itself with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust” to federally recognized Tribes. This responsibility is also “a legally enforceable fiduciary obligation on the part of the United States to protect tribal treaty rights, lands, assets, and resources.” (Definition developed for this assessment)

Frontline community

A community or population that has experienced systemic socioeconomic disparities, environmental injustice, or another form of injustice, including low-income communities, Indigenous communities, communities of color. Frontline communities also include communities that are the most vulnerable and will be the most adversely impacted by environmental and climate injustice and inequitable climate actions, including deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, vulnerable elderly populations, unhoused populations, individuals with disabilities, and communities economically dependent on fossil fuel industries. (Adapted from U.S. Congress)

Gentrification

A general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing historically disinvested, low-income neighborhood, wherein the increase in rents and property values displaces long-time residents and businesses and results in changes to the neighborhood’s character and culture. (Adapted from CDC)

​​​Gray infrastructure

Engineered physical components and networks of pipes, wires, tracks, and roads that underpin energy, transport, communications (including digital), built form, water and sanitation, and solid waste management systems. (IPCC)

Green infrastructure

The strategically planned interconnected set of natural and constructed ecological systems, green spaces, and other landscape features that can provide functions and services including air and water purification, temperature management, floodwater management, and coastal defense, often with co-benefits for human and ecological well-being. Green infrastructure includes planted and remnant native vegetation, soils, wetlands, parks, and green open spaces, as well as building and street-level design interventions that incorporate vegetation. (IPCC)

Greenhouse gas

Gases that trap some of the Earth’s outgoing energy, thus retaining heat in the atmosphere. This heat trapping, known as the greenhouse gas effect, alters climate and weather patterns at global and regional scales. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain synthetic chemicals such as fluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride. (Adapted from U.S. EPA)

Hazard

The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems, and environmental resources. (IPCC) 

This assessment refers to certain physical climate attributes or events as “hazards” for consistency across chapters.

Heat index

The heat index, also known as the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. (National Weather Service)

Heat wave

A sustained period of abnormally ​high ambient temperatures​ lasting for multiple days. In the projections generated for this assessment, a heat wave is defined as three or more consecutive days with maximum temperatures at or above 90°F. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Historical trauma

Trauma experienced by people whose ancestors endured severe disruptions to their lives, including war, violence, and forced assimilation, as well as deprivation of homelands and an erosion of cultural integrity, social respect, and political sovereignty. People with historical trauma often face greater risks (e.g., health risks) than those whose ancestors did not experience severe disruptions. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Inclusion

The act of creating an environment in which any individual or group will be welcomed, respected, supported and valued as a fully participating member. An inclusive and welcoming climate embraces and respects differences. (University of Washington)

Indigenous knowledges

Indigenous Peoples’ 1) systems of observing, monitoring, researching, recording, communicating, and learning, which are required to support survival and the ability to flourish in an ecosystem and 2) the social adaptive capacity to adjust to or prepare for changes. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Indigenous Peoples

Culturally and politically self-determining nations and communities whose right to self-determination in North America began before the establishment of the United States. Note the that “Indigenous Peoples” includes Tribal Nations and communities, but not all Indigenous Peoples are members of federally recognized Tribal Nations or live in Tribal communities. This assessment will use “Indigenous Peoples” in all cases except when referring to a particular Indigenous nation or community (e.g., Seneca Nation, Shinnecock Nation). (Definition developed for this assessment)

Indian

Indian, as in American Indian nations, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or Indian Tribes, is a word in the United States that refers to “Indigenous.” Historically, “Indian” was widely used in U.S. law and policy. “Indian” is often used to refer to a specific agency, Tribe, or reservation with “Indian” in the name, or in some broad uses of the term “Indian” such as American Indian and Indian Country. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Intersectionality

The complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, and their multiple, additive effects on the same individuals or groups. Also refers to the view that overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination and inequality can more effectively be addressed together. (Harvard University)

Just transition

A fair and equitable movement from fossil fuel-based economies toward the achievement of the carbon neutral future. A just transition in New York State is grounded in principles outlined in the Climate Action Council Draft Scoping Plan. (Adapted from the New York State Climate Action Council)

Maladaptation

Actions that may lead to increased risk of adverse climate-related outcomes, including via increased greenhouse gas emissions, increased vulnerability to climate change, or diminished welfare, now or in the future. Most often, maladaptation is an unintended consequence. (IPCC)

Median household income

The median divides the income distribution into two equal parts: one-half of the cases falling below the median income and one-half above the median. For households and families, the median income is based on the distribution of the total number of households and families including those with no income. The median income for individuals is based on individuals 15 years old and over with income. (U.S. Census Bureau)

Mitigation

Tactics to reduce the direct and indirect impacts of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions or increasing the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere. (Definition developed for this assessment)  

In some contexts, mitigation can also refer to efforts to reduce or manage the effects of climate change. To avoid confusion, this assessment generally refers to such efforts as adaptation measures (e.g.), thus reserving the term “mitigation” for greenhouse gas mitigation. When used otherwise, the authors have typically qualified the wording—for example, “hazard mitigation,” which the assessment has retained because it is used widely and familiar to practitioners in the field.  

Overburdened communities

Communities that experience disproportionate environmental harms and risks. This disproportionality can be as a result of greater vulnerability to environmental hazards, lack of opportunity for public participation, or other factors. Increased vulnerability may be attributable to an accumulation of negative or lack of positive environmental, health, economic, or social conditions within these populations or places. The term describes situations where multiple factors, including both environmental and socioeconomic stressors, may act cumulatively to affect health and the environment and contribute to persistent environmental health disparities (Adapted from U.S. EPA) 

Procedural justice

Procedural justice focuses on the justness of the procedures according to which resource distribution takes place. That is, the focus is on the “processes” rather than the “outcomes” of resource distribution. (Sabbagh and Schmitt, 2016)

Projection

See “climate projection.”

Racism

A way of representing or describing race that creates or reproduces structures of domination based on racial categories. In other words, racism is racial prejudice plus power. In the United States, it is grounded in the creation of a white dominant culture that reinforces the use of power to create privilege for white people while marginalizing people of color, whether intentional or not. It is perpetuated in many forms of racism that include: 

• Individual racism: An individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and actions that perpetuates racism. 
• Interpersonal racism: When individuals express their beliefs and attitudes with another person that perpetuates racism. 
• Internalized racism: When people of color, knowingly or unknowingly, accept and integrate negative racist images, beliefs, and identities to their detriment. 
• Institutional racism: Intentional or unintentional, laws, organizational practices, policies, and programs that work to the benefit of white people and to the detriment of people of color. 
• Systemic racism: The way an entire system collectively contributes to racial inequities. This includes the health, environmental, education, justice, government, economic, financial, transportation, and political systems. 
• Structural racism: The interplay of laws, practices, policies, programs, and institutions of multiple systems, which leads to adverse outcomes and conditions for communities of color compared to white communities. 

(Washington State) 

Redlining

A form of illegal disparate treatment in which a lender provides unequal access to credit, or unequal terms of credit, because of the race, color, national origin, or other prohibited characteristic(s) of the residents of the area in which the credit seeker resides or will reside or in which the residential property to be mortgaged is located. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation)

Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)

Scenarios that include time series of emissions and concentrations of the full suite of greenhouse gases, and aerosols and other chemically active gases, as well as land use/land cover. The word “representative” signifies that each RCP provides only one of many possible scenarios that would lead to the specific radiative forcing characteristics. The term “pathway” emphasizes that not only the long-term concentration levels are of interest, but also the trajectory taken over time to reach that outcome. (USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment)

Resilience

The ability to prepare for threats and hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from adverse conditions and disruptions. (USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment)

Risk

The potential for adverse consequences where something of value is at stake and where the occurrence and degree of an outcome is uncertain. In the context of the assessment of climate impacts, the term risk is often used to refer to the potential for adverse consequences of a climate-related hazard, or of adaptation or mitigation responses to such a hazard, on lives, livelihoods, health and wellbeing, ecosystems and species, economic, social and cultural assets, services (including ecosystem services), and infrastructure. Risk results from the interaction of vulnerability (of the affected system), its exposure over time (to the hazard), as well as the (climate-related) hazard and the likelihood of its occurrence. (IPCC)

​​​Self-determination

The right to freely determine one’s own political status and pursue one’s economic, social, and cultural development. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs)

Shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) were developed to complement the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) with varying socioeconomic challenges to adaptation and mitigation. Based on five narratives, the SSPs describe alternative socioeconomic futures in the absence of climate policy intervention, comprising sustainable development (SSP1), regional rivalry (SSP3), inequality (SSP4), fossil–fueled development (SSP5), and a middle-of-the-road development (SSP2). The combination of SSP-based socioeconomic scenarios and RCP-based climate projections provides an integrative frame for climate impact and policy analysis. (IPCC)

Sovereignty

A term used to express political self-determination (i.e., self-government) of Indigenous Peoples in the United States. (Definition developed for this assessment) 

Storm surge

An abnormal rise of water generated by a storm, above predicted tide levels, that can cause extreme flooding in coastal areas. Storm surge is primarily caused by strong winds during a storm, but can be impacted by many factors, including storm size, intensity, pressure level, and speed. Storm surge can travel inland from the coastline and cause flooding along rivers and streams. (Adapted from National Weather Service)

Stress/stressor

A factor that negatively affects people and natural, managed, and socioeconomic systems. Factors that can cause stress include environmental, socioeconomic, chemical, biological, or physical factors. Multiple stressors can have compounded effects, such as when economic or market stress combines with drought to negatively impact farmers. (Adapted from USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment and U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit)

Subsistence

Subsistence, taken broadly, refers to any human system that seeks to secure survival and the ability to flourish within particular ecosystems. In some legal and policy contexts, the term may be used more narrowly to refer to 1) the provision of food that is a necessary part of a household’s or community’s regular diet or 2) legal entitlements to harvesting rights in particular situations. In some contexts, subsistence means the harvest or use of naturally produced renewable resources for direct personal or family consumption, such as food, shelter, fuel, clothing, tools, transportation, or production of handicrafts for customary and traditional trade, barter, or sharing. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Treaty rights

A result of the “contracts among nations” between Indigenous Peoples and the United States, which recognize and establish entitlements, benefits, and conditions for the specific parties. (Definition developed for this assessment) 

Tribal lands

A general term that could refer to several land types/arrangements (e.g., federal Indian reservation, allotted lands, restricted status/restricted fee, and ceded territories/ancestral territories). (Definition developed for this assessment)

Tribal Nation

An American Indian or Alaska Native Tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges as a federally recognized Tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. 5130, 5131. (Definition developed for this assessment)

Urban heat island

The phenomenon in which cities experience higher temperatures than surrounding areas due to high amounts of impervious materials, lack of vegetation, morphology, and waste heat from industrial processes. (Stone et al., 2019)

Uncertainty

An expression of the degree to which future climate is not known. Uncertainty about the future climate arises from the complexity of the climate system and the ability of models to represent it, as well as the inability to predict the decisions that society will make. There is also uncertainty about how climate change, in combination with other stressors, will affect people and natural systems. (Adapted from USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment)

Vulnerability

The degree to which physical, biological, and socioeconomic systems are susceptible to and unable to cope with adverse impacts of climate change. USGCRP’s 2016 Climate and Health Assessment identifies three key determinants of vulnerability from a human health perspective:

• Exposure: Contact between a person and one or more biological, psychosocial, chemical, or physical stressors, including stressors affected by climate change.  
• Sensitivity: The degree to which people or communities are affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change.  
• Adaptive capacity: The ability of communities, institutions, or people to adjust to potential hazards, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences. 

(USGCRP Fifth National Climate Assessment; USGCRP Climate and Health Assessment)

Wet-bulb temperature

A reading from a thermometer when covered in a wet cloth, which relates to how muggy conditions feel. Wet-bulb temperature represents how effectively a person sheds heat by sweating. (Climate.gov)

Wet-bulb globe temperature

A measure of the heat stress in direct sunlight, which takes into account: temperature, humidity, wind speed, and sun angle and cloud cover (solar radiation). This differs from the heat index, which takes into consideration temperature and humidity and is calculated for shady areas. (National Weather Service)