CCRD Projects‎ > ‎

Climate Impacts Decision-Support Tool

The Climate Impacts Decision Support Tool (CIMPACT-DST) is an easy-to-use decision support tool, developed in Excel, that helps planning departments and local government agencies address climate change risks in their planning and operations. By using CIMPACT-DST, urban planners and project developers can see policies, plans, and projects through a “climate lens” and apply that lens consistently.

The tool is a one-stop shop for relevant climate projections, spatial data, impacts information, and best practices, and it filters all of this information to show each user a streamlined and tailored set of only the most relevant climate risks and guidance information.

In 2012, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) expressed an interest in customizing CIMPACT-DST for use in Vietnam. Vietnam’s significant climate exposure and relative abundance of existing climate change studies and projects presented a promising environment for customizing CIMPACT-DST to help turn more of that information into adaptation action on the ground.

Cascadia began by customizing the tool for use in the city of Hue, Vietnam, in close collaboration with local partners such as the Hue Planning Institute (HPI) and the Vietnam Institute for Urban and Rural Planning (VIUP). HPI planners applied the tool to update master plans for four rural communes near the city of Hue, which were slated for further urbanization.

Cascadia then developed a scaled-up version of the tool for national application throughout Vietnam’s 760 cities and 63 provinces, and provided training in tool administration so that local officials can manage and update the tool in the future as new climate projections become available.  CIMPACT-DST will help Vietnam’s planners and developers create new plans and projects that keep the country’s coastal areas—home to over 10 million residents—safe and resilient in the face of climate change.

Learn more about CIMPACT-DST:


Above: Cascadia and the Vietnam Urban-Rural Planning Institute train users in Hai Phong Province during an onsite, interactive training in April 2015.