The DoD manages approximately 28 million acres, collectively called natural infrastructure, which sustain military test and training missions worldwide. Accelerating changes to ecosystems on which the military installations depend will create complex challenges for ecosystem services, such as water availability, and disturbance that include wildfires, coastal flooding, and thawing permafrost. Each region will experience unique combinations of threats and climate extremes that drive changes to natural infrastructure. SERDP and ESTCP are funding custom solutions and focused science in areas where DoD installations are experiencing or projected to experience the greatest change.  

In addition to seeking science and technologies that advance climate change adaptation strategies in natural resource management, SERDP and ESTCP, in collaboration with other Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) offices and federal research agencies, launched a new initiative that prioritizes co-production of science to transition tools to the end-user community. The National Innovation Landscapes Network (NILN) facilitates collaboration among managers, scientists, policymakers, and agency partners to identify natural resource management decisions that need to be informed by science or technology to achieve desired outcomes.