Fairfax County is experiencing warmer, wetter, and weirder climatic conditions. Resilient Fairfax is a plan and program to help Fairfax County adapt and become more resilient to changing climate-related conditions such as extreme heat, severe storms, and flooding. Resilient Fairfax focuses on handling theeffects of climate change, while the county's other climate plan, TheCommunity-Wide Energy and Climate Action Plan, focuses on addressing thecause of climate change through emissions reduction. View our factsheet on the difference between the two plans.
For Resilience metrics and data, including how temperature and precipitation are changing and the status of Resilient Fairfax implementation, please see theClimate Action Dashboard.
Since adoption, the Resilient Fairfax plan has won awards on both the national and state level from the American Planning Association. Read more about theAPA awards. In addition to the plan itself, there are a few detailed technical resources that fed into the plan.
Watch this video for a brief overview of Resilient Fairfax and see the sections below for more information.
Looking for an easy way to understand the Resilient Fairfax plan? Click below to view an overview of Fairfax County's climate adaptation and resilience plan in a presentation format.
A program of Resilient Fairfax, AC Rescue provides small air conditioning (AC) equipment for low- and moderate-income Fairfax County residents who do not qualify for other cooling programs. Cooling help for those who need it most. Learn more!
Listen to the County Conversation podcast with Allison Homer, OEEC’s senior community specialist, to learn more about how Resilient Fairfax plan is preparing Fairfax County for climate change.
We curated a list of 10 climate actions focused on resilience, along with their cost up front and yearly savings in both money and carbon emissions to make taking actions cheaper and easier!
The Resilient Fairfax plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on November 1, 2022. The plan is now being implemented by an interagency team of over 25 county agencies. Click the thumbnails below to view either the full Resilient Fairfax plan, or a shortened PDF of only the strategies and implementation roadmaps.
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Use the Resilient Fairfax Interactive Map Viewer interactive map to see various heat and flooding hazards, and how those hazards overlap with buildings, utilities, public services, natural resources, and more. The sections below walk through specific hazards.
This map will be updated as data becomes available. For help using the map, watch the instructional video.
In addition to the Resilient Fairfax plan itself, there are detailed technical reports. These analyses helped the county identify our top climate hazards, top vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvement.
There are many things you can do to boost your resilience to climate hazards. Climate resilience involves a range of topics, county departments, and skillsets. Below, you can find action checklists and links to resilience-related resources and web pages from a range of departments.
View the Resilience Checklist and the full Climate Action Checklist on ourResources for Residents page.
All residents deserve an equitable opportunity to succeed. In alignment with theOne Fairfax policy, Fairfax County is committed to intentionally consider equity when delivering policies, programs, and services. Equity is especially crucial to the topic of climate resilience; it serves as the foundation of Resilient Fairfax. Fairfax County’s approach to equitable climate resilience can be summarized in the following four steps:
1. Understanding Systemic Factors: There are historic and current systems, such as prejudiced housing policies and racial discrimination, that have led to inequitable development patterns, investment, and environmental burdens in Fairfax County. Understanding and acknowledging these factors enables staff to identify and address inequity.
2. Equity Analyses: Climate hazards often disproportionately harm certain populations, such as low-income, disabled, or elderly populations, communities of color, those experiencing homelessness, and outdoor workers, among others. During the Resilient Fairfax planning process, the team thoroughly analyzed impacts on vulnerable populations. Details can be found in the Vulnerability and Risk Assessment and theInteractive Climate Map Viewer. An example of how we mapped extreme heat burdens can be seen below.
3. Equitable Engagement: It is critical to meaningfully engage residents who are usually left out of public processes. For Resilient Fairfax, residents, community representatives, advocacy organizations, and other members of the public have been involved throughout, in addition to dozens of government agencies, authorities, and commissions. The Resilient Fairfax planning process took place from February 2021 to October 2022. The planning process involved hundreds of stakeholders and over 200 engagement and coordination meetings. This engagement is continuing during the implementation phase.
Planning Timeline
Who is involved?
4. Equitable Implementation:Fairfax County strives to ensure that the benefits of projects are equitably distributed, burdens are mitigated, and intentions are met. Resilient Fairfax strategies prioritize underserved populations and equitable implementation. Strategies such as Adaptation Action Areas, Community Aid and Services, and Resilience Hubs help us connect those who are most burdened by flooding, extreme heat, and severe storms with the help they need. Each strategy in the Resilient Fairfax plan includes equitable implementation recommendations. Strategies can be found starting on page 39 of the Resilient Fairfax Plan. For metrics, including data on resilience and equity, please see theClimate Action Dashboard.
The Resilient Fairfax plan includes48 strategies to improve our resilience to climate hazards such as increasingly severe storms, unusual temperatures, and flooding. These strategies are organized into four pillars, summarized in the image below.
Detailed progress on the implementation of Resilient Fairfax and associated outcome metrics can be found in theClimate Progress Report and theClimate Action Dashboard.
A graphic summarizing this progress can be found below. (Last updated December 2023). Prioritized strategies are marked with black stars. The status bar of each strategy is based on how many Implementation Actions have been accomplished to date for that strategy. For example, if there are 5 implementation actions for a strategy, and 1 is complete, the status bar is at 20%. Some actions are much larger than others.
View an ADA accessible version of this graphic. Please email ResilientFairfax@fairfaxcounty.gov with any questions. View more information about thepillars, goals, and strategies of the Resilient Fairfax plan.
Fairfax County has adopted ambitious climate action goals for both emissions reduction (addressing the cause of climate change) and resiliency (addressing the effects of climate change). Check out the Climate Action Dashboard for climate data and metrics, including data associated with the Resilient Fairfax plan.
Fairfax County has enacted significant plans, policies and initiatives to address the causes and effects of climate change and advance environmentally sound and energy efficient activities in county operations and beyond. From plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resiliency community-wide to a sweeping environmental vision that addresses the conservation and protection of natural resources, these plans and policies help to define a sustainable future for all residents.