About
The Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative (ND-GAIN) works to enhance society's understanding of climate change adaptation to better inform investment and action. ND-GAIN offers a suite of tools, knowledge, and services, which includes its:
- Country Index: As ND-GAIN’s flagship tool, the Country Index uses 45 indicators to summarize the vulnerability and readiness of over 180 nations to the global challenges brought by climate disruption.
- Urban Adaptation Assessment (UAA): Building upon the Index, in 2018, ND-GAIN released the UAA, a measurement tool focusing on climate risk and readiness at the city level for over 270 U.S. cities.
- Global Urban Climate Assessment (GUCA): Launched in 2024, GUCA is a pilot decision-support tool providing comparable data on urban climate resilience within hazards, sensitivity, shock absorption, and adaptive capacity for 12 cities worldwide.
- Adaptation Briefs: An ongoing curation of ‘what works’ in intervention, the Adaptation Briefs highlight in-country progress toward adaptation and building adaptive capacity, focusing on policy and investment strategies.
As a program within the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, ND-GAIN's free and open-access tools enable governments, businesses, and communities to make informed decisions and better prioritize investments across critical environmental, economic, and social sectors. Each year, ND-GAIN products have over 200,000 views and are cited by a broad range of international organizations, including several programs, funds, and agencies within the United Nations.
HISTORY
In 2013, the Global Adaptation Institute moved to University of Notre Dame from Washington, D.C., and became the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN). To better reflect the broader work that ND-GAIN engages in beyond the Country Index, ND-GAIN updated its name to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative in 2016. ND-GAIN's founding advisory board members, Juan José Daboub, Robert Edwards, and Kenneth Hersh, provided critical leadership and guidance through these transitions.