Climate-related resources useful to coastal managers currently can be found in a variety of sources. Unfortunately, these sources are scattered in different locations, making access difficult and time-consuming. This site was developed to improve access to climate resources for managers in the Pacific Islands region. Originally designed to meet the needs of decision makers in Samoa and American Samoa, this site will likely be of value throughout the region, as different managers in the Pacific Islands often wrestle with the same issues.

To use this site

To explore climate change impacts by sector, habitat, or climate-change topic, use the "more information" button on the main menu. Click on the “virtual library” button to access additional resources in the database on the NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center website. The virtual library allows you to search by topic of interest or key word. Access to the virtual library is open to everyone. The resources in the library are web accessible and most are free of charge.

To contribute to the discussion forum

A username is required to participate in the discussion forum. However, registration to obtain a username is quick and easy and requires only a small amount of information. With the username and password, you can pose a question to the group, share your experiences in dealing with climate impacts and planning for climate change, or respond to an existing question or discussion topic. You can also use the forum to upload a document or share a link to another climate website.

If you know of a resource that should be included in the virtual library, please provide a link to the moderator by posting to the discussion forum.

Event calendar

Use the event calendar to look for upcoming climate events or announce your own event.

Project partners

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed the site using the combined resources of NOAA’s Central Library, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, Coastal Services Center, and Pacific Services Center. The project was supported by a grant from the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) International Coordinating Council (NICC), which is managed by the NOS International Program Office.

The site was developed in cooperation with the National Oceanographic Data Center, Pacific Climate Information System, coastal managers in American Samoa and Samoa, International Pacific Research Center's Asia Pacific Data Research Center at University of Hawaii School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, Pacific Islands Global Climate Observing System Program, and other partners in the Pacific Islands.

Virtual library technical information

The virtual library uses open-source software—JabRef, a bibliography reference manager, and BibTex, a text-based tool and file format. Perl scripts convert the database records to XML. The XML file is then indexed and searched using Zebra, a high-performance, general-purpose, structured-text indexing and retrieval engine.

Website and discussion forum technical information

Joomla!™ is an open-source content management system that was used to develop this website. The Firefox extension is used to host the discussion forum.