Communities face multiple, overlapping climate risks—such as extreme heat, wildfire, flooding, air quality degradation, and sea level rise—unfolding across short-, medium-, and long-term timeframes. These layered risks make it difficult for local governments and residents to understand tradeoffs, sequence investments, and prioritize actions, particularly when infrastructure solutions have long timelines and uncertain outcomes.

• Illustrative examples: In the San Diego region, concurrent risks from sea level rise, wildfire, extreme heat, storms, and flooding strain local capacity and make it difficult to advance mitigation and adaptation simultaneously. In the Inland Deserts, stakeholders emphasized the need to better address medium-term (3–5 year) climate impacts—such as escalating heat and water scarcity—to identify actionable steps that bridge immediate response and long-term resilience planning.