Content analysis for the U.S. coastal states' climate action plans in managing the risks of extreme climate events and disasters

• We developed indicators to assess the content of state-level climate action plans in coastal disaster management.
• These coastal action plans had a medium but varied level of content capacity in coastal disaster management.
• None of the contextual variables was significantly affecting the content of these climate action plans.

Climate action plans provide an increasingly important mechanism in climate change awareness, analysis, policy making, and implementation. Although recent efforts have initially analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of climate action plans, little research has empirically investigated the content of existing climate action plans in disaster risk management. This study developed thirty-two indicators to assess the plan content of twenty-four U.S. coastal states' climate action plans in managing the risks of extreme climate events and natural disasters. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to detect the influence of contextual variables on plan content. The results indicate that these plans had a medium level of awareness, analysis, and action in regard to extreme climate conditions and disaster preparedness. Weak linkages were found between climate change and coastal disaster risk management. Large variations in indicators were found among the coastal states. The explanatory results show that none of the contextual variables significantly affected the plan content of these climate action plans. The policy recommendations provide insights for decision makers for mitigation of and adaptation to coastal climate change and disasters.