Adaptation planning and evaluation is challenging because adaptation is occurring on complex systems that are not completely understood. Though assessment is more straightforward for single projects, the larger question often asked is whether multiple adaptation actions, developed by different actors and for different purposes, are making a region more resilient. One way to comprehensively assess adaptation is through indicators—a promising decision support tool because they can be designed to efficiently and comprehensively summarize system behavior even if significant uncertainty exists. In practice, choosing indicators requires navigating a rich and often contradictory information landscape of peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed documents and data products, largely produced for other purposes. In this paper, we review the available information applicable to resilience indicators for the Chesapeake Bay region of the USA. To provide consistency across such diverse projects and information sources, we develop a resilience framework through literature and stakeholder engagement that provides a consistent definition of objectives and frame for evaluation. Using systematic search methods, we identified 283 relevant documents, which were then qualitatively assessed for climate change and resilience themes. Predominant themes emerge around key regional impacts—sea level rise, water quality, flooding, and aquatic ecosystems—as well as magnitude of, exposure to, and impacts of climate hazards. Notably, relatively little information was found for designing indicators for coping and adaptive capacity and adaptation responses. This result highlights that even for well-known problems in the Chesapeake Bay region, much work remains in translating the existing information landscape into actionable indicators.

适应规划和评估具有挑战性，因为适应发生在尚未完全理解的复杂系统上。尽管评估对于单个项目来说更为直接，但经常提出的更大问题是，由不同参与者出于不同目的制定的多项适应行动是否正在使一个地区更具弹性。综合评估适应的一种方法是通过指标——一种有前途的决策支持工具，因为即使存在重大不确定性，它们也可以被设计为有效、全面地总结系统行为。在实践中，选择指标需要浏览丰富且常常相互矛盾的信息环境，其中包括同行评审和非同行评审的文件和数据产品，这些文件和数据产品主要是为其他目的而产生的。在本文中，我们回顾了适用于美国切萨皮克湾地区复原力指标的可用信息。为了在这些不同的项目和信息源之间提供一致性，我们通过文献和利益相关者的参与开发了一个弹性框架，该框架提供了一致的目标定义和评估框架。使用系统搜索方法，我们确定了 283 份相关文件，然后对这些文件进行了气候变化和复原力主题的定性评估。主要主题围绕关键区域影响——海平面上升、水质、洪水和水生生态系统——以及气候灾害的严重程度、暴露程度和影响。值得注意的是，用于设计应对和适应能力以及适应反应指标的信息相对较少。这一结果凸显出，即使对于切萨皮克湾地区的众所周知的问题，在将现有信息景观转化为可操作的指标方面仍有大量工作要做。