
A Rural Capacity Map
A new map helps identify communities where investments in staffing and expertise are needed to support infrastructure and climate resilience projects.
The Economic Potential of the Great American Rail-Trail
Through 12 states and the District of Columbia, the Great American Rail-Trail® will attract 25.6 million trips and generate more than $229.4 million in spending.
Local revenue to fund long-term infrastructure costs
Communities need resilient revenue strategies to fund the long-term costs of capital improvements and infrastructure.
The American Community Survey in our Data Tools
Find the latest American Community Survey data in all of our tools, including the Economic Profile System and Neighborhoods at Risk.
Mobile home residents face higher flood risk
Mobile homes are the most common unsubsidized, affordable housing in the United States but have disproportionately higher flood risk than other housing types.
The unequal impacts of wildfire
See where wildfire risk intersects social and economic factors that can make it difficult for people to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfire.
Mountain, Midwest, and Gulf States Fail to Secure FEMA Resilience Funding
Rural and lower capacity communities failed to successfully compete for FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding in FY 2020.
Improving benefit-cost analyses for rural areas
Benefit-cost analysis, required for many federal funding sources, puts smaller, rural, and low-income communities at a disadvantage.
Watch: Living with widfire
Wildfires are an inescapable and necessary function of healthy ecosystems. In the past decade they have increased in severity and duration, killed more people, and burned more structures.
Wildfires destroy thousands of structures each year
Explore the number of structures destroyed in each state by wildfire. Structures lost—rather than acres burned—provides a more complete measure of the broad impacts of wildfire.
Headwaters Economics
An independent, nonprofit research group that works to improve community development and land management decisions.
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Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire
Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire (CPAW) works with communities to reduce wildfire risk through improved land use planning. The program is a program of Headwaters Economics, in partnership with the USDA Forest Service.
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