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Independent Nonpartisan Research

Person presenting information to another person while sitting at a table with a laptop facing both people. The laptop is presenting Neighborhoods at Risk, a free tool developed by Headwaters Economics.

Tool Update

Find neighborhoods with high climate risk within any U.S. state

Neighborhoods at Risk shows where people may experience unequal impacts from hurricanes, flooding, and extreme heat. Now available for every community, county, and state in the nation.

Explore Neighborhoods at Risk
About

Illustration of wildfire in forest, orange and yellow flames lapping conifer trees on a hillside, Stable Diffusion generated.

New research shows where wildfire mitigation can be highly cost effective

The United States is spending billions of dollars on suppressing wildfires that threaten a growing number of homes, but very little on better preparing communities before a wildfire occurs.

Illustration of money falling into piles over a puddle

Match requirements prevent rural and low-capacity communities from accessing climate resilience funding

Many federal grant programs require communities to provide a local match, creating barriers for rural and underserved places.

Capacity-limited states still struggle to access FEMA BRIC grants

Places with lower capacity are failing to get funding through FEMA’s flagship grant program, Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC).

Economic impact of national parks

Millions of national park visitors generate economic opportunities for gateway communities, spending money that creates jobs and income. See the trends for every national park service unit.

Yellowstone Flood reveals Montana’s mobile home flood risk

Montana’s mobile home residents face disproportionate flood risk and traditional solutions leave them behind.

Green Infrastructure: Cost-effective solutions to flooding

Green infrastructure can provide long-term, cost-effective solutions to flooding and can help communities adapt to climate change. We provide a cost breakdown for eight green infrastructure practices.

Construction costs for a wildfire-resistant home: California edition

In light of rising wildfire risks, we analyzed the costs of constructing homes to three levels of wildfire resistance in California.

Wood roofs are a $6 billion wildfire problem

At least 1.2 million wood roofs are in areas with wildfire risk. Funding is needed to help communities prepare for wildfire.

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.

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.

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Bridge at South Manhattan Ave

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.

Aerial view of neighborhood destroyed by wildfire.

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.

About Headwaters Economics

Headwaters Economics is an independent, nonprofit research group that works to improve community development and land management decisions.

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Our Data Tools

Headwaters Economics maintains free, easy-to-use tools to help you better understand socioeconomic data and trends. Find data from dozens of sources for thousands of places in the United States.

Economic Profile System
Neighborhoods at Risk
Library of Trails Benefits
Explore our free data tools
See More Tools
Our latest data updates:
  • American Community Survey data are current through 2021 in the Economic Profile System and Neighborhoods at Risk
  • Estimates of jobs and wages by industry current through 2021 in the Economic Profile System (December 2022)
  • State-level data now searchable in Neighborhoods at Risk (October 2022)
  • Nonemployer Statistics updated in the Economic Profile System reports for Mining, Oil, & Gas and Timber (September 2022)
  • Tribal areas now searchable in Wildfire Risk to Communities (August 2022)

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.

Learn about CPAW communities

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