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.
Natural Hazards
Yellowstone Flood reveals Montana’s mobile home flood risk
Montana’s mobile home residents face disproportionate flood risk and traditional solutions leave them behind.
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).
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.
Local revenue to fund long-term infrastructure costs
Communities need resilient revenue strategies to fund the long-term costs of capital improvements and infrastructure.
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.
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.
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.
Living with wildfire
Watch “Living with wildfire.” 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.
How state and local budgets are vulnerable to climate change
Climate change has the potential to destabilize general operating budgets and constrain access to lending markets. These presentations share promising solutions for “climate-proofing” budgets.
Wildland-Urban Interface: The Problem, Trends, & Solutions (slides)
Slide show: The wildland-urban interface is growing and wildfires are causing cause more damage. Land use planning is an important solution.
Decreasing flood risk in rural communities: a pilot program in Three Forks, Montana
Flood risk is underestimated in the U.S., but better maps and data are not enough to help communities. They must be accompanied with resources to support local action.
Wildfire Risk Report for every U.S. community
A new report in our Economic Profile System provides community-level data about wildfire hazard and potentially vulnerable populations.
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.
Montana wildfire risk is widespread and growing
The number of western Montana homes in areas with high wildfire hazard has doubled, outpacing development rates in areas with low wildfire hazard.
How communities reduce flood risk: five midwestern case studies
Communities highlighted in this report have successfully reduced flood risk through strategic partnerships, innovative solutions, and creative funding.
Building funding strategies for flood mitigation projects
This guide provides advice for developing funding strategies for flood mitigation projects, including where to find funding and how to make an economic pitch for mitigation projects.
Community resilience in the era of megafires
Kimiko Barrett, Ph.D., demonstrates how community resilience to wildfire needs to include planning and adaptation strategies for homes and neighborhoods.