• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Headwaters Economics

Headwaters Economics

Independent Nonpartisan Research

  • Research
    • Economic Development
    • Equity
    • Natural Hazards
    • Public Lands
    • Outdoor Recreation
    • Tax Policy
  • Tools
  • About Us
  • Search

Natural Hazards

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

January 2023

Illustration of money falling into piles over a puddle

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

Green Infrastructure: Cost-effective solutions to flooding

September 2022

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.

Yellowstone Flood reveals Montana’s mobile home flood risk

August 2022

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

August 2022

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

July 2022

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

July 2022

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

May 2022

Communities need resilient revenue strategies to fund the long-term costs of capital improvements and infrastructure.

Mobile home residents face higher flood risk

February 2022

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

November 2021

Benefit-cost analysis, required for many federal funding sources, puts smaller, rural, and low-income communities at a disadvantage.

The unequal impacts of wildfire

September 2021

Aerial view of neighborhood destroyed by 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

July 2021

Bridge at South Manhattan Ave

Rural and lower capacity communities failed to successfully compete for FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) funding in FY 2020.

Living with wildfire

May 2021

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

May 2021

Flooding in Austin, Minnesota. Photo: Tim Ruzek

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)

February 2021

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

February 2021

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

February 2021

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

November 2020

Wildfire burns near a home in California

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

October 2020

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

October 2020

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

September 2020

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.

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Independent Nonpartisan Research

Contact

© 2023 Headwaters Economics, all rights reserved

  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
  • Photo Credits
  • Media Coverage
  • Slides
  • Contact
  • Twitter