Across the state, we are seeing and feeling impacts related to a changing climate. Wildfire and smoke are threatening the health and welfare of people throughout the state. Orca and salmon runs are in decline. Communities are confronting coastal flooding, water shortages, and drought. As these impacts mount, already highly impacted communities and vulnerable populations will face increasing risks.
California has long been a leader in addressing and understanding climate change, from setting globally ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals, to committed investments in actionable climate science, to investing in place-based, community driven solutions. As one of the most climate stressed places in the world, California experiences profound and varied impacts across the state’s vast expanse. As a result, it is paramount that policymakers address the state’s vulnerability to climate change while also equitably transitioning to a carbon neutral economy.
Frequent and intense droughts have caused ecological and socioeconomic impacts in Wyoming. A collaborative project between the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes, university and federal agency scientists, and drought experts was initiated to provide critical decision support tools to help the tribe better prepare for and respond to drought events.
The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) brings together health data and environment data from national, state, and city sources and provides supporting information to make the data easier to understand. The Tracking Network has data and information on environments and hazards, health effects, and population health.
On the Tracking Network, you can:
Across the state, a diverse range of stakeholders – including affordable housing developers, transit agencies, local governments, and community members – are preparing to engage in the third application round of the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. The highly-competitive application process for affordable housing and transit infrastructure funding is expected to begin this fall. However, the motions to establish the program that we know today actually began over a decade ago when the State of California took steps to address climate change.
As many as 34,000 homes constructed in northeastern Connecticut between 1983 and 2000 may have concrete foundations containing pyrrhotite and are at risk of cracking or crumbling. Pyrrhotite is an iron sulfide that can be found naturally in aggregates, or rocky materials such as gravel, sand, or stone that are added to cement to make concrete. When iron sulfides are exposed to oxygen and water, a series of chemical reactions convert the iron sulfides into other compounds.
Population growth, urbanization, and environmental degradation have led to the exposure of a rising number of people to disaster risk, with statistics showing a steep rise in the number of disasters caused by natural hazards in recent decades. These numbers are likely compounded by the effects of a changing climate that is already increasing and predicted to increase even more the frequency and ferocity of a number of natural hazards.
The National Disaster Housing Strategy (the Strategy) serves two purposes. First, it describes how we as a Nation currently provide housing to those affected by disasters. It summarizes, for the first time in a single document, the many sheltering and housing efforts we have in the United States and the broad array of organizations that are involved in managing these programs. The Strategy also outlines the key principles and policies that guide the disaster housing process.
Ellicott City is an unincorporated town in Howard County, Maryland. Founded in 1772 at the bottom of a valley by Johan and Joseph Ellicott, specifically to harness the power of the Tiber and Patapsco Rivers to power the brothers’ mills, the terrain of the city includes steep inclines and an abundance of nonporous granite. The town has been prone to flooding since its founding, with most previous floods originating from the Patapsco River at the bottom of the valley and spreading into the city.
As an affordable housing stakeholder, use this map to increase the likelihood that your redevelopment projects consider resilience. With the key below, identify stages of a typical redevelopment process when resiliency assessments, and resiliency related retrofits, are recommended, so that you can plan these into your own project cycles. The map focuses heavily on preservation and redevelopment but can also be applied to new construction.