Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Climate Adaptation Partnerships Program

Project 2.1 Climate and Hazard Mitigation Planning (CHaMP) Tool

CAP Team (s):

MARISA (Mid-Atlantic RISA)

Years Active (s):

2018 –
2026

Principal Investigator (s):

Krista Romita Grocholski, Arthur DeGaetano

Co-Investigator (s):

Debra Knopman, Michelle Miro, Lena Easton-Calabria, Jenna Jorns, Omar Gates, Kirstin Dow, Amanda Farris, Jory Fleming, Benjamin Eck

Project Supporters:

USDN, CISA, GLISA, NRCC

Project Contact:

State/Locations:

Delaware, Great Lakes, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Research Partners:

USDN, CISA, GLISA, NRCC

End User / Practitioner Partners:

Local Government, State/Territoy Government, Resource Managers

Deliverables:

Published CHaMP tool and accompanying technical report, “Background and Guidance for Users”. Gave numerous presentations on the tool, met with numerous partners to discuss the tool, sought and received feedback for future revisions

Adaptation:

Innovate services, products, and tools, Inform plans & policies, Strengthen relationships & networks, evaluate/assess/learn from stakeholder

Categories:

climate data, Co-Production of Knowledge, Cross-RISA Collaboration, data tools, hazard mitigation, Local Planning

Geographic Scope:

Mid-Atlantic, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Carolinas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Great Lakes, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Geographic Communities Benefited:

Mid-Atlantic, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Carolinas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Great Lakes, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Non-Geographic Underserved Communities Benefited:

Urban and rural frontline and underserved communities; Tribal/Indigenous populations, rural Tribal/Indigenous populations

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires all state, local, and tribal governments to have Hazard Mitigations Plans to be eligible for federal disaster mitigation grants. As part of these plans, communities of all sizes and across all levels of socioeconomic status should be incorporating relevant, timely, accessible historical and projected climate-related hazard information, but few are doing so. This is due not only to issues with data availability and access, but also a lack of ability or capacity to integrate climate information into these plans or other comparable planning documents. The lack of climate- informed hazard information in the vast majority of plans undermines the ability of communities to adequately communicate their potential future vulnerabilities to their own residents and to state and federal authorities responsible for allocating resources for mitigation activities. Since 2018, MARISA has partnered with the Urban Sustainability Directors’ Network (USDN), and more recently, CISA and GLISA to co-develop a portal and visualization tool to (1) help USDN members and other communities integrate relevant historical data and climate projections into their FEMA Hazard Mitigation plans, and (2) produce interpretive narratives to accompany the data visualizations.

Scroll to Top