Research on Community Resilience to Climate Change
Extreme weather events, large wildfires and other environmental disasters are becoming more frequent as a result of a warming plant. These climate-driven events are impacting communities in many ways, impairing air and water quality, polluting land and increasing health risks of residents. As communities work to protect public health from more heat waves, wildfire smoke, flooding and other climate-related disasters, they need resources and information to better prepare for, withstand and recover from them.
EPA is at the forefront of research to empower communities to become more resilient to climate change
The research goals are to:
- Better identify communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts, including communities with environmental justice concerns.
- Assess effects of climate change and associated extreme events on health and well-being.
- Develop science-based resources and approaches that communities can use to create and implement climate change adaptation and resilience strategies.
- Create more sustainable communities that protect public health from the impacts of climate change.
The results can lead to more resilient communities that can respond to a changing environment and recover quickly from climate-related disasters.
Research to Support Climate Justice
The research will assist all communities, and particularly communities that are most vulnerable to climate change, including communities with environmental justice concerns and tribes.
EPA defines environmental justice as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Climate change is an environmental justice concern, greatly impacting some communities more than others. These communities suffer a greater burden from floods, drought, wildfires and other environmental disasters. They have been historically overburdened with environmental health problems such as poor air and water quality and often face repeated threats from extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heavy rainfall from storms.
Research Highlights: Identify and Engage Vulnerable Communities Impacted by Climate Change
- Develop Approaches to Evaluate Vulnerabilities to Climate Change: Research is under way to develop consistent approaches that will assist communities with environmental justice concerns in identifying and evaluating their susceptibilities and vulnerabilities to climate impacts and evaluating adaptation measures and options to improve resilience. Researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches and monitor their implementation for continuous improvement.
- Develop Effective Community Engagement Strategies to Address Environmental Justice Concerns and Communicate Risks: Research based on social science is being conducted to provide the information and resources needed to develop effective engagement strategies to address environmental justice concerns, build trust in communities for change and communicate health risks to the public. Public health officials, environmental managers, emergency responders, and others who work to protect public health during an extreme weather event can benefit from the development and use of effective community engagement and risk communication strategies.
- Develop Interactive Engagement Tools on Climate Change: Interactive tools are being developed to translate emerging climate-related research in a way that informs individuals and communities about what they can do to prepare and respond to climate change threats. Research is being conducted to support the design of interactive, community-engaging tools and approaches using social and behavioral science approaches and evaluate their effectiveness.
- Develop Interventions to Reduce Exposures From Wildland Fire Smoke: Researchers are identifying, evaluating and developing strategies to reduce exposures to wildland fire smoke, increase public awareness of public health impacts of smoke exposure, and reduce the health burden of smoke exposures, especially in at-risk populations. These strategies can assist public health professionals and others with providing intervention strategies for reducing wildfire smoke exposures.
- Build Environmental Health Literacy to Inform Health Decision Making: Research is under way to develop innovative approaches to increasing literacy about climate change impacts in communities with environmental justice concerns, and to explore the application and use of innovative approaches to increase evidence-based decision making about exposures to climate change-related stressors.
- Support Development of Cumulative Impact Assessments for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged Communities: Research is under way to develop methods and provide data and tools to quantify, map, and evaluate natural, social and economic assets and vulnerabilities to climate change and environmental injustice issues. This includes exploring ways to enhance existing tools such as EnviroAtlas, EPA’s interactive mapping tool that allows users to explore the relationship between the environment and human health and wellbeing. The new resources can be used by communities to identify and assess the cumulative impacts of environmental risks and develop resiliency plans to address them.
- Provide Local-Scale Assessments and Information for Decision Making: Research is underway to provide local-scale assessments of climate impacts and vulnerabilities to inform local decisions to increase resilience. The research also includes building tools and networks that can deliver climate information to states and communities to inform decisions at the local scale. Special emphasis is being placed on addressing decision needs in communities with environmental justice concerns.
Research Highlights: Provide New Approaches and Solutions to Prepare and Respond to Climate Change
- Develop Approaches to Make Communities Resilient to Floods and Drought: Climate change is resulting in more extreme precipitation events that bring flooding, permafrost melt and drought to frontline communities. Research is being conducted to provide information and approaches that can be used by communities with environmental justice concerns and tribes to prepare, respond, and adapt to these events.
- Conduct Social Analysis of Disaster Waste and Debris Management for More Equitable Decisions and Outcomes: Research is being conducted to further bring additional social considerations such as environmental justice concerns into remediation decisions at the state and local level. The information can be used to better navigate stakeholder conflicts that may arise during an emergency response. Resources such as assessment frameworks and field guides are being developed to assess long-term impacts in environmental justice communities and improve decontamination best practices to address equity concerns.
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Develop Methods, Models and Other Tools That Provide Local-Scale Data for Communities: Communities require local-scale data and information to make decisions to develop resiliency to climate change impacts. National scale model projections of temperature and precipitation may not provide details needed for local decision making. Research is providing more localized or finer spatial resolution for model projections of temperature and precipitation and other tools that can be used by both skilled and non-skilled practitioners to inform local resilience decisions.
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Investigate Nature-Based Solutions to Reduce Climate Change Impacts: Research is being conducted to understand how adopting nature-based solutions may mitigate some local climate-driven threats to public health and the environment and reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The research is providing information on the capabilities and limits of nature-based solutions and improving understanding of how partners and stakeholders can implement nature-based solutions for a variety of communities.
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EPA is collaborating with partners and stakeholders in the Chesapeake Bay region to investigate the ability of natural infrastructure, such as wetlands, tidal marshes, and seagrasses, to mitigate climate change impacts to coastal communities.
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Advance Approaches and Tools for Waste and Materials Management: The increased incidences of extreme weather events and natural disasters resulting from climate change means that better and more resilient waste and materials management planning is needed by communities. Researchers are developing and evaluating more scalable waste treatment technologies and advancing the development of an existing suite of waste management tools for addressing climate disaster cleanup.
Resilience-Related Tools
- Environmental Resilience Tools Wizard
- EnviroAtlas
- EPA Science, Models, and Research Tools (SMaRT) Search
- Decision Support Tools for Incident Response
Related Links
- Emergency Response Research
- EPA's Climate Change Homepage
- Environmental Justice at EPA
- EPA’s Environmental Justice Plan
- Environmental Justice Research: Understanding Mitigating Environmental Health Disparities and Risks
- Learn more about EPA's research in the Strategic Research Action Plans Fiscal Years 2023-2026