Climate Resilience Centers in 10 states nab federal Energy Dept. funding

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Aug. 15 announced $10 million in funding for innovative Climate Resilience Centers (CRCs) in 10 different states that will support vulnerable communities responding to continued and extreme climate effects.

“Every pocket of the country has experienced the impact of extreme weather events that are exacerbated by climate change and disadvantaged communities often feel the brunt of that impact,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “The projects… will leverage the world-class expertise and scientific research capacities of DOE’s national laboratories to develop the tools communities will need to inform future decisions for building resiliency.”

Each of the CRCs, which are part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative , are led by Minority Serving Institutions and Emerging Research Institutions, according to DOE, and most are collaborations with DOE national labs, other federal agencies, academic institutions, state and municipal agencies, or community organizations.

A peer-review panel made project selections focused on a diversity of topics, regions, and institutions across the country, the DOE said.

Across the 10 selectees, for example, research projects include ways to predict and protect communities from coastal flooding and extreme storms; analyzing the impacts of drought on tribal and agricultural communities; and improving water quality.

The 10 projects selected under the DOE Funding Opportunity Announcement for Climate Resilience Centers are:

1. The Advancing Development and Climate-Resilient Adaptation Practices via Community-Driven Urban Transformation in St. Louis, Mo., will establish a CRC at Saint Louis University to build regional resilience to heat islands, which are urban areas that experience extreme high temperatures due to the built environment. Researchers will connect with local communities to define the impacts of climate risk; increase awareness of climate change effects; and empower communities with data to support resilience projects and green infrastructure development.
2. The Climate Lighthouse project, led by the City College of New York City in partnership with the DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, aims to help residents better cope with extreme heat. The focus will be on translating DOE climate data into usable tools to improve residents’ resilience.
3. The CRC in tribal communities along the Missouri River Basin will build climate resilience capacity for Native American communities. The team effort will be led by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, tribal nations, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which will develop user-friendly planning tools to translate existing climate projections into site-specific drought and flood risks, mitigation recommendations, associated costs, and uncertainties.
4. The Coastal Blend Climate Resilience Project, a partnership between the University of Texas-Arlington and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, will focus on improving the predictions of events in communities in the Texas Coastal Bend along the Gulf of Mexico that face multiple water-related threats, including floods and droughts. The Coastal Bend CRC will use data and modeling from the DOE for adapting and planning for climate extremes, and will build short- and long-term capacity in communities to ensure local and community leaders can leverage climate science to inform resilience-building efforts, particularly among vulnerable groups.
5. The Midwest CRC in Clark County, Ohio, will address high risk from extreme rain and flooding and the consequential effects on drinking water quality. Central State University will partner with Ohio State University and PNNL to assess the impact of climate stressors on soil system processes in watersheds with varied land uses.
6. The CRC for Alaska brings together researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks with Los Alamos National Laboratory to enhance communication with Alaska communities about existing DOE science, develop meaningful collaborations between communities and the DOE, and incorporate DOE science into educational pathways and opportunities. The project will also conduct pilot research specifically focused on southwest Alaska to demonstrate the CRC’s role.
7. Space Coast RESCUE (Resilience Solutions for Climate, Urbanization, and Environment) is an effort by researchers at the Florida Institute of Technology collaborating with the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory to address climate resilience challenges and risks faced by many coastal communities throughout the nation.
8. The Building Predictive Capacity to Enhance Stormwater Infrastructure and Flood Resilience project, led by Central Michigan University, aims to produce data and tools that will help communities plan for and become more resilient to climate change in collaboration with communities in three pilot watersheds in Michigan: the Chippewa River, Lower Grand River, and Rouge River.
9. The Gateway Cities CRC, led by the University of Massachusetts Lowell in partnership with PNNL, will work with the community to use DOE science and tools to provide local projections of extreme temperature events. The project will assess vulnerability of residential heating and cooling power demand and potential mitigation measures in terms of urban tree cover and green spaces.
10. A project led by Lehigh University in partnership with PNNL will examine the impact of regional climate action plans on the response to extreme water events like floods and droughts in eastern Pennsylvania. The team plans to work with the three-city coalition of Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton to address multiple climate change impacts.

Total funding for all of the projects is $10 million for fiscal year 2024 for projects lasting three years in duration. The selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time, the department said.

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