By Editor|2022-08-02T14:58:38+00:00August 2nd, 2022|Comments Off on Think Local: An update to the NOAA’s Billion Dollar Disasters mapping tool brings in the ability to look at U.S. census tract data

Think Local: An update to the NOAA’s Billion Dollar Disasters mapping tool brings in the ability to look at U.S. census tract data

Residents of the United States can now get a much better understanding of what risks and threats they face from natural disasters, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA( has recently integrated U.S. census tract data into their Billion Dollar Disasters mapping tool. Maintained by the NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI), this new set of interactive maps breaks things down to areas smaller than counties, to subdivisions that cover regions with roughly 4,000 inhabitants. With this increased granularity, people can now check out how their very local communities are likely to be affected by natural hazard, rather than relying on county or statewide data instead.

“The updated tool will provide a better understanding of how weather, ocean, and climate disasters impact many Americans at the community level, and help guide targeted preparation and mitigation efforts as we build a Climate-Ready Nation,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad in a release. “This hyper-local information advances NOAA’s vision for resilient communities and economies, and will strengthen our support for vulnerable populations that face outsized weather, ocean and climate risks.”

When paired with the previously integrated socioeconomic vulnerability data, the potential for the tool to assist in local planning and building of resiliency is impressive. Says Adam Smith, billion-dollar disaster expert for the NOAA NCEI, “This mapping tool helps people understand the risk of weather and climate disasters where they live–at a time when we’re seeing more costly extreme weather events. For example, a user can explore multiple hazard risks, such as the cascading impacts of drought, wildfire and flooding on vulnerable populations in the U.S. Southwest or see how combined hurricane, flooding and severe storm events across the Gulf coast could severely impact their neighborhood.”

Source:

https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-tool-now-brings-disaster-risk-vulnerability-down-to-community-level

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