US communities provided support for heat resilience planning

US cities and communities can apply for financial and technical help when planning for extreme heat.

The Centre for Heat Resilient Communities (CHRC) has opened applications period for communities across the US to get support to develop Heat Resilience Roadmaps as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.

Heat resilience blueprints

Funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, up to 10 selected communities will receive $10,000 and technical assistance to help them determine and communicate the impacts of extreme heat in their communities, assess their capacity to respond and design a locally tailored blueprint for heat resilience.

“Communities across the country are taking steps to prepare for the impact of extreme heat on the health and wellbeing of people, the economy and infrastructure,” said Rick Spinrad, administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which established CHRC and another centre of excellence, the Centre for Collaborative Heat Monitoring and the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) with $4.55m in funding through the Inflation Reduction Act to address extreme heat and its impacts. These centres work on heat research and governance efforts across the country.

“The Centre for Heat Resilient Communities continues to provide important resources to strengthen these efforts and develop a knowledge-sharing network for communities to work together to become more resilient to extreme heat,” added Spinrad.

“Communities across the country are taking steps to prepare for the impact of extreme heat on the health and wellbeing of people, the economy and infrastructure”

Participating communities will craft locally tailored blueprints outlining strategies for planning, funding and decision-making to prepare for and respond to extreme heat events. These strategies will help protect communities from harmful heat impacts, such as heat-related deaths and infrastructure damage.

The application window for this opportunity is open  and closes on 24 January 2025 at 11:59pm Eastern Time.

Local, tribal and territorial governments, and their departments are eligible to apply. Non-governmental organisations that play a leadership role in a community’s heat resilience efforts may also apply with support from local jurisdictions with policymaking authority. Applicants are encouraged to engage with community-based or community-serving institutions.