Duke experts are creating new resources and developing partnerships aimed at building stronger and safer communities by reducing and managing risks from increasingly frequent natural disasters. A few efforts over the past year include:
- A pilot program organized by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability and Pratt School of Engineering is exploring how insurance industry tools and innovations could help communities protect their people and economies from natural hazards.
- Experts from the Nicholas Institute released a publication about how federal policy and programs could help communities protect themselves against natural hazards. The authors identified recent bipartisan legislative efforts to support climate resilience and adaptation and congressional resilience leaders to provide an indication of where opportunities lie for legislative action to help promote resilience against potential risks.
- The Nicholas Institute and the NC Department of Environmental Quality convened a workshop to develop ideas for rebuilding North Carolina stronger and safer in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Representatives from public, private, and nonprofit entities discussed solutions and identified next steps that could make people and businesses across North Carolina more resilient to extreme weather events. 25 organizations from the public sector, private sector and civil society were represented at the post-Helene workshop.
Photo of flooded town with residential buildings and trees by Pok Rie