A new project will partner with coastal communities in the Great Lakes and South Central regions to assess flood risks and vulnerabilities and encourage more equitable and inclusive stormwater planning. The project, “Building an Equity-Oriented Engagement Framework for the FloodWise Communities Process in the Great Lakes and South Central Regions,” is funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and administered through NOAA. It aims to integrate the voices of historically marginalized populations directly into stormwater vulnerability assessments (VAs), ensuring that flooding and adaptation planning reflect community priorities and perspectives.

The $500,000 project is being led by NOAA’s Great Lakes CAP Team (GLISA) at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), and partners with NOAA’s South Central CAP team (SCIPP) via Adaptation International (AI). Together, these organizations will build on their existing partnership under the FloodWise Communities (FWC) Program to co-develop an updated approach that bridges the gap between frontline communities and local governments to better address stormwater management.

FloodWise Communities: Co-producing a new community-based framework

Since 2017, the FWC Program has engaged more than 60 municipalities and conducted stormwater vulnerability assessments using climate and socioeconomic data. Building on the program’s initial success, this project aims to expand the original framework to integrate direct input from community members, particularly those from frontline communities most impacted by flooding and climate change. 

The primary goal of this project is to develop and pilot a new, community-informed framework for FloodWise Communities that prioritizes equity and incorporates community perspectives. Through a co-development process—where the aims, goals and functions of the tool are collaboratively designed with community members—this initiative will ensure that the flood adaptation tool reflects the perspectives and concerns of residents they are intended to serve.

This project is part of GLISA’s larger effort to bring the FWC Program to additional communities across the Great Lakes over the next three years. The lessons and insights from this project will inform future engagements, ensuring that the new framework is both adaptable and scalable. 

“This new framework will engage communities in the co-production of tools that better reflect their priorities and concerns in stormwater adaptation,” said the project’s principal investigator, Derek Van Berkel, an assistant professor at SEAS.

Regional partnerships across climate-adapted communities

The project will operate in two regions: the Great Lakes and South Central regions. GLISA will lead engagement with two communities in the Great Lakes region which represents the eight U.S. states surrounding the Great Lakes. In the South Central region, SCIPP will lead engagements with two additional communities in Texas and Louisiana. Engagement efforts will run in parallel across both regions, leveraging existing relationships with community-based organizations (CBOs) and municipal partners.

Addressing the needs of frontline communities

Coastal cities in both regions are increasingly vulnerable to extreme precipitation, flooding and socioeconomic stressors, which disproportionately affect frontline communities—those most impacted by historical and systemic inequities. For example, aging stormwater infrastructure in Black and immigrant neighborhoods in Houston, Texas, leaves residents vulnerable to flood hazards. In the Great Lakes, cities like Goshen, Indiana, and Buffalo, New York, face fluctuating water levels and extreme weather events that threaten low-income and BIPOC communities.

To address these disparities, the project emphasizes co-production of knowledge with community members to better understand their flood risks and priorities. This inclusive approach aims to build trust and identify solutions that promote equity, environmental justice, and climate resilience.

Customized engagement for local impact

Community liaisons will be hired in each of the four study locations to guide workshops, co-produce research questions and shape project outcomes as part of the project team. The community liaisons will play a crucial role in shaping engagement strategies to reflect the unique needs and priorities of each region. These trusted partners, drawn from local organizations and community networks, will help design workshops, co-develop research questions, and ensure that community voices are meaningfully integrated into both the project and long-term program updates.

Through this collaborative process, community participants will identify the data, tools and resources that best convey their priorities to practitioners and policymakers. The project will focus on building processes and tools that accurately represent community perspectives, ensuring that decision-makers are equipped with community-based insights to guide equitable flood mitigation efforts and influence local policies.

By centering local expertise and co-producing solutions with community members, the project aims to foster deeper trust, encourage meaningful collaboration, and drive more sustainable outcomes for flood-prone communities.

Next steps

The project will begin with relationship-building with both community members and practitioners. Then, a series of in-person workshops will allow community input to shape updates to the FloodWise Communities Program and vulnerability assessment framework, helping to align municipal stormwater management with community priorities.

Over the course of the project, two rounds of workshops will be held in each of the four study locations. The first round will focus on identifying community priorities, while the second will pilot new assessment approaches and explore pathways for integrating community perspectives into municipal planning.

“This project will work closely with community members to identify and co-produce improvements to the FloodWise Communities program,” said Tori Field, sustained engagement specialist at GLISA. “Updates will aim to enhance opportunities for program participants to interact with community-based data and perspectives when completing their stormwater vulnerability assessments. Our hope is that this will lead to actions and next steps that better serve the full community.” 

“This initiative aims to set a new standard for flood adaptation by embedding equity and justice into resilience planning,” added Van Berkel. “The frameworks developed will be transferable and scalable, informing future engagements and expansion under the FloodWise Communities Program. By engaging directly with frontline communities, the project will also generate best practices for community-based adaptation that can benefit the broader climate adaptation field.”

GLISA was established in 2010 and is a collaboration between the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the College of Menominee Nation and the University of Wisconsin. GLISA is the NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP) team for the Great Lakes region, working at the boundary between climate science and decision-makers to enhance Great Lakes communities’ capacity to understand, plan for and respond to climate impacts now and in the future. GLISA’s team of physical and social scientists serves all eight U.S. states that border the Great Lakes and the province of Ontario, Canada, working to ultimately advance equitable climate adaptation in the Great Lakes region through applied research and engagement.

Adaptation International was founded in 2010 with a desire to help communities look to the future and become more resilient to a changing climate. Based in Austin, Texas, with a distributed team, Adaptation International has worked with Tribal and western communities on climate adaptation and emergency management, and was involved in the previous phase of the Floodwise Communities project and led the engagement efforts with 55 communities across the Gulf South region. Adaptation International combines climate science expertise with local and Traditional Knowledges, providing community  leaders with adaptation strategies and equitable solutions their residents support. Together, Adaptation International empowers communities to thrive in the 21st century and beyond.

For more information, contact GLISA Co-Director Jenna Jorns.