Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $22.78 million in funding to NOAA labs, programs, cooperative institutes, and other partners to advance research on a wide range of water-driven climate impacts. Research topics include flood mapping and forecasting, next-generation water modeling studies, and modernizing estimates of extreme precipitation.

CIRES will receive more than $5 million from NOAA’s Physical Sciences Lab to improve estimates of coastal flooding risks, advance NOAA’s water prediction capabilities using artificial intelligence and machine learning, and modernize estimates of probable maximum precipitation (PMP). Engineers use PMP estimates when designing facilities like dams and nuclear power plants to help gauge the “worst-case scenario” precipitation for the area in which they are being built. This reduces the risk of the facility failing during an extreme weather event. The catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Helene’s extreme rainfall highlights the critical importance of having updated PMP estimates available to engineers and decision-makers.

These funds come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will help communities prepare for a range of climate impacts and will directly benefit policymakers, emergency responders, researchers and the general public. Today’s announcement is part of more than $6 billion being invested by NOAA in habitat restoration, weather forecasting, and community resilience to weather and climate events through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

Read more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for water-related climate impacts on the NOAA website.