AT&T
At a Glance
Industry
Telecommunications
Project Types
Data Analysis, Engagement and Behavior Change
Year
2023
Location
Dallas, TX
Summary
AT&T and the Idaho Office of Emergency Management collaborated to incorporate ClimRR data into the Idaho Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Goals
In 2022, AT&T, FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory launched the Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR). ClimRR provides peer-reviewed climate datasets in a nontechnical format and puts high-resolution, forward-looking climate insights into the hands of those who need them most.
As a means of demonstrating the value that this data can have for a community, AT&T brought on Blythe Johnston to collaborate with the state of Idaho in their Hazard Mitigation Plan development.
Solutions
Over the course of the summer, Blythe collaborated with Idaho to develop a state-level climate projection analysis that provided not only data but also narratives explaining the meaning of this data. She also developed a web resource that met the needs identified by the Idaho Office of Emergency Management staff for local jurisdictional implementation of climate projection data.
This work also relied on collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and FEMA Region 10, as well as many others at FEMA. As for technical skill development, this project required the implementation of several ArcGIS resources that Blythe had never worked with before to ensure that Idaho had all the resources they needed, in a customized, interactive platform.
Potential Impact
Under FEMA guidelines released in 2022, all states must plan for climate change and equitable outcomes. Many states do not have access to meaningful assessments of future climate conditions so they include high-level summaries of how our changing climate will impact hazards. The work that Blythe conducted this summer helped equip stakeholders with meaningful and actionable knowledge about what climate projections could look like in their local community.
In turn, stakeholders can take ownership of these projections and decide how they will rise to meet the needs of tomorrow.