Join the 2024 RISE Riverine Community Resilience Challenge

The 2024 RISE Riverine Neighborhood Resilience Problem accelerates innovation by connecting issues needing higher options to innovators with new resilience-building applied sciences, merchandise, and providers.

RISE is a U.S.-based nonprofit with a mission to speed up innovation and enterprise progress by figuring out, validating, and scaling options to group local weather resilience challenges comparable to flooding and sea degree rise. RISE achieves this by operating Neighborhood Resilience Problem competitions and providing funding and different assist from its Resilience Innovation Fund (RIF), Accelerator, Hub, and Testbed in Virginia.

Context for the Riverine Neighborhood Resilience Problem

As local weather change brings extra frequent and intense storms, riverine communities are more and more weak to distinctive flood threats that may change lives straight away.

On August 30, 2021, Hurley, Virginia, skilled extreme penalties when 7 inches of rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane led to a riverine flood that tragically took one life, destroyed 19 properties, and severely broken 24 extra. Lower than a yr later, on July 12, 2022, comparable circumstances struck Whitewood and Pilgrims Knob in Virginia. Although no lives had been misplaced on this latter occasion, the storm led to the destruction of 21 properties and injury to 25 others.

FEMA didn’t present particular person home-owner help in each cases, and just a few affected residents obtained insurance coverage payouts.

The hazards of such occasions are multifaceted, together with heavy rain, robust winds, excessive and swift waters, and mudslides. These pure forces could cause vital injury to buildings, probably resulting in destruction, accidents, or fatalities. Additional, they typically lead to giant portions of particles, the gathering and elimination of that are pricey and time-consuming, including to the challenges confronted by impacted communities.

Why Be part of the Riverine Neighborhood Resilience Problem?

A complete of as much as USD 1 million in funding is accessible to assist options in response to this Problem. Candidates can apply for as much as USD 300,000 in non-equity funding. Groups of companies can submit built-in options and should obtain as much as USD 750,000.

Since 2018, RISE has deployed greater than USD 7 million in non-equity funding and providers from the Resilience Innovation Fund to 35 companies creating scalable options that create substantial new worth, could be demonstrated in Virginia, and be constructed into sustainable ventures. The RIF is seeded with funds from the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

RISE additionally accelerates the expansion of companies creating revolutionary options to local weather resilience challenges. The Resilience Innovation Accelerator works with winners of the RISE Neighborhood Resilience Challenges to assist companies maximize the influence and turn out to be sustainable after the RISE funding. The Accelerator presents a two-month program based mostly on the Nationwide Science Basis’s I-Corps methods tailor-made to the resilience sector.

Additional, RISE brokers firms’ entry to Virginia’s assets via its Resilience Innovation Hub & Testbed for validating or in any other case demonstrating resilience-building improvements. RISE facilitates entry to real-world pilot websites and permits, a co-working workplace and workshop area in Norfolk, Virginia, information and key stakeholders, a group of resilience entrepreneurs, PR alternatives, and regulatory technical help.

Along with the above advantages, firms additionally profit from:

• Regulatory and allowing help
• Entry to real-world datasets
• Entry to a longtime resilience group
• PR assist and media visibility
• Strategic collaborations with specialists and stakeholders

Flood Occasion Early Warning

The Problem: Riverine flooding occasions are getting extra extreme and frequent. There’s a want for correct and well timed warnings to guard communities.

Potential Options: Identification of flooding-affected areas from 12 hours earlier than pluvial-induced flooding occasions, constantly up to date via the passage of the rainfall exercise. Technology of flood occasion warnings and the event of a warning-generation protocol. Inclusion of communication infrastructure to make sure that messages/information get transferred to required personnel. Protocols for actions to messages for all constituents (e.g., emergency managers, rescue squads, first responders, and many others.).

Panorama and Constructing Adaptation

The Problem: Put up-flood, occasions continuously lead to vital panorama modifications, impacting the suitability of sure areas for rebuilding. Recognizing this, there’s a rising consensus that some land parcels are now not match for conventional development. Figuring out essentially the most useful post-flood use for these areas presents a problem. These areas might function testing grounds for revolutionary constructing strategies designed to face up to flooding.

Potential Options: RISE is in search of options that:

• Contemplate constructing/panorama mitigations with both new or current adaptation methods. Extra mitigations could also be thought of if the applicant gives complete particulars of the know-how and its advantages. Each rural and extra city environments could also be thought of.
• Establish essentially the most acceptable and cost-effective constructing/panorama diversifications on a parcel-by-parcel foundation together with a technique or entry to a technique, for performing a benefit-cost evaluation for each constructing and parcel.
• Present mitigation that may be carried out on properties pre- and post-disaster.
• Supply a benefit-cost evaluation (BCA) on a parcel-by-parcel foundation utilizing essentially the most present topography and flood occasion datasets.
• Could also be carried out utilizing native labor and contractors, to assist the native enterprise group and workforce.
• Present evaluation and estimate of the lowered price of insurance coverage enabled by the mitigations.

Examine the web site for extra particulars within the Applicant Information.

Neighborhood Insurance coverage Program

The Problem: Many householders and renters in rural areas lack flood insurance coverage. Consequently, monetary support (and different assist) for these communities after flood occasions sometimes comes from state flood aid funds, which are sometimes allotted via particular price range requests, or from charitable donations. Nonetheless, these funds are primarily directed towards householders, typically leaving renters with out assist.

As well as, the median earnings of the area is low (one of many causes that many in the neighborhood don’t take part in flood insurance coverage packages). This subject intends to construct a sustainable insurance coverage program that helps these residents and others.

Potential Options: Options are being searched for the design of an insurance coverage program that:

• Supplies assist to households and companies after occasions by shifting danger via insurance coverage and different monetary methods, making certain safety in opposition to main losses.
• Tackle residents’ and companies’ wants at (roughly) outlined instances:
• Wants might vary from meals, shelter, and short-term funds to constructing alternative prices. A part of the Problem will likely be to doc these wants.
• Pays out after clearly describable and measurable flooding occasion degree if a parametric program is proposed. Approaches apart from parametric packages can even be thought of.
• Supplies payout funds rapidly and in a means that’s accessible by all constituents – along side findings from the Residents’ Neighborhood Insurance coverage subject space.
• Considers riverine flooding as the one peril.
• Is sustainable all through the area of Southwest Virginia — as outlined by the LENOWISCO PDC, Cumberland Plateau PDC, Mount Rogers PDC, and the New River Regional Fee.
• Is supported by a resident restoration program to supply steering pre- and post-event help and steering. Provides pre- and post-event help and steering via a resident restoration program. The aim of this Problem is to design an insurance coverage program that may work with and support in such assist packages.

Who Can Apply?

This problem is open to all world small companies and nonprofit organizations engaged on flood adaptation, mitigation, and administration options. Candidates can also accomplice with bigger firms or analysis establishments, nonetheless, the challenge lead should be from small companies/nonprofits. As well as:

• You must be a enterprise entity.
• What you are promoting has to have the ability to deploy your resolution in Southwest Virginia, both by your self or by hiring an area accomplice.
• Your resolution needs to be on the prototype stage or later.
• If you’re chosen as a finalist, you may be required to submit extra documentation, together with technical particulars of your resolution and a piece plan.
• Finalists will likely be required to register with the Virginia State Company Fee (SCC).

Timeline of the RISE Riverine Neighborhood Resilience Problem

Purposes at the moment are open!

• April 4th, eleventh, 18th, twenty fifth — 1 pm EST: Weekly informational webinars.
• Might sixth, 2024 — 2 pm EST.: Software Submission Deadline
• Might tenth, 2024: Alert Finalists
• Might twentieth, 2024: Deadline to Submit Extra Documentation
• June: Winners Introduced

RISE is seeking to fund revolutionary approaches that may be constructed into viable and sustainable companies. This implies companies that generate revenues via gross sales of their merchandise and/or entice additional funding to develop or develop income sources.

Discover all the small print about this distinctive problem & ship in your software right now.

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