Experts urge $400,000 to sustain URI coastal forecasting and mapping tools used by Rhode Island responders

University researchers, municipal emergency managers and state partners urged the House Finance Committee to appropriate $400,000 to the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) to maintain three coastal hazard decision-support tools: CHAMP (Coastal Hazards Analysis, Modeling and Prediction), Storm Tools, and MyCoast.

Dr. Austin Becker, professor and chair of URI’s Department of Marine Affairs, described the trio as “an unparalleled suite of tools” that provides high-resolution storm forecasts, planning maps and crowd-sourced evidence of flooding. He said the tools are widely used by state agencies, municipalities and emergency managers and warned that recent federal funding reductions — including notice that the Department of Homeland Security center funding that supported CHAMP was ending — would curtail the systems unless the state stepped in.

Providence Emergency Management Director Claire DeCerbo and other municipal emergency managers testified the systems are used for both short-term emergency forecasting and long-term mitigation planning. DeCerbo said CHAMP supplies near-real-time flood and wind predictions relevant to critical infrastructure and that Storm Tools is used in permitting and public outreach. Sam Adams, URI emergency-management director, said the tools let planners prepare for “what the flooding and wind impacts will be from that storm” and that the state will be less self-reliant if federal support disappears.

Technical staff described the products: Storm Tools produces advisory flood maps (including 100-year and nuisance-event scenarios) and a Coastal Environmental Risk Index for structure-level impacts; CHAMP provides forecasted flood/wind impacts ahead of storms; MyCoast collects geolocated photos and reports from residents to document flooding events. Christopher Damon of URI’s Environmental Data Center explained that the tools are embedded in CRMC permitting and are accessed by thousands of users annually.

Committee members heard two practical warnings: (1) the systems require recurring maintenance and hosting to remain current, and (2) the tools have an operational role during emergency response that federal grants did not fully cover. Witnesses said the requested $400,000 appropriation would allow continuity of operations and sustain partnerships built over a decade.

Committee action: The bill/resolution was included among all bills the committee moved to hold for further study; no final appropriation vote was taken.

Why it matters: The tools are used by statewide emergency managers and municipal planners for forecasts, permitting, hazard mitigation, and public outreach; losing them, witnesses said, would reduce Rhode Island’s capacity to plan for storms and sea-level rise.

Next steps: The resolution was held for further study. Witnesses said they will provide technical budget detail and examples of municipal uses if the committee requests follow-up.