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Legislators hear plea to fund URI coastal tools after federal support wanes; emergency managers urge $400,000 appropriation
Summary
University researchers and municipal emergency managers urged the Finance Committee to fund CHAMP, Storm Tools and MyCoast (House resolution/HB 6016) with $400,000, saying federal support is ending and the tools provide high‑resolution, operational forecasts and crowd‑sourced flooding data used by state agencies and cities including Providence.
Researchers from the University of Rhode Island, municipal emergency managers and the Coastal Resources Center urged the House Finance Committee to appropriate $400,000 to support three coastal hazard tools — CHAMP, Storm Tools and MyCoast — now relied upon by state agencies and local emergency managers.
Dr. Austin Becker, a URI professor who testified as an expert, said the tools are "a culmination of over 10 years of rigorous research" and are used by DEM, CRMC, the state health department, Navy Station Newport and municipal emergency managers. He told the committee that CHAMP "provides very high resolution forecasts for flood and wind in advance of a storm's landfall" and that Storm Tools and MyCoast are used for planning, permitting and citizen science.
Multiple municipal emergency managers supported the appropriation. Providence Emergency Management Director Claire DeCerbo said she has used the tools "for the past seven years" and called CHAMP an "early warning system for critical infrastructure impacts" that also supports mitigation and training. URI emergency management researcher Sam Adams and other users testified that federal support for the center of excellence behind the products has been curtailed and that without state funds the near‑real‑time forecasts and public data portals could be lost.
Christopher Damon of URI's Environmental Data Center detailed Storm Tools' technical work: the project provides advisory flood maps analogous to FEMA flood products, higher‑resolution nuisance and 100‑year event products, a Coastal Environmental Risk Index and ongoing updates including inland flooding modeling and 500‑year scenarios to align with newer building standards.
Supporters said the tools are embedded in permitting at CRMC and used by municipalities for day‑to‑day decision making. They asked the committee to consider the $400,000 appropriation as a modest investment compared with the costs of storm damage and the loss of capabilities for forecasting and response.
The bill was presented for committee consideration; no vote was taken at the hearing and proponents said they would provide letters and technical materials to staff.
