Powering Climate Adaptation

The increasing number of extreme weather events that strike across the globe every year makes clear the urgency of ensuring that infrastructure can handle climate change-related threats. But the complex and dynamic nature of the challenge means it’s not always easy to know where to invest in upgrades. Grid Resilience Insights, which launched this year, aims to make decision-making easier for utilities and energy agencies. Integrating numerous datasets detailing climate threats, infrastructure condition, and community vulnerability levels, the subscription service pinpoints the risk of natural hazards’ threatening specific assets—say, a substation or transmission tower—and disadvantaged communities. Joe DiStefano, CEO and co-founder of UrbanFootprint, hopes Grid Resilience Insights will help make communities safer and more resilient: “We have to be investing in our infrastructure in ways that are protecting the most vulnerable.”

Write to Amy Gunia at amy.gunia@time.com.