CNT's work in equipping communities to be resilient in the face of climate change has involved various approaches, including utilizing urban data and analytics, creating tools, pushing policy work, and working on the ground with communities and their members. CNT's latest tool, My RainReady, has incorporated a number of those methods to help communities and individuals become more climate resilient.  A virtual home assessment tool, My RainReady allows homeowners to learn about the needs of their home and appropriate solutions to mitigate their flood risk.

In a time of climate change, many homes and communities are increasingly experiencing the impact of natural disasters and infrastructure failure. RainReady, an initiative of CNT, works to help communities and individuals manage the effects of urban flooding. RainReady’s efforts to help communities manage urban flooding have included RainReady Community, RainReady Home, and now, My RainReady.

CNT’s groundbreaking research report, “The Cost of Prevalence of Urban Flooding” revealed that homeowners struggle to make decisions about how best to confront their flood risk in an economically feasible way. RainReady partners with communities to support flood mitigation work, ranging from how to keep water of basements, to how reduce stormwater runoff. RainReady Home works one-on-one with homeowners to assess the flooding issues in their home and identify a mix of green and grey solutions that allow the best protection for their property. 

While RainReady partners with several communities, not everyone has access to a flood mitigation program. My RainReady, a free, online tool, has been created to help homeowners evaluate their own homes and discover the best strategies to lessen their flood risk. My RainReady guides homeowners through a series of questions to identify where flooding occurs in the home, what type of flooding it is, and which solutions might be appropriate to alleviate the problem. For each question, there are tips for reducing flood risk, or definitions and example photos to help explain unfamiliar terminology.

Once all questions have been answered, My RainReady provides a detailed, customized report summarizing flood risk factors and offering recommendations for solutions to discuss with a qualified professional. Recommendations include nature-based solutions, construction-based solutions, and other actions to reduce flood risk. Recommendations are linked to a wealth of educational fact sheets and videos available on the RainReady website.

As My RainReady is intended for homeowners’ at-home and personal use, the input of homeowners was an integral aspect of the tool’s development. Members of the CNT team hosted a number of meetings with homeowners who had been impacted by urban flooding or whose homes were at risk for future flooding to trial the tool and discuss necessary inclusions. These exploratory meetings ranged from group trials to one-on-one feedback sessions with homeowners who had tested the new tool. The comprehensive and instructional feedback provided by homeowners allowed developers at CNT to ensure that My RainReady approaches urban-flooding intervention in a clear and recognizable manner. 

By educating the homeowner in a straightforward and personalized way, My RainReady helps to equip homeowners with the proper knowledge they need to best protect themselves against urban flooding. Try My RainReady today, recommend it to a neighbor, or host it on your municipal website to take the next steps towards climate resiliency in your home and in your community.