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RESEARCH, POLICY and PRACTICE

ENHANCE system readiness for disasters; EDUCATE and train the workforce to build resilience from catastrophic events; FOSTER community preparedness and engagement; UNDERSTAND population vulnerability; and ANALYZE strategies to improve disaster recovery.

In Focus

Using AI for Wildfire and Heatwave Modeling

A LEAP panel discussion on emerging technologies for hazard risk mitigation.

Data and AI for Decision-Support and Policy

A LEAP Wallerstein Panel Series discussion on AI and extreme weather preparedness.

How do we move people from awareness to action?

A high school intern details what a year of climate research taught her about resilience.

What We Do

Training + Education

Since NCDP’s founding in 2003, NCDP has provided education and training to the workforce for more than 100,000 learners through web-based, instructor-led, virtual, and hybrid training.

Research

NCDP conducts impact-oriented multi-disciplinary research to inform the readiness of governmental and non-governmental systems, articulate the complexities of post-disaster recovery, demonstrate the power of community engagement, and quantify the risks of human vulnerability.

Practice + Policy

The practice of emergency preparedness and response requires planning and skills in many kinds of emergency preparedness capabilities and skills. At NCDP, we are focused on the analysis and understanding of the beliefs, guiding principles, and broad courses of action and policies to achieve better outcomes following disasters.

Preparedness Tools

NCDP has developed tools and resources to help aid planners, policymakers, individuals and families, and public/private institutions prepare for and respond to disasters to make our communities more resilient.

NCDP Perspectives

What is the Climate Finance Vulnerability Index (CliF-VI)?

By: Amy Campbell, Student Researcher, National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) Adaptation finance is critically underfunded, with existing finance skewed toward mitigation and middle-income markets. Many countries facing the highest climate risk also carry significant debt burdens and have been repeatedly downgraded by credit rating agencies, thereby increasing their cost of capital and pushing adaptation …

AI for Wildfires and Heatwaves

Image credit: Bellwether LEAP Wallerstein Panel Series: AI + Extreme Weather Preparedness Based on panel presentations and discussions by Ali Ahmadalipour, Elena Xoplaki, Jatan Buch, and Jorge Pérez Aracil.  The 2025 wildfire season in the United States is forecasted to be above normal, highlighting the need to leverage emerging technologies for hazard risk mitigation. At …

Data and AI for Decision-Support and Policy

Image: Whitehall Street Station Flooding LEAP Wallerstein Panel Series: AI + Extreme Weather Preparedness Based on panel presentations and discussions by Dr. Terri Adams-Fuller, Dr. Equisha Glenn, and Dr. Miguel-Ángel Fernández-Torres.  Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) offer new avenues to provide data and build decision support tools that can facilitate extreme weather preparedness …