Professor of environmental studies Chelsea Schelly is helping lead a major effort to improve climate resilience across the Great Lakes region through a newly awarded $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) project based at Michigan Technological University. The project, titled CHIRRP: Empowering Climate Resilience (ECR): Confronting Coastal Hazards for Rural and Indigenous Communities in the Great Lakes Region, brings together natural hazard science, climate modeling, and community knowledge to better anticipate and respond to increasing environmental risks.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan and surrounding Great Lakes communities are experiencing more frequent heavy snowfall, stronger storms, and extreme heatwaves — conditions that can trigger flooding, landslides, and wildfires. Rural, remote, and Indigenous communities are often the most vulnerable due to geographic isolation, limited infrastructure, and constrained resources.
Schelly and the project team will partner with Tribal Nations, local governments, and residents to codevelop practical tools, including user-friendly risk assessment models, data visualization platforms, and training resources. A key component of the work is a fully coupled atmosphere–land–lake modeling framework that integrates high-resolution climate simulations with local observations and knowledge.
The resulting hazard assessments will be incorporated into an open-access Rural Hazard Resilience Tools platform, enabling communities to visualize risks and plan adaptive strategies. By bridging Earth system science with on-the-ground needs, the project aims to strengthen long-term resilience and improve quality of life throughout the Great Lakes region.
