The Future Avoided Cost Explorer: Colorado Hazards (FACE:Hazards) is both a new statewide study and a new planning resource. The study quantifies the direct impacts of flood, drought, and wildfire on select sectors of the Colorado economy. The interactive explorer displays study results as an interactive dashboard to help inform preparedness and resilience policies, support recovery and adaptation investments, and provide decision-makers with tools to quantify the growing cost of inaction.
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Year Published: 2020
Published by: Colorado Water Conservation Board
Summary
Colorado is a land of extremes, and its weather is no exception. In the past two decades, Colorado has experienced record wildfires, sustained droughts, and historic floods. These hazard events leave lasting scars on the physical landscape but also on Colorado economies and communities. If hazards increase in frequency and intensity with a warming climate, and communities develop without increasing resilience, the economic damages and ecosystem losses from these hazards will likely reach new extremes.
The study quantifies the direct impacts of flood, drought, and wildfire on select sectors of the Colorado economy. These economic vulnerabilities are analyzed both today and at a 2050 planning horizon to explore the effects of a changing population, potential future development, and increased hazard frequency and intensity.