The Institute for Climate and Community Resilience continues research and outreach to help communities prepare for catastrophic climate events like Hurricane Helene.
The Institute for Climate and Community Resilience (ICCR) launched in the summer of 2024 to focus the skills and expertise of UT faculty toward advancing climate science and creating equitable solutions for climate risks to communities in regional Appalachia and across the globe.
Several months after forming, ICCR researchers faced climate issues first-hand when Hurricane Helene swept through nearby Appalachian communities, causing widespread, catastrophic damage from unprecedented flash flooding in rural, mountainous areas. As cleanup got underway, ICCR teams went to work with community partners to better understand and plan for these catastrophic events, and develop new tools to support local emergency response, infrastructure planning, and risk communication.
Lessons from the ICCR’s work are ongoing while Appalachian communities acknowledged the second anniversary of Helene in September 2026.
“Helene continues to shape not only the type of work that ICCR engages in, but to ground the mission of the institute, as well,” said Nicholas Shanahan, associate director of the institute. “Helene showed just how interconnected so many of the systems we depend on are, and how entwined those systems—communications, transportation, energy, healthcare, food, and shelter—are with the natural environment.”
The ICCR works to develop personal relationships and build trust in communities as it also facilitates interdisciplinary research at UT to address these complex connections—and help apply the research in ways that are directly useful to people in the affected communities.
“Helene exposed a lack of flood monitoring and accurate flash flood hazard mapping in rural East Tennessee, especially in the smaller headwaters,” said Shanahan. “Some very talented and motivated researchers here at UT are working to address those from several angles, including faculty in our Appalachian Waterways Working Group.”
ICCR working groups like this help behind-the-scenes to connect regional partners with area long-term recovery groups, local development districts, and emergency management personnel so that the tools the university researchers develop can be put into action.
“A huge lesson from Helene is that knowledge and capability don’t do enough if they stay within institutions,” said Shanahan. “The relationships necessary to get that capacity operating in our communities need to be in place before a disaster strikes.”
Summer Fellows Program Engages Students for Community Outreach
The ICCR offered its inaugural Summer Fellows Program in summer 2026, connecting UT students with ongoing preparedness efforts across different communities. The 10-week program hosted eight graduate and one undergraduate students for research work that included flood modeling, hurricane climatology, public health, Appalachian forest economies, and microbiology. Built around the Natural Hazards Center’s CONVERGE training modules, the program invited students to consider what their research could explain and how it could be done in more ethical, collaborative, and useful ways.
“Our thinking behind the program was to introduce promising student researchers to concepts and tactics that could help shape how they view the role of research,” said Shanahan. “How it can serve people in times of disaster or crisis, as well as ways that conducting research or collecting data could be detrimental if not done intentionally and thoughtfully.”
The program is open to student researchers from disciplines and colleges across UT.
“The aim of the program is to allow emerging researchers to situate their own work within a broader framework that includes the well-being of individuals and communities,” said Shanahan.
Marian Moss, a master’s student in the Department of Geography and Sustainability, worked with a training module focused on collecting and sharing perishable data—vital information that can be permanently lost if it is not collected in a timely manner. She gained a valuable perspective on how her work can impact the communities she works with.
“I didn’t initially think of myself as a disaster researcher because I research the forest economy of West Virginia,” said Moss. “This changed slowly over the summer as I talked more with folks who were experiencing things like flooding, sinkholes, rockslides, and other small-scale disasters. The module discusses how the data that ethnographers collect in the wake of a disaster, even a small-scale one, is considered perishable for years following the event.”
Mason Fuller studies water resources engineering as a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineer. His summer program focused on hazards and disaster research, providing a valuable opportunity to learn from others working in related areas.
“The ICCR Summer Fellows Program has helped me feel more connected to a broader research community,” said Fuller. “There is a lot to gain from connecting with people who share similar research interests and motivations but come from different academic backgrounds and fields. It has been valuable to learn from other grad students, faculty, and national groups’ perspectives and see how different disciplines approach similar research challenges.”
Through these interdisciplinary outreach efforts of sustained community collaboration and programs that engage students for real-world impact, ICCR drives innovation in climate resilience, using the unique lessons of climate events across the Southern Appalachian region to inform strategies for helping communities worldwide.
by Randall Brown