On April 22 2025, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University hosted a public event, ‘Demographic and Fiscal Modeling for Environmental Planning: New tools from NSF-funded projects’. One of the new tools, an online local fiscal impact calculator to assess the financial impacts of flood events, was supported in part by MACH and developed by MACH-affiliated researchers, Junghoon Lee, David Listokin, and Clinton Andrews. The tool is accessible online on the Bloustein School’s Center for Urban Policy Research website or at this link. The tool calculates the estimated fiscal impact of a proposed addition or reduction of residential or nonresidential units in a municipality, which is especially useful as flood-prone communities face decisions to adapt in place to flood risks or retreat to a new, less risk-prone location.
Currently, the online app only supports fiscal impact analysis calculations for New Jersey municipalities, but it will eventually be functional for all 50 U.S. states.
