SCC-IRG: Resilient and Affordable Housing for Rural Communities

Many rural US residents live in aging, substandard housing with limited access to insurance, infrastructure, and services, leaving them at risk of displacement and financial loss from extreme weather events. This Smart & Connected Communities Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) project addresses a critical national challenge: how to help rural communities better forecast and plan for housing resilience in the face of natural hazards. The project is developing a new risk assessment and housing planning tool that will first be piloted in rural communities across the Mississippi Delta and Gulf Coast regions, where growing risks from flooding, hurricanes, and other natural hazards pose threats to lives, homes, and livelihoods. The assessment and planning tool aims to help local decision-makers and public workers assess housing vulnerabilities, explore adaptation strategies, and prioritize investments that protect lives and improve affordability. This work advances scientific understanding and community engagement, and delivers practical solutions to improve safety and sustainability in rural regions. The project also contributes to STEM education through creative outreach, including hands-on experience, exhibits, and design workshops for rural K-6 students.

This project is using geo-sensing, artificial intelligence, participatory research, systems engineering, and educational outreach to advance understanding of risk and is developing an integrated, multi-scale decision-support platform. The platform combines AI-driven building risk detection, agent-based modeling, and community-defined priorities to guide rural housing resilience strategies. The research has the core objectives of assessing structural and social vulnerabilities by integrating satellite imagery, demographic data, and qualitative inputs from residents, developing and validating a housing evaluation index through a hybrid agent-based model enhanced with deep reinforcement learning, and co-designing adaptation strategies with local stakeholders, supported by scenario testing and participatory evaluation. The platform aims to deliver real-time simulations and visualizations of hazard impacts, housing outcomes, and intervention trade-offs. Data collection includes focus groups, interviews, and participatory mapping in six rural counties. Outputs are designed to inform zoning, mitigation planning, housing investments, and public health efforts. Through hands-on training and informal STEM education, the project ensures both capacity building and the ethical, community-driven application of smart technologies.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.