The City of Cincinnati was recently ranked in the top 20% of large U.S. cities for our Climate Resilience Index score. The Climate Resilience Index, created by Motivf and Human Change as part of the Geography of Prosperity Project, evaluates metropolitan areas on both their risk of climate hazards and their capacity to adapt and recover. Risks assessed include extreme heat, flooding, drought, wildfire, and severe storms. Adaptive capacity factors include infrastructure, environmental assets, social vulnerability, and institutional readiness. A higher score indicates greater overall resilience, and Cincinnati ranks among the top five most climate-resilient metros in our peer region group. 

The Geography of Prosperity Index was created to rank the largest 250 U.S. cities on factors indicating a city’s readiness for a prosperous population as it grows, and the Climate Resilience Index is just one of five major factors. Cincinnati’s priorities such as housing affordability, job growth, energy burden reduction, and climate migration, equip the City and our residents to better adapt to climate risks. Alongside natural factors such as access to fresh water and comparatively low risk to disasters like wildfires or tornadoes, Cincinnati offers more security and stability in the face of extreme weather than many of our peers. 

As we see increasing extreme weather events and extreme temperature days across the country, cities like Cincinnati must continue working toward forward thinking solutions as we expect to maintain and improve quality of life with a growing population.