Library

A map describing the average temperature of shallow groundwater in Fahrenheit across the continental United States.

Webpage from U.S. Department of Energy describing using Earth-Sheltered home building techniques in hot climate zones.

Document explaining requirements and recommendations for defensible space, with a focus on sloped vegetation.

Webpage describing embodied carbon through definition, significance to climate, and importance to policymaking.

Powerpoint on attic ventilation developed as training material for the Weatherization Assistance Program.

Paper describing the effects of tree shade on residential electricity consumption and energy savings in summer and winter.

Report describing construction site erosion and sediment control practices recommended and required by a county planning department.

Guidance documents describing Erosion Control Blankets (ECBs) use as a construction material that provides temporary cover and support for establishing vegetation on bare soil. ECB holds topsoil and seed (typically grass) in place to minimize erosion during germination of seed.

Factsheet describing steps builders should take to reduce erosion and control sediment on construction sites during home construction.

A publication developed by the U.S. Forest Service for its employees and other federal agency staff describing erosion control methods.

Report evaluating the accuracy of the regression technique used in 2006 by using the same least-squares regression analysis on data created from hourly energy simulation software.

Guidebook meant to provide public officials with information on excessive heat event.

Report presenting the process of a residential retrofit project for houses in the states of Florida and Alabama, including findings at the time of reporting and highlights of the first home to meet the target HERS Index of 70.

Technical report detailing the vulnerabilities of the U.S. electric grid to weather-related failures.

Document discussing methods to bioengineer stabilization of shorelines using living and non-living plant materials in combination, known as the “Living Shorelines” concept.

Document explores alternatives to riprap on banks and waterways to mitigate bankside erosion in the Pacific Northwest.

Online geospatial map with interactive viewer showing flood risk areas and base flood elevations

A address searchable geographic information system for visualizing the flood hazard of an address and its surrounding area.

Website providing maps for natural disaster risk in the United States.

Report on the field evaluation of whole-building approaches and estimation of the relative contributions of select technologies toward reducing energy use related to space conditioning in new manufactured homes.

Report to understand the long-term moisture performance of unvented roof assemblies with fibrous insulation.

Guidelines from the University of California Cooperative Extension on how fires spread, how homes typically burn, and what homeowners can do to prepare their homes for wildfire season.

Articles, research, case studies, and more outlining considerations for planning and installation of a fire-protection system.

Webpage from FireSafe Marin explaining the vulnerability of different deck setups and materials.

Article from CAL FIRE on fire-resistant landscaping to mitigate ignition of homes.

List of guidelines for plants and their fire resistance from FIRESafe Marin.

Updated wildfire risk assessment, community impacts, and building science measures following the disastrous 2020 wildfire season in the western U.S.

Five step plan from the Tahoe Fire & Fuels team outlining how to create an effective defensible space for wildfire protection. Recommendations include siting for homes on slopes.

This document includes tips for safely and effectively cleaning up a home after a flood. It is available in several languages.

Website providing series of short how-to videos, infographics and more resources on cleaning up a home after a flood.

Journal article describing energy impacts from shade trees and forests and solar heating and air infiltration.

Article describing a numerical model that can be used to size foundation heat exchanger (FHX) systems.

Report analyzing the effect of global climate change on national interests, and providing climate predictions.

Article describing issues with attic ventilation fans and why the state of Georgia residential code does not allow plug-in attic ventilation fans.

Document describing amendments to IECC 2015 to create the Georgia State Minimum Standard Energy Code.

Website with prepopulated information about the United States renewable resources.

A website providing free access to a variety of U.S. and international maps.

Document describing living shoreline techniques for shoreline stabilization.

Report identifying Building America and 2021 International Energy Conservation Code climate zone designations for every county in the United States; where a county's climate zone designation has changed since the 2018 IECC, that change is indicated as well.

Article describing tree preservation during the construction process.

Web article about solar site assessment.

Report presenting seismic design and construction guidance for one- and two-family houses for homebuilders, knowledgeable homeowners, and other non-engineers.

Report documenting short-term test results of the Shift House and compares the results of Passive House Planning Package and Building Energy Optimization modeling of the project.

A report describing how to build a high-performance affordable house to achieve 30% whole house energy savings in the mixed-humid climate region.

Article from The Earthbound Report on passive cooling design strategies for homes located in hot climates.

Wildfire guidance for homes located in the wildland urban interface, focused on site design and individual pieces of the home.

Ignition resistant residential construction and landscaping guidelines from FireSafe Montana.

Article describing methods for designing and constructing multifamily buildings with insulating concrete forms (ICFs).

Blog article citing the risks and downsides of attic ventilation fans from a building science perspective.

Web page describing how to identify heat-related illness and how to prevent it.