Juno Maps has been named a winner of the RISE Riverine Community Resilience Challenge II, an international competition addressing growing flood risks in inland communities across western Virginia. The award recognizes Smart Site Plan, Juno Maps' cloud-based flagship platform designed to help local governments prepare for, respond to, and recover from flood events.
The platform enables municipal teams, regardless of technical background, to visualize flood risk, assess vulnerable infrastructure, and collaborate in real-time across departments. Dustin Rauch, President & CEO of Juno Maps, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership opportunity, stating the solution has potential to save lives and protect infrastructure while putting powerful data in the hands of those who need it most.
As a Challenge winner, Juno Maps will pilot Smart Site Plan in multiple western Virginia municipalities to demonstrate how intuitive geospatial tools can support data-driven resilience planning in high-risk areas. Paul Robinson, Executive Director of RISE, emphasized the urgency of the solution, noting that it gives communities tools to see and understand flood risk before disaster strikes.
The competition, funded by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, supports scalable solutions that strengthen long-term recovery, improve local decision-making, and build resilience to freshwater flooding. RISE Resilience Innovations, the nonprofit organization behind the challenge, has awarded more than $8 million through its Innovation Challenge model to pilot cutting-edge technologies in real-world conditions. Additional information about the organization is available at https://www.riseresilience.org.
Juno Maps was selected for its potential to deliver measurable, real-world impact in high-risk communities. The company builds intuitive, data-rich geospatial platforms that help cities, utilities, and organizations tackle challenges ranging from infrastructure planning to environmental risk. More details about the company's technology can be found at https://junomaps.com.
This development represents a significant advancement in community resilience technology, particularly for business and technology leaders focused on climate adaptation solutions. The ability to democratize complex geospatial data through user-friendly interfaces could transform how municipalities approach disaster preparedness and infrastructure planning. For technology executives, this signals growing market opportunities in the climate resilience sector, where accessible data visualization tools are becoming increasingly critical for public sector clients facing budget constraints and technical capacity limitations.
The pilot implementation in western Virginia communities will serve as a crucial test case for scalable flood resilience solutions that could be replicated nationwide. As climate change intensifies freshwater flooding events, technologies that bridge the gap between complex environmental data and practical municipal decision-making will become essential tools for community survival and economic stability.
