Juno Maps, a leading geospatial technology company, has been named a winner of the RISE Riverine Community Resilience Challenge II, an international competition focused on 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 allows 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 recognition matters because it addresses a critical gap in community resilience planning, particularly for inland areas vulnerable to freshwater flooding that often receive less attention than coastal regions. The implementation of such technology could transform how municipalities approach disaster preparedness, moving from reactive responses to proactive, data-informed strategies that protect both infrastructure and residents.
The implications extend beyond immediate flood risk management, potentially setting a precedent for how geospatial technology can be deployed in other environmental challenges. By making complex data accessible to non-technical municipal staff, the platform democratizes resilience planning and could lead to more equitable disaster preparedness across communities with varying resources. The pilot program in western Virginia will serve as a crucial test case for whether such tools can be effectively scaled to other regions facing similar climate-related threats, potentially influencing national approaches to community resilience.
