A Resilient Future for JPL

Environmental risks pose challenges to the resilience of JPL and its surrounding communities, affecting infrastructure, operations, and workforce well-being. This report offers JPL’s first comprehensive assessment of local environmental risks and institutional resilience, underscoring both the complexity and importance of these issues.

While climate variability influences fluctuations in local temperature, precipitation patterns, and the frequency of their extremes, JPL also contends with various environmental risks and hazards —like heat waves, poor air quality, severe storms, and wildfires—that can stress laboratory infrastructure and operations.

This report outlines practical, forward-looking strategies to help JPL adapt and prepare, ensuring the continuity of its mission and the safety of its workforce. By leveraging JPL and NASA's Earth science and technology capabilities and expertise, it provides decision-relevant information for both the lab and the broader LA Basin where our workforce lives, serving as an excellent example of NASA's "Earth Science to Action" Strategy.