For every $1 that the U.S. government spends on resiliency projects, such as elevating buildings in flood zones and improving water management systems, society saves $6 on the future costs of natural disasters, according to a new report by the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS).

That’s higher than the 4-to-1 savings the institute originally found in a 2005 report, Bloomberg News reported. The increase is due in large measure to the growing impacts of climate change.

The institute, founded by Congress in 1974, examined 23 years of cost-benefit data from mitigation grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). The grants totaled $27 billion and led to an estimated $158 billion in savings: $68 billion in avoided deaths and injuries, $58 billion in avoided property damage, and $13 billion in avoided interruptions to business and temporary housing and other living costs for disaster victims.

Link to web page =>