Hazard Mitigation Policy
As a global issue, climate change can either feel incredibly overwhelming or too far out of reach——we may feel as though the threat is too great to mitigate, or that its effects are not substantial or immediate enough to impact us directly. These are valid feelings, and the truth is that most of us do not have the capacity to even think about climate change. Luckily, groups of professionals are actively thinking about strategies to address and mitigate the effects of climate change.
In my previous post, I discussed the concept of hazard mitigation——actions that help reduce or eliminate risks caused by climate-related disasters like floods or wildfires——and hazard mitigation policies, which are necessary to effectively support and implement hazard mitigation strategies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was established to lead emergency disaster recovery efforts since its inception in 1979 and continues to develop policies and resources to provide support and technical assistance for hazard mitigation plans at the federal, state, local and tribal levels. The State Mitigation Plan Review Guide (the “Guide”) acts as FEMA’s official policy on hazard mitigation planning requirements, and is grounded in existing directives and standards that are focused on risk reduction and climate change preparedness and resilience.
The Guide states that “FEMA supports hazard mitigation policies as a means to:
Foster partnerships for natural hazard mitigation;
Promote more resilient and sustainable states and communities; and
Reduce the costs associated with disaster response and recovery.”
Although established at the Federal level, this policy is intended to provide a framework for continued planning at state and local levels, and focuses on relationship-building as a guiding principle to emphasize the importance of awareness, communication, and review in the hazard mitigation goal-setting process. The process is iterative and ongoing. It aims to understand state and local landscapes to properly advise on the best mitigation and long-term resilience strategies, and it identifies the key stakeholders necessary for gathering relevant and current hazard- and climate-related risk data that inform these plans. The process also helps to identify community-level core capabilities, such as transportation, housing, and public health services, to determine the actions and resources necessary to effect sustainable preparedness measures. The Guide is by no means a perfect policy and cannot address the uncertainties of unknown future climate risks; however, it does aim to set a precedent for preparedness standards that help minimize hazard-related risks and increase resilience efforts around the country.
The Guide is only one example of policies that have been developed to support and implement hazard mitigation strategies——hundreds exist across federal and state levels. The reality, however, is that most climate resilience and adaptation policies & plans are still not comprehensive enough to account for factors such as flooding and social vulnerability. A recent webinar hosted by the State Resilience Partnership and the Pew Charitable Trusts reviewed the outcomes of a report prepared by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization that provides data to advance economic equity. The report revealed that of the 148 state resilience plans analyzed, 54% did not include future climate projections, and most of the state plans generally failed to even consider the impact of flooding hazards on economically disadvantaged (or “socially vulnerable”) communities, which reveals a significant disconnect with social justice standards.
The onus is now on state- and local-level policymakers to improve and strengthen climate resilience initiatives, but the current Administration has also recently taken steps to influence change:
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which I mentioned in my previous post, establishes a number of resilience provisions that will boost funding for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) programs, which each support states, local communities, tribes and territories as they undertake hazard mitigation projects to reduce risks from disasters and natural hazards.
Through Executive Order 14030, the Administration reinstated the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS), which requires agencies to protect federally-funded buildings and projects from flood risks through enhancements that can prevent or mitigate any potential flood damage.
FEMA introduced a two-phase approach to improving the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP’s) risk rating methodology, called Risk Rating 2.0, which would enable delivery of more equitable pricing to consumers.
Many other institutions and programs are evaluating creative strategies and other policies that would enhance or support climate resilience initiatives, and I will review some of these in my next post. Stay tuned!
-T