Resilient Virginia continues talking about and engaging the community on the very important topic of hazard mitigation Tuesday, November 12 during their webinar Hazard Mitigation Tools: Saving Lives, Building Resilience. The session will focus on hazard mitigation plans, where to find data, and ways to include social vulnerability in the planning process.
The speakers are:
- Baja, originator of the Resilience Hub Concept and developer of the New and Improved All Hazard Mitigation Plan (read From fiction to reality: How resilience hubs could help people weather disasters — and build community)
- Melissa Finucane, Vice President of Science and Innovation, Union of Concerned Scientists (read her bio on the UCSUSA website)
- Krista Romita-Grocholski, Physical Scientist, RAND Corporation, and Lead Principal Investigator with the Mid-Atlantic Climate Adaptation Program (MARISA) (read her bio on RAND)
Understanding what the concepts mean, in brief
Starting at the beginning is understanding the hazards FEMA and others think about. Hazards including flash flooding, sea level rise, changing weather patterns, wildfires, extreme heat, pandemic, and land subsidence. VIMS and others, for example, have created the tool Coastal Virginia Road Accessibility and Flooding to illustrate when and where roads flood. The two images below show where flooding is projected and the number of impassable road miles, respectively.
These hazards are complicated or mitigated by a number of things including people data such as age, education level, income level, housing status, and health status. As is pointed out in the Virginia Coastal Resilience Web Explorer, “Demographics and social vulnerability are important context for understanding how impacts may accrue amongst populations and communities across the Commonwealth.”
The image above shows the amalgamation of socioeconomic, racial, educational, language, and fiscal stress among others. To see the results for individual community context components, go to the Virginia Coastal Resilience Web Explorer (linked above).
Next is hazard mitigation.
Hazard mitigation planning reduces loss of life and property by minimizing the impact of disasters. It begins with state, tribal and local governments identifying natural disaster risks and vulnerabilities that are common in their area. After identifying these risks, they develop long-term strategies for protecting people and property from similar events. Mitigation plans are key to breaking the cycle of disaster damage and reconstruction. (Source: Hazard Mitigation Planning, FEMA)
There are a number of ways that counties plan for and mitigate hazards. The four counties on the NNK all participated in the RAFT (Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool) process several years ago. The counties also include some degree of planning in their regularly updated comp plans (Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland).
Specific to roadways and other elements of the VDOT portfolio, the Virginia Department of Transportation also plans for current and future hazards and adopts hazard mitigation approaches to their work. For example, VDOT recently released Virginia DOT Resilience Plan Update (PDF); this follows the publication of Virginia Transportation Resilience Improvement Plan Technical Memo (PDF) earlier this year.
Government at all levels has the greatest responsibility for hazard identification and mitigation. Local, state, and federal government agencies and initiatives dedicate gobs of money and people power. In the private sector, businesses of all types, for-profit and nonprofit, take on the study and remediation of the threats. But work can be done on an individual and community level to inform the work of government and organizations. The Wetlands Watch Catch the King work comes immediately to mind.