FEMA reports on a Sandy success story from the New Jersey coast.

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Included on the page are several fact sheets discussing topics including rebuilding in A and V zones. If you’re still trying to wrap your brain around what’s coming down the pike, this is a good place to spend some time.

FEMA page: “Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012“.

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If you’d like all the gory details on what’s different, definitely download the new Coordinator’s Manual. If you want an involved overview of the changes and the thought process behind it, head over to crs2012.org. You can download a PDF summary of changes here.

For the quickest of overviews as to what’s changed, though, you’d be hard-pressed to beat the list in The CRS Express, a regional CRS newsletter put together by CRS/ISO Specialist Scott Cofoid. With his permission, here’s his top 17 changes in the CRS.

1. All scoring and recertification policies in the 2013 Coordinator’s Manual will not take effect until your next cycle or modification. All communities looking to join CRS will use the new Coordinator’s Manual.
2. All modifications under the new Coordinator’s Manual will become full cycle verifications since there are so many changes.
3. Annual Recertifications under the new Coordinator’s Manual will require you to calculate the area of floodplain, number of new buildings in your floodplain each year, total number of buildings in your floodplain, and number of Rep Loss buildings, among other things, so you can track these items more easily from year to year.
4. There is a free Community Self-Assessment that can be performed. This allows you look at what hazards your community faces, where those hazards are located, what types of development are affected by those hazards, what type of development is in your floodplain, and the steps you need to take to advise, educate, and prepare your residents (and yourself) to help minimize flood damage in your community. This is not mandatory for any CRS Activity, but you are encouraged to go through it to gain a better understanding of flooding problems and floodplain resources in your community and how to best manage them. The CRS Community Self Assessment can be found at here.
5. The format of the 2013 Coordinator’s Manual is a little different. It now lists every creditable element separately with its specific criteria for earning credit, its impact adjustment (if applicable), and the documentation needed both at cycle and recertification time. We hope this will make the Manual easier for communities to use.
6. Class prerequisites have changed. You can now earn up to a Class 7 without a Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) Rating. The new Class 6 BCEGS prerequisite is a 5/5 and the new Class 4 prerequisite is a 4/4.
7. Class 4 and Class 1 prerequisites have been increased. Credit for Activity 610 (Flood Warning & Response) is now required for Class 4 or better communities as well as some credit (if applicable to the community) in Activities 620 (Levees) and 630 (Dams). Some credits related to Natural Functions activities are now required. Refer to the 2013 Coordinator’s Manual (pg. 210-4 through pg. 210-8) for a more detailed listing of all prerequisites.
8. Credit for Activity 310 (Elevation Certificates) now has a minimum threshold of 90%. That means that 90% of your ECs have to be correct to stay in the CRS.
9. Still being considered by FEMA is whether all ECs will be required to be submitted each year with your Recertification (after your first cycle visit with the 2013 Manual). Stay tuned on this upcoming decision.
10. The new Program for Public Information (PPI) credit is for a locally-tailored effort developed by a diverse committee to accurately define what flood-related information your residents need to know and how to best distribute this information to appropriate residents. More information and the details of how to put together an effective PPI can be found in Activity 330 and at our website www.CRSresources.org/300-3. An effective PPI can earn up to 180 additional points through other connected Activities, while providing your residents the timely and appropriate information they need.
11. A new Activity was created: Activity 370 (Flood Insurance Promotion). Credit is earned for assessing the current flood insurance coverage in your community, developing a plan to increase coverage and for implementing that plan. The objective of this Activity is to encourage communities to think about the relationship between managing development in the floodplain and understanding flood insurance as a wise investment.
12. Credit for Activity 420 (Open Space) has doubled. Credit for requiring new subdivisions to keep flood prone property unbuildable has increased significantly, too.
13. Activity 430 (Higher Regulatory Standards) has been restructured. New elements have been added and some existing standards have been valued higher. The prohibition of fill in the floodplain is ideal, but requiring compensatory storage will also increase your score.
14. Credit for Activity 520 (Acquisition and Relocation) has been significantly reduced to more accurately compare with Open Space credit.
15. There will no longer be the automatic points for your State’s Dam Safety Program. You will now have to be affected by a high-hazard-potential dam and have an inundation area map to earn this credit.
16. More emphasis has been placed on the 600 Series (Warning and Response). Credits have generally increased in these three CRS Activities, but knowledge of the hazards and having a well thought out plan on how to manage the hazards are required.
17. Communities will now be required to document individual components of their stormwater management system for 540 (Drainage System Maintenance) credit. See the Coordinator’s Manual for details.

Thanks again to Scott for sharing this. If you have questions (including when these changes will affect your community), check with your CRS/ISO specialist.

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The government does not and should not dictate where people can live, own property or operate businesses. But policymakers could reduce the cost of disasters by investing more in natural-hazard mitigation and by implementing measures to discourage development of at-risk areas. Our research estimates that if the government pursued these policies, it could save some $40 billion over the next decade.

Great article in the LA Times by our own Ed Thomas with David R. Conrad.

The post “The goal should be to use federal money to prevent disasters, not merely to clean up afterward.” appeared first on National Blog.

Integrating Hazard Mitigation Into Local Planning: Case Studies and Tools for Community Officials provides practical guidance on how to incorporate risk reduction strategies into existing local plans, policies, codes, and programs that guide community development or redevelopment patterns. It includes recommended steps and tools to assist with local integration efforts, along with ideas for overcoming possible impediments, and presents a series of case studies to demonstrate successful integration in practice. The document also includes several pull-out fact sheets to provide succinct guidance on specific integration topics.

This resource is intended for those who are engaged in any type of local planning, but primarily community planners and emergency managers who are involved with hazard mitigation planning and implementation. It was developed as a supplement to Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning, prepared in 2010 by the American Planning Association (APA) in partnership with FEMA.

What’s in Integrating Hazard Mitigation Into Local Planning

• Introduction
• Defining Integration
• Planning for Resilience
• Organization
• The Importance of Integrating Hazard Mitigation Into Local Planning
• Making the Business Case
• Challenges
• Opportunities and Benefits
• How to Plan Resilient Communities Through Integration
• Step 1: Assess Your Community’s Planning Framework with a Lens for Resilience
• Step 2: Inform and Engage Local Leadership, Staff, and Stakeholders
• Step 3: Establish an Integration Agenda of Resilient Community Principles and Actions
• Step 4: Be Opportunistic!
• Step 5: Monitor, Measure, Report, Repeat
• Overcoming Obstacles to Successful Integration
• Increasing Hazard Awareness and Understanding of Mitigation Solutions
• Carefully Frame the Issue to Resonate with Your Community
• Balancing the Appearance of Competing Priorities
• Building Political Will
• Finding Incentives and Drivers for Integrated Planning
• Expanding Local Capacity to Support Local Resources
• Building a Framework for Intergovernmental Coordination

The post New FEMA Guidance on Integrating Hazard Mitigation Into Local Planning appeared first on National Blog.

From Resilient Coastal Development through Land Use Planning: Tools & Management Techniques in the Gulf of Mexico:

Like land use planning, community resilience begins at the local level. How does the community envision itself in 20, 40, 50 years? Who lives here in the future? What type of businesses does the community want to attract? What are the existing identified challenges? What might be future challenges? The answers to all these questions and more help local communities develop a comprehensive approach for the future, and in doing so, improve the resilience of the community as a whole.

Land use planning is one way that local communities can achieve greater resilience. The tools included in this report represent broad categories of land use issues that local communities may encounter and provide resources for developing resilient land use policies in a variety of areas.

What’s in Resilient Coastal Development through Land Use Planning?

• Introduction
• Land Use Planning Overview
• Comprehensive Planning
• Zoning
• Building Regulation
• Land Use Tools for Achieving Coastal Resilience
• Smart Growth
• Land Use Techniques
• Benefits of a Resilient Land Use Policy
• Assessing Needs
• Conclusion

You can download it below. It’s a quick read, and has a lot of useful information (and links to a lot more). Well done.

The post A Great Resource for Community Resilience Planning appeared first on National Blog.

GOMA’s Clean & Resilient Marina Guidebook is a three document set that provides marina owners and operators with useful information on tools and recommended practices. In addition, a Clean & Resilient Marina Policy Guide and an Educational Tri-fold Brochure are available.

Clean & Resilient Marina Guidebook Document Set

• Clean & Resilient Marina Guidebook-at-a-Glance (pdf, 1 MB)
• Clean & Resilient Marina Guidebook Volume I (pdf, 2 MB)
• Clean & Resilient Marina Guidebook Volume II-Appendices (pdf, 42 MB)

Other Documents

• Clean & Resilient Marina Policy Guide (pdf, 500 kb)
• Educational Tri-fold Brochure (pdf, 250 kb)

Click here to download all documents in zipped format. (zip, 40 MB)

The post GOMA’s Clean & Resilient Marina Materials Released appeared first on National Blog.

Don’t know what the CRS is? Better check out our primer.

The post New 2013 CRS Coordinator’s Manual Released appeared first on National Blog.

From their press release yesterday:

The guide is designed to assist practitioners responsible for understanding and preparing for climate-related effects. By focusing on software and web-based applications that leverage geospatial information, Tools for Coastal Adaptation Planning will help these professionals account for the health and well-being of ecosystems and human communities in projects and plans.

The guide targets practitioners and decision makers involved in conservation, local planning, and the management of coastal zones, natural resources, protected areas, habitat, and watersheds in the coastal United States including the Great Lakes. In addition to detailed information about a key collection of visualization, modeling, and decision support tools, Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning offers instructive case studies about how other professionals have successfully applied the tools in a several coastal communities in the United States. Professionals from inland and international regions will also benefit from the guide’s tool information and lessons.

The tools covered in the guide are:

1. CanVis
2. SLR Viewer
3. SoVI
4. HAZUS
5. OpenNSPECT
6. SLAMM
7. InVEST
8. CCVI
9. CommunityViz
10. NatureServe Vista

Each one gets a quick summary page describing what the tool is for and where to find it:

Also their are matrices of how the tools compare, and a 5-step plan for how to pick the best one for your situation. If your community is beginning to try to figure out how to address climate change, this is a great place to begin.

EBM Tools Network – Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning

The post New Guide to Tools for Coastal Climate Adaptation Planning appeared first on National Blog.

Find the details on NOAA’s Digital Coast website.

The post Community Rebuilds Wiser after Sandy appeared first on National Blog.