American Planning Association
Sustainable Disaster Recovery Conference
“Your Next Disaster: Getting Ready for Recovery”
November 14, 2013, St. Louis
James C. Schwab, AICP
Manager, APA Hazards Planning Research Center
PAS Report 577
Why rewrite the “Green Book”?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000
ESF-14
FEMA within Homeland Security
Lessons of Hurricane Katrina
Map Modernization and RiskMap
Florida Requirements (no longer required)
Climate change
Emergence of Web-based technology
National Disaster Recovery Framework
Why did FEMA fund this project?
• Rationale online:
http://www.planning.org/research/postdisaster/rationa
le.htm
• Resistance, resilience, reflection:
• What kinds of communities do we want?
• Who provides a comprehensive view of community
issues in disasters?
• What distinguishes planners’ contributions?
• What does it take to turn a vision of resilience into
a reality?
• What do planners know about hazards?
• What do they need to know?
Revisiting the “Green Book”
The Old, the New, the Work in Progress
Not just a PAS Report anymore:
• Online case studies
• Online tools and resources (e.g., model ordinance)
• Recovery News blog
• Potential derivative products under consideration
Where Do We Draw the Line?
Who Moves? Who Stays?
Is Resilience Personal or Public?
Who Takes Responsibility?
APA Response to Sandy
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy came ashore,
causing an estimated $36 billion in damages in New
Jersey and another $32 billion in New York.
APA Recovery Workshop
Planning in a Post-Sandy World
Protecting people, strengthening communities
As the lights have come back on in New York and New Jersey, the region has
looked to the future. How can planning create a more resilient region? Who
will make the tough decisions? And how will they change the way people live,
work, and play along the coastal shores?
For an entire week in April, the American Planning Association examined the
critical questions in a series of free workshops focused on long-term solutions
for stronger communities. Participants learned about:
Connecting disaster recovery to long-range community planning
Using an Interim Recovery Ordinance to resolve land-use issues
Finding funding and meeting state and local requirements
Adopting mitigation planning for more resilient communities
Click on the workshop links below to find the agenda, PowerPoint
presentations, small group breakout session notes, and other information from
each of the five workshops APA presented.
This series of free workshops was supported in part by The Planning Foundation's
"Disaster Recovery and Planning" fund.
Donate to the Foundation
Breakouts: Hands-on Engagement
1: The Vision of a Resilient Community
• Resilience as a concept for governance
• Resilience in functional and economic terms
• Ability to adapt to social, economic, political, and
physical change
• Resiliency in the context of natural hazards: How does
this fit with what planners do already?
 Planning helps avoid disasters
 Disasters are one type of crisis
 Recovery policy has parallels to
development policy
 Disasters are one type of
crisis
 Natural disasters are similar to other
unexpected events that occasionally affect
nearly all communities.
 From a management perspective, the
approaches are similar, organizing
resources to tackle new challenges.
 This is the domain of managers, broader
than any one department of local
government, typically with input from the
planning department, the finance
department and others.
Recovery policy has parallels to
development policy
 The dynamics of a community are affected by
change.
 The rapidity of change is greatest in disaster
circumstances, measured in minutes or hours.
 Blight, employment decline, business
stagnation, commercial revitalization, housing
construction and green initiatives are slow
processes over many years.
 The ingredients are the same, however. In
some instances the disruption and destruction
of a disaster unveils opportunities for reversing
decline, taking advantage of a catalyst
Question 3: How Should the City Address Climate
…And Southern Brooklyn…
Risks?
Plan Highlights
Develop designs for Coney Island Creek wetlands and
tidal barrier with opportunities for economic development16
Support entertainment district expansion, including new
roller coaster and Aquarium improvements
Work with USACE on nourishment of Coney, Brighton and
Plumb Beaches
Replace destroyed Ida G. Israel hospital facility
Launch “21st C. bungalow competition” for neighborhoods
such as Gerritsen Beach
CONFIDENTIAL
Conceptual rendering of Coney Island Creek wetlands and tidal barrier
Defining Resilience
1.
“Resilience” in emergency management terms refers
to the ability to adapt to changing conditions and
withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to
emergencies.
2.
Instead of repeated damage and continual demands
for federal disaster assistance, resilient communities
proactively protect themselves against hazards, build selfsufficiency and become more sustainable. Resilience is the
capacity to absorb severe shock and return to a desired
state following a disaster. It involves technical,
organizational, social and economic dimensions. . . It is
fostered not only by government, but also by individual,
organization and business actions. (Godschalk et al., 2009)
What is a Resilient Community?
 Communities and the people who live therein can, however,
increase their resilience and be even better able to anticipate
threats, limit their impacts, and recover more rapidly through
adaptation and growth in the face of turbulent change.
 Building community resilience encompasses the entire
community, including its physical infrastructure, its
economic and social capital, its natural environment, and
its systems providing essential services.
 Add to these the community’s ability to resist or recover
rapidly from natural or man-caused events.
(ICMA 2011, related to CARRI)
Planners traditionally seek
designs that embody resilience.
 In the layout of new residential neighborhoods or
industrial parks, it is common to configure streets
so there is more than one way to enter or exit the
development.
 Such design is governed by regulation, typically by
standards in the subdivision ordinance.
 In this instance, the design is resilient because it
can maintain access even if one street is
temporarily blocked by an accident, utility work or
other construction.
Finance managers likewise diversify
the community’s investment assets to
lower risk.
Organization of Municipal Government for Recovery Planning
Elected
Governing
Body
Professional
Management
Planning &
Advisory
Commissions
and
Committees
Development
Department(s)
Organizing
Organizing
Influence:
Influence:
Comprehensive
Comprehensive
Plan
Plan
Transportation
& Land Use
Planning
Economic
Development
Planning
Project Design
Review, Zoning,
Subdivision
Economic
Development
Planning
5-Year
Transportation
Improvement
Program
Business
Improvement
Districts,
Incubators,
TIF Strategy
Annual Budget:
Transit/Roads,
:
Capital Projects
Commercial
Revitalization
SBDCs
General
Management
Structure
Annual
Capital
CDBG
Action
Improvement
Plan
Plan &
Agency
Growth
Service
Management
Plans,
Human Needs
Assessments
Financial
Resources
HOME
Strategy
and ESG
Homeless
Services
Risk
Management
CDCs
& and
Insurance
Microenterprise
Reserves for
LoanResiliency
Programs
Section 8
Subsidized
Intergovernmental Plann
Organizations
Metropolitan, Regional, Ru
Stormwater &
Wastewater
Management
Planning
Floodplain
Management
Permits
Drainage
Projects
5-Year
Update to HM
Plan
Public Private
Partnerships,
Affordability
Watershed
Protection
Plans for
Wetlands
Buyouts of
At-Risk
Properties
Neighborhood
Stabilization
Lake
Improvement
Structural
Resilience
Grants
Rental Rehab
Senior Housing
Public Housing
Waterfront
Plan
Event
Recovery
Plan
Response
Recovery
Organization
Recovery
Phase 1
Preparing the Plan
Organizing the
recovery planning
process
Recovery
Phases
1: The Vision of a Resilient Community
Plans for recovery after disasters: Why bother?
• Building a local culture of disaster awareness
• Providing a focus for pre-disaster exercises among
designated public officials
• Opportunity to establish clear lines of responsibility
should the need arise for long-term community
recovery
• Opportunity to consider and review financial needs that
would be triggered by recovery
• Assessment of the community’s overall preparedness
stance
Making Resilience Happen
• Typology of Disaster Recovery Plans
• Pre-Disaster: Operational
• Focused on short-term recovery, driven by
emergency management concerns
• Pre-Disaster: Policy
• Identify managerial framework for long-term
community recovery
• Identify priority issues governing recovery
• Post-Disaster (Design-oriented)
• Based on assessment of known damages
• Focused on physical rebuilding and community
redevelopment
2: Disaster Preparedness and
Recovery: Expectation and Reality
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Components of disaster management
Primer on disaster preparedness
Major federal legislation defining disaster policy
Why preparation and planning matter
The new dynamics of organizational relationships
Where anticipation and reality part company
Understanding the scale and spectrum of damages
Institutional learning after disaster
Special feature: Model recovery ordinance
Disaster Preparedness and
Recovery: Expectation and Reality
• Components of disaster management
Disaster Preparedness and
Recovery: Expectation and Reality
• Primer on disaster preparedness
Explaining the NDRF (sort of)
Disaster Preparedness and
Recovery: Expectation and Reality
Sidebar: Major Federal
Legislation Defining
Disaster Policy
• Key Federal Disaster
Management Laws
• Key Federal
Secondary Disaster
Management Laws
Key Federal Disaster
Management Systems
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Federal Response Plan, 1992
44 CFR Part 201 – Mitigation
Planning
National Incident
Management System, 2004
National Response Plan, 2004
National Response
Framework, 2007
Presidential Preparedness
Policy Directive – 8
NDRF, 2011
Disaster Preparedness and
Recovery: Expectation and Reality
•
•
•
•
Why preparation and planning matter
The new dynamics of organizational relationships
Where anticipation and reality part company
Institutional learning after disaster
Disaster Impact/Recovery Typology
Source: Ken Topping
Geographic Scale
Low Impact Event
High Impact Event
(Low to moderate life loss,
population-economic
dislocation, damage –
primarily requires repair or
restoration of homes and
facilities)
(Extensive life loss,
population-economic
dislocation, major
destruction - requires full
re-planning and major
reconstruction )
Sites/Neighborhood
Level 1. Localized Restoration
Level 2. Localized
Reconstruction
Substantial Parts of
Community
Level 3. Community
Restoration
Level 4. Community
Reconstruction
Examples: recurring flooding,
hurricane damage
Examples: Greensburg KS,
Oakland Hills Fire
Level 5. Regional Restoration
Level 6. Regional
Reconstruction
(Catastrophic)
Substantial Parts of
Region
Example: Northridge EQ
Examples: Hurricane Katrina;
Gulf Oil Spill; Tohoku EQ and
Tsunami
MODEL PRE‐EVENT RECOVERY
ORDINANCE
One action a community can take to move toward better management of disaster
mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery is the adoption of an ordinance before or
after a damaging event to serve as either a forerunner or supplement to a full‐blown
recovery plan. The Model Recovery Ordinance below outlines a foundation on which a
community can organize in advance of a declared disaster to efficiently manage short‐ and
long‐term recovery.
Draft posted at:
https://www.planning.org/research/postdisaster/pdf/modelrecoveryordinance.
pdf
3: Long-term Recovery Planning:
Goals and Policies
• Whole community recovery (Quality of life in addition
to physical rebuilding)
• Opportunities for post-disaster hazard mitigation
• Land use
• Infrastructure/transportation restoration
• Housing
• Economic redevelopment
• Environmental restoration
• Health and recovery
• Making it all work together
4: Long-term Recovery Planning:
Process
• Where and when to start
• Before disaster strikes: Characterize the planning
environment
• After disaster strikes: Characterize the planning
environment
• Leadership and collaboration
• Broadening public
involvement
• Psychological and emotional
considerations
5: Long-term Recovery Planning:
Implementation
• Before disaster strikes: What aspects of a PDRP may need
implementation even before disaster strikes?
• After disaster strikes: What obstacles are likely to arise in
a post-disaster scenario?
• Post-disaster organization and roles
• Financing implementation
• Establishing milestones and a timetable for
implementation
• Implementation as a community enterprise
• Managing post-disaster uncertainties
• Legal issues
• Metrics of recovery: measuring success
6: Next Steps in Creating Resilient
Communities
• Resilience and the future of planning
• Fostering public understanding of environmental
change
• Green communities and economic development
• Seizing opportunities and
anticipating the unexpected
Contact Information
Jim Schwab, AICP, Manager
APA Hazards Planning Research Center
http://www.planning.org/nationalcenters/hazards/index.htm
Jschwab@planning.org
The work of the Hazards Planning Research Center
advances communities that reduce the impact of natural
hazards on the built environment.