ResilienceCities can save lives, resources by using a vulnerability reduction scorecard
A new planning tool enables communities to effectively reduce their vulnerabilities to hazards across their network of plans – including transportation, parks, economic development, hazard mitigation, emergency management and comprehensive land use.
In Norfolk, Virginia, officials are taking action to reduce their city’s vulnerability to flood risks.
Flooding in Norfolk does not just happen during major storms. It can happen when the sun is shining, if the tide is high or the winds are right.
A participant in the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program, the city adopted a resilience city strategy in 2015. In 2016, Norfolk prepared a forward-looking plan, which responds to sea level rise expected in 2100, and includes principles to guide the development of a new comprehensive plan during 2019-2020.
To help reach their goals, city planners collaborated with Dr. Phil Berke, Jaimie Masterson, American Institute of Certified Planners, and their team from the Institute of Sustainable Communities at Texas A&M. As a project partner of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence (CRC), they are funded by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). This research project led to the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS), a novel planning approach that helps prevent people and investments from being in harm’s way, and ultimately save lives and resources.
S&T says that this planning tool enables communities to effectively reduce their vulnerabilities to hazards across their network of plans – including transportation, parks, economic development, hazard mitigation, emergency management and comprehensive land use, explained Eleanore Hajian, S&T’s program manager for the CRC. The CRC is a consortium of more than thirty university, public and private sector partners from across the nation led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.
The scorecard in action
The research team and local planners worked together using PIRS to improve the integration of disaster mitigation across the community’s network of plans, so they can better work together to reduce vulnerabilities to hazards. This is especially important in regards to plans that guide decision-making for construction and development in hazardous areas.
