EPA Provides Tool to Help Communities Become More Flood Resilient /Smart growth approaches can help communities prepare for and recover from disaster
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new toolto help
communities prepare for, deal with and recover from floods. The Flood
Resilience Checklist offers strategies that communities can consider,
such as conserving land in flood-prone areas; directing new development
to safer areas; and using green infrastructure approaches, such as installing
rain gardens, to manage stormwater.
“Flooding from major storms has cost lives and caused billions of
dollars in damage,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “With
climate change, storms are likely to become even more powerful in many
regions of the country. Where and how communities build will have long-term
impacts on their flood resilience, and on air and water quality and health
and safety. This checklist will help flood-prone communities think through
these issues and come up with the solutions that work best for them.”
The checklist is part of a new report, Planning for Flood Recovery and
Long-Term Resilience in Vermont: Smart Growth Approaches for Disaster-Resilient
Communities. The report is a product of EPA’s year-long Smart Growth
Implementation Assistance project in Vermont where EPA worked with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state agencies, including
the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, to help communities
recover from Tropical Storm Irene. Although the project focused on Vermont,
the policy options and checklist in the report can help any community
seeking to become more flood resilient.
As part of the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance project, FEMA and
EPA also supported the development of Vermont State Agency Policy Options,
a report that provides more detailed suggestions for how Vermont state
agencies can coordinate their efforts to plan for, respond to, and recover
from floods.
EPA will host a webinar on lessons learned from the Vermont project on
Wednesday, August 13. The webinar will feature speakers from FEMA, the
state of Vermont, and the Mad River Valley Planning District.
View the tool and the report:
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sgia_communities.htm#rec1
Learn about the Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Program:
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sgia.htm
Learn about the webinar:
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/webinars/index.html
View images on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usepagov/sets/72157645569318782/
Download Vermont State Agency Policy Options:
http://accd.vermont.gov/sites/accd/files/Documents/strongcommunities/cpr/VT-StateAgencyPolicyOptionsFINAL_web.pdf
Find more resources on EPA’s new Disaster Recovery and Resilience page:
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/disaster-recovery-resilience.htm
and on the State of Vermont’s Plan Today for Tomorrow’s Flood page:
http://accd.vermont.gov/strong_communities/opportunities/planning/resiliency and Vermont Strong website:
http://vtstrong.vermont.gov/