Resilient Communities

Investigators: Siyu Yu (Texas A&M University), Philip Berke, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Joe DeAngelis (American Planning Association)

The Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard™ (PIRS) assists local practitioners to assess the degree to which networks of local plans target geographic areas most prone to hazards and spatially evaluate the coordination of local plans.

Investigators: Cassandra R. Davis, Phil Berke, and Evan Johnson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

This research study has investigated equitable support for socially marginalized groups as they prepare for the next disaster. In particular, the study examines how NGOs and local government officials address preparedness, response, and recovery and to what extent they consider marginalized communities through an event. Results from the study will provide actionable steps for practitioners and communities to address inequity when supporting marginalized populations.

Investigators: Cassandra R. Davis, Miyuki Hino, and Phil Berke (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Socially marginalized communities are disproportionally more at risk from environmental hazards and, thus, less likely to recover fully and quickly. This project uses an equity framework within a theory of change to assess how marginalized groups are effectively identified and supported in mitigation and recovery. The intent is to provide evidence on how federal agencies can improve the measurement of outcomes for marginalized groups to help guide resilience and disaster recovery planning.

Investigators: Cassandra R. Davis, Iheoma Iruka, and Simona Goldin (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

This project aims to assess how a historically Black community has weathered consecutive climate hazards and uncovered the strategies they used to maintain cultural resilience in order to help inform policy recommendations on how to best support historically and socially marginalized populations through repeated climate hazards.

Investigator: Gavin Smith (North Carolina State University)

This project is developing a training course for the University Direct Technical Assistance (DTA) Network in support of FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) and hazard mitigation planning programs. Findings are incorporated into a larger University DTA Framework Report supported by a separate grant provided by FEMA to develop a strategy to identify a nation-wide cadre of faculty, extension experts, and students that can help under-resourced communities write and implement HMA grants and hazard mitigation plans.

Investigators: Dan Cox (Oregon State University) and John van de Lindt (Colorado State University)

This project developed a methodology for virtual damage assessment (VDA) of building structures using pre- and post-storm street-level and aerial imagery data and prior work on combined wind-wave-surge damage prediction with the goal to improve disaster mitigation decision-making, in particular elevating home and businesses, flood proofing, and moving essential or critical facilities.

Investigator: Miyuki Hino (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

This project evaluates the application and funding pipeline for FEMA’s hazard mitigation assistance programs.

Investigators: Miyuki Hino (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Casey Dietrich, and Katherine Anarde (North Carolina State University)

This project is analyzing how government stakeholders and the broader public access and understand data and research on chronic coastal flooding. Since 2021, the research team has been collaborating with the town of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, a small town struggling with the impacts of sea level rise. The PIs deployed custom sensors in key flood-prone areas of the town in early 2022. In the first year of data collection, 45 floods (where a flood is defined as standing water on the roadway) were identified. The town government triggers flood monitoring based on the forecasted tide height. Fully 30% of the detected floods were completely unexpected: the forecasted tide was below the monitoring threshold, but due to non-tidal forces and land-based drivers, the streets flooded nonetheless. Ongoing work in other communities suggests that this problem is widespread: it is flooding much more often than indicated by existing data sources, and communities are grappling with the immediate impacts (flooded roads, impaired wastewater systems) and long-term consequences with little data to inform their choices.

Investigator: Austin Becker (University of Rhode Island)

This project leverages the advancements in ADCIRC storm modeling to provide emergency managers access to relevant, local-scale information about potential consequences of extreme events in advance of a storm’s landfall.

Investigator: Laura Moore (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

This project, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Coasts and People program, is a Research Coordination Network (RCN) to address grand challenges in coastal resilience. Developed coastal environments are shaped by interactions between human activities and natural processes. Mitigation and recovery strategies that promote adaptation at the time scale of storm events can be counterproductive over longer timescales. A series of collaborative activities were held to integrate coastal researcher, stakeholder, and practitioner expertise, building capacity for a comprehensive understanding of the human-natural coastal system. The goal is that this and future research efforts will provide insights and identify opportunities to help communities steer away from less desirable future outcomes and toward outcomes they deem more desirable.

This project, funded by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, seeks to address the question, “What are the constraints and impediments faced by local/regional/tribal/territorial governments in applying the Infrastructure Resilience Planning Framework (IRPF) and related resources with infrastructure providers and how can these impediments be addressed given the cross-sector and multi-jurisdictional nature of critical infrastructure systems and services?” The IRPF is a flexible framework that enables users to identify critical infrastructure, assess related risks, and develop and implement resilience solutions. The framework helps users understand interconnected infrastructure systems and can be incorporated into many types of plans such as economic development, capital improvement, hazard mitigation, and emergency response/recovery.

Investigator: Gavin Smith (North Carolina State University)

This project, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had three technical tasks: 1. Assess Nationwide Capacity and Commitment to the University Network Concept and Initiate the Establishment of the University Network and National Framework. 2. Develop a Hazards Overlay District and Associated Design Standards while Informing a National Managed Retreat Policy, and 3. Advance Resilient Infrastructure Strategies with Nature-based Solutions.