Planning Information Exchange Webinars

FEMA's National Risk Index (NRI) data and interactive website are just coming into broad use and are showing potential to provide a powerful and much-needed link between hazard science and practice. The NRI models risk for every county in the United States using a consistent methodology for 18 natural hazards, including flood, drought, severe weather, and more. These results can be downloaded and directly integrated into state and regional hazard mitigation plans risk assessments, allowing comparative analysis and understanding of large-scale risk trends. Besides being readily available, one of the benefits of the NRI in state hazard mitigation plan updates is the ability to analyze comparative flood risk using a consistent methodology, including rural areas that often do not have flood maps. Another benefit is the ability to access social vulnerability data and resiliency indices readily.

Jeff Brislawn is a hazard mitigation and emergency management consultant with WSP. Brian Neff is a Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Specialist at WSP. Kevin Currie is a training coordinator at the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Jeff Brislawn

Jeff Brislawn is a hazard mitigation and emergency management consultant with WSP USA Environment & Infrastructure Solutions, Inc., and has over 30 years of related experience for state and local governments. Jeff has been the project manager on more than 65 local and state hazard mitigation planning projects, including the Utah State Hazard Mitigation Plan in 2023-2024, and has been a contributor to numerous others. Jeff's background includes 12 years of public sector experience including work for the Colorado Office of Emergency Management and FEMA. Jeff has assisted numerous state, local, and federal clients with hazard risk assessment and related resiliency planning including multi-hazard mitigation plans, drought mitigation and response plans, dam failure evacuation plans, and local emergency operations plans. Jeff has an M.S. in Geology from Colorado State University and a B.S. in Geology from Ohio University and is a Certified Floodplain Manager.

Presenter

Brian Neff

As a Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Specialist, Dr. Neff works to integrate science into hazard planning in innovative ways. Dr. Neff's research extends to both physical and social sciences, including his doctoral studies on the transformation of water policy and a Randy Boggess Award as co-author of the paper of the year published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). Expertise includes a variety of approaches to hazard resilience, hydrology, water supply and wastewater, and hazard planning. A passion for applying science to improve society recently led Dr. Neff to WSP USA, where he spends most of his time working with communities to develop hazard mitigation plans.

moderator

Kevin Currie

Cross-Agency Coordination for Effective Hazard Mitigation and Recovery

December 15, 2023

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The third installment of the Planning Information Exchange will focus on how to coordinate hazard mitigation policies and practices across local agencies, with an emphasis on the interplay between emergency management officials and building and planning departments. It will also discuss the role that community planning plays in bringing about the greatest safety measures for a district's constituents when faced with a natural disaster.

Speakers will delve into both specific components of this process — such as building, fire, and land use codes — as well as broader strategies that can be employed. These include coordinating plans across a jurisdiction that pertain to public safety in the context of hazard mitigation and ensuring alignment in these plans to achieve maximum efficacy. While the speakers come from a background of local and regional planning, lessons can be applied to all levels of governance for those who work in hazard mitigation and recovery capacities.

Lori Hodges is the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, CO. Eric Fried is Larimer County's Chief Building Official. Lesli Ellis is the Community Development Director of Larimer County. Joseph DeAngelis is a Research Manager at the American Planning Association.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Lori Hodges

Lori Hodges has over twenty years of experience at both the state and local levels in the emergency services and emergency management fields. She currently works as the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, Colorado. Lori is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the State of Colorado. She is also a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program and the master's program through the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. Additional education includes a master's degree in Political Science and Public Policy and a bachelor's degree in Emergency Management and Planning. She received the Emergency Manager of the Year Award from the Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) in 2008 and 2013 and received the CEMA President's Award in 2020.

Presenter

Eric Fried

Eric Fried has spent over 15 years with Larimer County, serving as its Chief Building Official for the past 11. He previously served as a Combination Inspector for the City of Westminster, Colorado, and held a similar role at the National Inspection Services before that. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University.

Presenter

Lesli Ellis

Lesli has almost 30 years of planning experience and currently serves as Larimer County's Community Development Director. She has planned for local and regional governments in Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington and has consulted with over 40 communities in the U.S. on long-range plans and policies, codes, and open lands and conservation programs. Lesli received a Master of Urban Planning and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Moderator

Joseph DeAngelis

Joseph DeAngelis, AICP is a planner and Research Manager with the American Planning Association in Chicago. Joseph's primary area of research is in the realm of climate adaptation and community resilience. He currently manages APA's slate of FEMA and NOAA-sponsored research projects. Previously, he was a resiliency planner for the New York City Department of City Planning, where he worked on long-term planning and zoning solutions for communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

How to Bridge Planning Efforts to Achieve Resilience

June 29, 2023

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This second installment of the Planning Information Exchange will demonstrate how several types of planning can be integrated into the theme of resilience and should be coordinated for consistency. Examples will include local mitigation strategies, regional resiliency plans, vulnerability assessments, and other county-, regional-, and state-level planning efforts. In addition, the presentation will discuss examples of integrating equity considerations and emphasizing partner collaboration across applicable plans, including a comparison between two systems for the evaluation of community impact.

This webinar will also provide information about creating mitigation and resilience plans with intention. Through storytelling, this presentation will explore a series of disasters that shaped community needs, followed by lessons learned and best practices for coordinated mitigation and resilience planning and prioritization. Speakers will highlight how these efforts have been implemented using a triple bottom line approach to ensure built environment professionals can advance beneficial actions for those who need it most.

Fara Ilami is a regional resiliency manager with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. Lori Hodges is the director of emergency management for Larimer County, CO. Kevin Currie is the training coordinator for the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Fara Ilami

Fara Ilami is the Regional Resiliency Manager for the Northeast Florida Regional Council. She works with the communities of Northeast Florida to address shocks and stresses to the region brought about by climate change and other threats. She has established a regional resiliency collaborative for Northeast Florida (Resilient First Coast), which provides opportunities for members from multiple sectors to share information and work towards goals such as a regional resiliency action plan. Part of Fara's work involves collaboration on projects with various partners at the federal, state, regional, and local levels. Fara has over 10 years of experience applying principles of earth and ocean science to real-world problems, such as sea level rise and erosion. Her expertise in nature-based solutions to increase the resilience of coastal areas has been featured in such publications as Environmental Connection and was the catalyst for Florida's Living Shorelines Training Course. Fara is a certified Project Management Professional and has a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Oceanography.

Presenter

Lori Hodges

Lori Hodges has over twenty years of experience at both the state and local levels in the emergency services and emergency management fields. She currently works as the Director of Emergency Management for Larimer County, Colorado. Lori is a Certified Emergency Manager through the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) and the State of Colorado. She is also a graduate of the Executive Leaders Program and the master's program through the Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School. Additional education includes a master's degree in Political Science and Public Policy and a bachelor's degree in Emergency Management and Planning. She received the Emergency Manager of the Year Award from the Colorado Emergency Management Association (CEMA) in 2008 and 2013 and received the CEMA President's Award in 2020.

MODERATOR

Kevin Currie

Kevin Currie is a training and e-learning coordinator at ASFPM.

The Only Constant is Change: Hazard Mitigation Updates

May 18, 2023

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Hazard mitigation practices evolve to address developing conditions and enhance community resilience. One recent change is FEMA's new Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide, released in April 2022 and going into effect in April 2023. This new guidance connects various federal programs and promotes whole-community mitigation investments. Planners and floodplain managers can prepare for these changes, and be better prepared to address multiple hazards, by learning from firsthand accounts of plan development processes.

This first installment of the Planning Information Exchange will emphasize broad approaches to hazard mitigation practices, focusing on updated guidance for plan development. It will provide examples of how communities on the ground are adapting floodplain management and planning practices to align with recent updates. Further, it will highlight how hazard mitigation plan development can promote equitable outcomes for underserved community members.

Nathan Slaughter is a certified professional planner and floodplain manager with over twenty-four years of experience in hazard mitigation planning, disaster recovery planning, business development, and project management. Brenda Defoe is the Director of Planning for the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, where she ensures uniformity across the diverse work led by the council across its eight-county region. Benjamin Almquist is the Director of Emergency Management for the City of Charleston, where he focuses on all-hazards disaster planning and management, as well as FEMA mitigation and recovery. Jo Peña, AICP, is a research associate at the American Planning Association.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Nathan Slaughter, AICP, CFM

Nathan Slaughter is a certified professional planner and floodplain manager with over twenty-four years of experience in hazard mitigation planning, disaster recovery planning, business development, and project management.

Presenter

Brenda Defoe-Suprenant

Brenda Defoe-Suprenant is the Director of Planning for the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, where she ensures uniformity across the diverse work led by the council across its eight-county region.

Presenter

Benjamin Almquist

Benjamin Almquist is the Director of Emergency Management for the City of Charleston, where he focuses on all-hazards disaster planning and management, as well as FEMA mitigation and recovery.

Moderator

Jo Pena, AICP

Jo Peña is a Research Associate at APA. She provides research support on projects related to resilience, community health, equity, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Jo received her Master's in Urban Planning and Policy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she specialized in environmental planning.

Foresight and Scenario Planning for Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation

October 31, 2022

As a key component of the practice of foresight, exploratory scenario planning offers significant benefits for planning in dynamic and complex systems. Thus, it can be a particularly useful tool in planning for natural hazards and adapting to climate change, given the complexity and uncertainty involved in both of these areas. Though hazard mitigation and climate adaptation are overlapping fields, scenario planning has thus far been more widely used within climate adaptation than in hazard mitigation. This is largely because the federal regulatory processes and requirements that drive most hazard mitigation planning in the United States do not address scenario planning. Climate adaptation planning, which is not widely standardized and is more often driven by local and regional needs rather than federal requirements, has more readily adopted tools like scenario planning.

This PIE webinar will define the use cases for scenario planning for both hazard mitigation and climate adaptation and outline the challenges to its wider adoption among planners, floodplain managers, and allied practitioners. Additionally, this webinar will offer guidance on the use of data and tools that support more robust decision-making through scenario planning and highlight practical examples of communities using scenario planning to mitigate hazards and adapt to the impacts of climate change more effectively.

Donovan Finn, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Sustainability Studies Program and Director of the Undergraduate Degree in Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, is a planner and research manager at the American Planning Association. Jo Peña, AICP, is a research associate at the American Planning Association.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Donovan Finn, PhD

Donovan Finn is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning at Stony Brook University in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the Sustainability Studies Program. His research focuses on coastal adaptation and resilience, long-term community recovery from disasters, and environmental justice. He has an MUP and PhD in Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Presenter

Joe DeAngelis, AICP

Joseph DeAngelis, AICP, is a planner and research manager at the American Planning Association, where he focuses on climate adaptation, natural hazard risk, and community resilience. He holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from CUNY-Hunter College.

Moderator

Jo Pena, AICP

Lost In Planning: Interdependent Vulnerabilities And Compounding Climate Threats

September 27, 2022

It is often said that "...a city is a system of systems", but the aging infrastructure in these systems is a vulnerability exacerbated by natural hazards and climate variability. The 2018 National Climate Assessment highlighted that current water management and planning principles leave communities exposed to more risk than anticipated, as risks evolve and hazards can interweave and compound one another.

FEMA's guidance for Hazard Mitigation Plans (HMP) advises communities to address natural hazard design events and encourages them to address manmade and technological hazards. However, the HMP does not require an overview of aging infrastructure in hazard analyses. Without recognizing that resiliency depends on reliability, we are missing the point of the most basic definition of a resilient system as one that performs its intended function under baseline conditions and can quickly recover, after some adversity. Identifying vulnerabilities and how they impact a community's resilience makes it possible to curtail expensive, unplanned, and reactive responses so that we can prioritize and prevent hazardous disruptions — so life and business go on uninterrupted.

This webinar will show how we can use predictive algorithms to generate vulnerability assessments across key community infrastructure sectors, including potable water, transportation, energy, communications, and sanitation. This innovative approach addresses how the collocation of infrastructure can obscure the true vulnerability of our communities and flaws in their resilience.

Paul Robinson is a Senior Water Resources Leader and Jacobs' Global Community of Practice Lead for Flood Modeling and Planning, based in Houston, Texas. Mark Reiner, Ph.D., PE, is the Director of Resilient Infrastructure at Jacobs. Kevin Currie is a Training and E-learning Coordinator at ASFPM.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Paul Robinson

Paul Robinson is a Senior Water Resources Leader and Jacobs' Global Community of Practice Lead for Flood Modeling and Planning, based in Houston, Texas. Having earned his Master's in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Sheffield in England, he has since gained 23 years of experience helping clients grapple with flood risk, climate resilience, and water resource issues. He has successfully led large multi-disciplinary and client-consultant teams delivering water resources and flood planning projects across the US, the Caribbean, and Europe. In terms of collection systems modeling, Paul co-led the development of sanitary sewer models for the entirety of Gwinnett County, northwest of Atlanta, utilizing SewerGEMS and GIS data management techniques that leveraged and maximized the utility of the available system data.

Presenter

Mark Reiner, PhD, PE

Mark Reiner is the Director of Resilient Infrastructure at Jacobs. He is a professional engineer and geologist, with an emphasis on developing resilient urban infrastructure paradigms to protect against acute and chronic hazards and respond to social vulnerabilities. Mark has over 25 years of experience as a professional engineer and geologist, with an emphasis on developing resilient horizontal infrastructure paradigms that identify pre-failure vulnerabilities and protect against acute and chronic hazards. The common denominator of his work has been to focus on the fact that resilient infrastructure is a continuous system that connects supply to demand, from ports to doorsteps in cities and installations. Mark has co-founded two separate companies that integrated GIS and big information; one to analyze a city's energy, water, and carbon consumption at the meter level every month, and another to investigate aging infrastructure in cities. Both were acquired by large engineering firms. Mark has authored 16 vetted publications on infrastructure resilience ranging from civil engineering journals, to book chapters, and co-authored a report for the United Nations International Resource Panel.

Equitable Hazard Mitigation: Practice-Informed Recommendations for Change

July 25, 2022

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Hazard mitigation can play an important role in promoting equitable outcomes for historically marginalized communities. Portland, Oregon, is working with the community to meet immediate needs and reduce future risks associated with floods, heat, and other hazards. Join the next PIE webinar to learn more about how Portland identified context-sensitive solutions by integrating public engagement activities, including innovative outreach strategies, implementation strategies, and collaboration between local agencies with hazard mitigation and emergency management functions to support a more resilient future.

This webinar will focus on how to apply an equity lens to ongoing hazard mitigation planning processes, focusing on elevating underrepresented voices and implementing solutions for people experiencing disproportionate impacts from local hazards. Participants will learn about some of Portland's successful strategies and some efforts that did not work as well.

Jonna Papaefthimiou is the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Portland, Oregon. Jo Pena is a research associate at APA.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Jonna Papaefthimiou

Jonna Papaefthimiou is the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Portland, Oregon. Her position is situated in the Bureau of Emergency Management, where she has also worked as the planning, policy, and public engagement manager. She previously worked as a community organizer for environmental justice, as a land-use planner, and as an environmental policy advisor to a past Portland mayor. She holds a Bachelor's in Urban Studies and a Master's in City Planning, both from MIT.

Moderator

Jo Peña, AICP

Jo Peña is a Research Associate at APA. She provides research support on projects related to resilience, community health, equity, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Recently, she has been involved in projects related to increasing physical activity through the built environment, hazard mitigation, environmental health, and increasing connectivity between community resilience initiatives across planning activities. Apart from working on sponsored research projects, she contributes to advancing organizational strategic initiatives, Planning Advisory Service publications, and on occasion, Planning magazine. Jo received her Master's in Urban Planning and Policy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she specialized in environmental planning.

New Research on State Resilience Planning Practices

May 26, 2022

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More than 15 states — coastal and inland, and with governments from across the political spectrum — are developing innovative and comprehensive resilience strategies to reduce the impacts of floods and other climate hazards. These strategies work across agencies and sectors to integrate statewide resilience priorities into new existing efforts through a whole of government approach. By evaluating current and future risks, engaging local governments, and establishing regional priorities, state officials are hoping to effectuate smarter decisions about where and how to invest. Despite these recent initiatives, no consistent practices or protocols currently exist. State leaders are seeking examples of effective strategies to systematically incorporate resilience.

To help inform this new era of climate adaptation, The Pew Charitable Trust's flood-prepared communities team supported research with the Urban Institute and the American Flood Coalition that assesses state resilience plans across the country and identifies promising practices and in-depth analyses in select states. Pew will present the recent findings of key components for flood resilience plans which can inform future approaches for practitioners, policymakers, and advocates. This research is part of Pew's effort to build and share resources dedicated to state-level adaptation initiatives through the State Resilience Partnership. Because states are central to connecting federal resources and mandates with local needs and priorities, officials have an outsized role in implementing meaningful and equitable solutions to the challenges of climate change.

This PIE webinar will focus on state-level resilience and adaptation strategies to systemically and equitably reduce the impact of floods and other climate hazards.

Mathew Sanders, AICP is a senior manager for the Flood-Prepared Communities initiative at The Pew Charitable Trust. Chad Berginnis is the executive director of ASFPM.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Mathew Sanders, AICP

Mathew Sanders manages the state planning portfolio of Pew's flood-prepared communities initiative, which focuses on state-level efforts to plan for current and future flood risk. In this role, he works directly with state governments and community leaders to advocate for, develop, and implement comprehensive disaster-resilience plans for various flood risks, including coastal surge, riverine, and flash flooding.

Presenter

Chad Berginnis

Chad Berginnis became executive director of ASFPM in July 2012, after joining the association staff as associate director in 2011. Since 2000, he served the association as Insurance Committee chair, Mitigation Policy Committees' coordinator, vice chair, and chair. He has a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources from Ohio State University. Since 1993, his work has focused on floodplain management, hazard mitigation, and land use planning at the state, local, and private sector levels. As a state official, Berginnis worked in the Ohio Floodplain Management Program and was Ohio's state hazard mitigation officer. As a local official, Berginnis administered planning, economic development, and floodplain management programs in Perry County, Ohio. In the private sector, he was the national practice leader in hazard mitigation for Michael Baker Jr. Inc.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: A Primer for Planners and Floodplain Managers

December 15, 2021

One of the most talked-about legislative actions of the year, the bipartisan infrastructure package was signed into law in November 2021. But how does the bill impact local floodplain managers and planners? What are the new federal funding opportunities around hazard mitigation? Our team of policy experts will examine the most important and impactful federal infrastructure funding passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

This PIE webinar will focus on the policy implications of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, emphasizing options for hazard mitigation at the local level.

Attendees of this webinar will: (1) Learn about new federal funding opportunities for planners and floodplain management professionals and (2) Understand critical aspects of the new legislation that could impact hazard mitigation at the local level.

Samantha Medlock is senior counsel for the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Meg Galloway is a senior policy advisor at ASFPM. Jason Jordan, AICP is the public affairs director at APA.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Samantha Medlock

Samantha Medlock is senior counsel for the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, supporting the Committee's work to advance climate science, adaptation, and resilience. Sam joined the Committee from a private sector role in climate risk management, insurance, and finance. Previously, Sam was senior advisor in the Obama White House, coordinating across the Executive Office of the President and the administration to reduce the risks and costs of climate change and disasters. Sam is a Juris Doctor graduate with honors from Vermont Law School and earned a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude from Texas Woman's University. She served on the Advisory Committee for the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder, taught coursework in resilience finance at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and was an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law

Presenter

Meg Galloway

Meg Galloway joined the ASFPM policy team in 2019. In this role, Meg provides input into national and state flood policy issues of importance to the Association and its mission. She also assists ASFPM chapters on state policy issues when requested and maintains relationships with partner organizations with issues of mutual interest. Meg's entire career has been focused on water resource management and public safety issues, primarily in the areas of floodplains and dams. Before joining ASFPM, she spent 29 years with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the last 10 years managing the floodplain management, floodplain mapping, and dam safety programs. Before that, she worked for 8 years in the water resource group at an engineering consulting firm. Meg has a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Wisconsin.

Presenter

Jason Jordan, AICP

Jason Jordan is the Policy Director at APA, responsible for government affairs, advocacy, and policy efforts of the association. This includes the development of APA policy guides, representation of APA with Congressional offices, Federal agencies, and partner organizations, and management of advocacy networks and campaigns. Jason also provides strategic guidance to volunteer leaders on policy matters at the national, state, and local levels. As such, he provides an important perspective on key advocacy strategies regarding zoning reform.

Addressing Urban Heat at Regional and Local Scales

October 15, 2021

More frequent and intense heat events present significant environmental, social, health, and economic impacts to communities around the country. Join this next PIE webinar to learn more about how communities are responding to and preparing at different scales to address extreme heat. Kate McCormick, associate at the Georgetown Climate Center and lead author of Community-Informed Heat Relief: Policy Options for Addressing Urban Extreme Heat in High-Risk Communities, and Jared Patton, associate planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and a lead contributor to the Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region, will discuss strategies to advance local and regional resilience, informed by recently published resources. The webinar will highlight opportunities for community engagement, partnerships, and equitable action to mitigate heat impacts.

This PIE webinar will focus on actions local and regional agencies can take to address extreme heat, case examples from around the country, and collaborative opportunities to increase community resilience.

Attendees of this webinar will: (1) Learn about local and regional activities to increase community resilience to extreme heat events, (2) Explore policy options to address heat impacts, informed by case examples around the country, and (3) Learn about the role of cross-sector collaboration to envision, plan for, and implement heat mitigation strategies.

Kate McCormick is an Institute Associate at the Georgetown Climate Center. Jared Patton, AICP is an associate planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Kate McCormick

Kate McCormick is an Institute Associate at the Georgetown Climate Center, where she has worked for the past three years. She is a graduate of Georgetown Law, where she got her J.D., as well as an LL.M. in Environmental and Energy Law. Her most recent work includes focusing on issues surrounding urban heat, as well as increasing economic resilience in frontline communities in the face of climate change.

Presenter

Jared Patton, AICP

Jared Patton is an associate planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning (CMAP), where his work focuses on land use planning and climate resilience. Jared recently participated in a collaboration with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the European Union to produce a Climate Action Plan for the Chicago Region. Jared also manages the region's greenhouse gas emissions inventory and assists local governments with zoning and comprehensive planning projects through CMAP's local technical assistance program. Jared has a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from Earlham College and a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Law's the Limit: Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Local Government

September 3, 2021

Climate change and sea-level rise fundamentally alter the risks of flooding, necessitating correlative changes in how we think about and implement planning & policy to avoid flood risk. The past is no longer a prologue to the future. This presentation will begin with some of the global-scale implications of physical changes occurring today and draw out overarching legal, policy, and social implications. This will be followed by a deeper dive into specifics of planning and law, including a discussion of the No Adverse Impact approach to floodplain management. The presenters will conclude with lessons learned, including some tentative lessons emerging from the ongoing ASFPM project of the presenters to build upon historical flooding legal resources in developing the No Adverse Impact Legal Guide.

This PIE webinar will focus on sea level rise from the perspective of local governments, the legal implications of rising seas, and how communities can adequately adapt to sea level rise.

Attendees of this webinar will: (1) Understand local government tradeoffs and perspectives concerning sea level rise, and (2) Learn about the legal liability for infrastructure. and (3) Be provided with information regarding the limits of the zoning and land use control actions communities can take.

Thomas K. Ruppert, Esq. is a Coastal Planning Specialist for the Florida Sea Grant at the University of Florida. Jerry Murphy, JD, AICP, CFM is a Faculty Consultant for the Program for Resource Efficient Communities at the University of Florida

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Thomas K. Ruppert, Esq.

Thomas Ruppert, Esq., leads the Florida Sea Grant College Program's Coastal Planning Program. Through this program, Mr. Ruppert, a licensed attorney, works with partners to develop legal and policy analysis for local governments on planning for sea-level rise, community resilience, and associated long-term challenges and opportunities for Florida's coastal communities. He has worked with over a dozen partners to organize and host legal workshops on coastal issues and flood insurance around the state. Mr. Ruppert is currently involved with several initiatives within Florida communities planning for sea-level rise and maintains a website of original resources. Mr. Ruppert has authored and co-authored numerous legal articles and frequently serves as an invited presenter at events in Florida and other coastal states.

Presenter

Jerry Murphy, JD, AICP, CFM

Mr. Murphy is a certified floodplain manager, certified urban and regional planner, and legal scholar. His work and research focus on land use planning and control law, community-based planning, code and regulation drafting, floodplain management, infrastructure finance and planning, community resiliency, and sustainability. He holds a Juris Doctor with honors, a Master of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning, and a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture, all from the University of Florida, and is a former White House Intern. Jerry is Chair of the Growth and Infrastructure Consortium, a national study group supporting innovative approaches to impact fees and other capital funding mechanisms. He currently leads the University of Florida's Resilient Communities Initiative, reaching out to local governments through interlocal agreements to assemble teams of expert faculty, researchers, and students to craft planning solutions to the myriad of challenges facing local governments in the 21st Century.

Linking Conservation and the FEMA Community Rating System: Tools to Protect Habitat, Enhance Coastal Resilience and Reduce Flood

April 15, 2021

Working with cities and land trust partners in Gulf Coast communities, TNC has developed tools that facilitate the identification and selection of nature-based projects that can protect habitats and enhance coastal resilience while earning Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community Rating System (FEMA CRS) points to reduce rising and uncertain flood insurance rates. The approaches being shared during this webinar, including the CRS Explorer App and the CRS Greenprint process, have direct applications for land trusts in the Gulf of Mexico and across the US.

This PIE webinar will focus on The Nature Conservancy's efforts to link conservation and restoration with CRS. Conservation activities, such as buying and protecting undeveloped lands and restoring wetlands, are 'nature-based solutions' that are creditable under CRS.

Learn about ongoing projects that connect flood insurance rates, community resilience, and conservation.
Learn about tools to identify and select nature-based projects to protect habitats and improve community resilience.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Christine Shepard, Ph.D.

Christine Shepard, Ph.D., is the Director of Science, Gulf of Mexico, for The Nature Conservancy. Christine's areas of expertise include Coastal risk and resilience, climate change, conservation science, and marine spatial planning.

Presenter

Thomas Mohrman

Tom Mohrman has been the Director of The Nature Conservancy's Mississippi Marine Program since 2011 and worked in various natural resource and conservation roles on the Mississippi coast since 2003.

USACE Inundation Mapping

December 18, 2020

Managing the risks posed by dams and levees requires hazard/risk awareness, planning, diligent monitoring, quick response to distress, and regular communication among federal, state, and local officials, the private sector, and the public. Inundation maps are a crucial component of communicating flood risk but require a communication strategy to aid understanding. A comprehensive strategy must involve modern information-sharing methods that give interested parties the ability to work with United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) inundation maps within their chosen decision support systems. Web-based interactive maps are rapidly becoming the most utilized inundation map format. With recent lessons learned and the inundation mapping state of practice in mind, USACE has recently updated its policies on inundation map information sharing. Most inundation maps produced by USACE are fully accessible to the public. This means enhanced information access and a greater understanding of flood risks for floodplain managers, planners, and the public. Exceptions to publicly sharing the inundation maps are being considered over the next year.

This webinar will focus on recent changes in USACE policy for public dissemination of emergency action plan (EAP) maps and inundation maps during flood emergencies.

Learn about recent updates to USACE inundation map sharing policies making them accessible to the public.
Be updated on USACE plans to make dam EAP maps publicly available within the National Inventory of Dams (NID) in late 2021.
See a demonstration of how they will be able to access and use USACE dam emergency action plan EAP maps once available in the NID.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Jason Sheeley

Jason Sheeley has worked for USACE since 2003 as a geospatial sciences subject matter expert. Before joining USACE he worked for a global engineering firm. Since 2009 he has been with USACE Modeling, Mapping and Consequences Center, tasked with developing emergency action plan maps for dams and levee systems. He has been heavily involved with changes in USACE policies for EAPs and inundation maps and led the technical team that wrote the latest update to USACE policy.

Presenter

Travis Tutka, PE

Travis Tutka started with USACE during the flood of 1993 in the Saint Louis District. His 27 years with USACE have been split between dam and levee safety with a focus on program management, inspection, and instrumentation. Currently, Tutka works with the USACE Risk Management Center as a Senior Dam Safety Program Manager. He has led policy discussions regarding dam safety information sharing over the last 10 years.

Presenter

Phoebe Percell, PE

Phoebe Percell has been with USACE, leading the Dam and Levee Safety Programs for almost 2 years. Previously she worked for the Bureau of Reclamation for 17 years, and a year and a half in private consulting. In her time with USACE, her focuses have been on building and maintaining relationships with non-federal stakeholders and other federal agencies, building and maintaining technical competency in dam and levee safety, creating more transparency in data and decision-making, and continuing to lead the world in the management of dams and levees.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Chad Berginnis became executive director of ASFPM in July 2012 after joining the organization in 2011. Since 2000, he has served ASFPM as insurance committee chair, mitigation policy committees' coordinator, vice chair, and chair. Berginnis received his Bachelor of Science in natural resources from Ohio State University. Since 1993, his work has focused on floodplain management, hazard mitigation, and land-use planning at the state, local, and private sector levels.

Planning for Wildfire: From Assessing Risk to Long-Term Mitigation

November 20, 2020

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The 19th webinar in the series features discussions from Cody Knutson, research professor, and drought planning coordinator at the National Drought Mitigation Center, and Jeff Brislawn, CFM, hazard mitigation and emergency management consultant with Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions. They will discuss approaches to assessing and integrating drought into local hazard mitigation planning. Joe DeAngelis, AICP, senior research associate with the American Planning Association, will moderate as participants learn about: As increasingly widespread and destructive wildfires continue to threaten communities across the United States, planners, and allied professions will play a crucial role in not only local recovery, but also long term mitigation. While a variety of tools for natural hazards such as flooding and coastal storms are widely accepted by practitioners, planners are less familiar with similar tools for assessing and planning wildfire risk and mitigation. However, the USDA Forest Service in partnership with Headwater Economics and under the direction of Congress, hopes to change that dynamic with its new website and wildfire risk visualization tool Wildfire Risk to Communities.

This PIE webinar will focus on this emerging web-based platform in informing planners on wildfire risk, specific techniques for determining long-term mitigation through planning, and how map-based wildfire visualization can help fill critical gaps in the wildfire hazard mitigation toolkit. APA Research Manager Joe DeAngelis, AICP, will moderate this webinar. He will be joined by Kimiko Barrett, Ph.D., lead wildfire researcher and policy analyst for Headwaters Economics; James Menakis, national fire ecologist with the USDA Forest Service; Greg Dillon, spatial fire analyst with the USDA Forest Service; and Frank Fay, applied fire ecologist in the Fuels and Fire Ecology Program with the USDA Forest Service.

Get a live demonstration on how to use interactive maps, charts, and resources available for every community, county, and state in the U.S.
Learn how the website and downloadable resources can help land use planners, emergency managers, elected officials, and fire managers prioritize actions to mitigate risk.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Kimiko Barrett, PhD

Kimiko Barrett is the lead wildfire researcher and policy analyst for Headwaters Economics, a nonpartisan research organization based in Bozeman, Montana. She is the program manager for Community Planning Assistance for Wildfire (CPAW) and works closely with communities to plan and mitigate wildfire risks. Barrett has a PhD in Forestry from the University of Montana and specializes in natural hazard adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience.
Presenter

James Menakis

Jim Menakis has been the National Fire Ecologist for Forest Service Washington Office Fire and Aviation Management since 2010. Previously, Menakis worked at RMRS Missoula Fire Science Laboratory for 20 years on research projects relating to fuels and fire ecology, national mapping projects, and applying the best available science to support management needs. Today he is working on evaluating the effectiveness of fuel treatment, wildfire risk assessments, and performance metrics. Menakis received his BS in Forestry and MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, Missoula.
Presenter

Greg Dillon

Greg Dillon is a spatial fire analyst with the USDA Forest Service in Missoula, Montana. He is part of the Fire Modeling Institute, a group at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab that focuses on applied science. Much of his current work involves mapping wildfire hazards and risks. He has two degrees in Geography (BS from James Madison University and MA from the University of Wyoming), and he's been working with GIS for about 25 years. Earlier in his career, Dillon worked in the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, the National Forests in North Carolina, and the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington. He came to the Fire Lab in 2004 to do potential vegetation mapping for the national LANDFIRE project, then joined the Fire Modeling Institute in 2011. He is also a member of the Northern Rockies Wildland Fire Management Team and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group's Geospatial Subcommittee.
Presenter

Frank Fay

Frank Fay works for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as an applied fire ecologist in the Fuels and Fire Ecology Program, Fire and Aviation Management, Washington D.C. His responsibilities include work on LANDFIRE, the Hazardous Fuels Program, and wildfire risk. On previous assignments, Fay has worked in Utah, Oregon, and California. He has a BS in forestry from Humboldt State University and did graduate work at the University of Washington. Fay is certified as a fire ecologist, silviculturist, and climate change professional.
Moderator

Joe DeAngelis, AICP

Joe DeAngelis is a planner and Research Manager with the American Planning Association in Chicago, where he focuses on climate adaptation, natural hazard risk, and community resilience. DeAngelis received his planning degree from CUNY-Hunter College, where he researched post-Hurricane Sandy recovery and long-term community adaptation. He has worked for the New York City Mayor's Office, the National Park Service, and as a Resiliency Planner with the New York City Department of City Planning. DeAngelis is the co-author of PAS Report 596: Planning for Infrastructure Resilience and is also the co-editor of Zoning Practice, a monthly APA publication.

Planning for Drought and Cascading Hazards

August 15, 2019

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Specific challenges and opportunities in planning for drought and cascading natural hazards
Practical approaches to assessing local and regional drought vulnerability
Methods for integrating drought and drought-related impacts into multi-hazard mitigation planning
Resources and tools that can help planners and floodplain managers plan for drought in a multi-hazard context

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Cody Knutson

Cody Knutson is a Research Professor and the Drought Planning Coordinator at the National Drought Mitigation Center, within the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With a background in social science and water resources, his work focuses on understanding how people and systems are vulnerable to drought and collaboratively developing strategies, tools, and plans to minimize their drought risk. He's worked on these activities with agricultural producers, communities, tribes, states, and the federal government for more than 20 years.

Presenter

Jeff Brislawn, CFM

Jeff Brislawn is a hazard mitigation and emergency management consultant with Wood Environment and Infrastructure Solutions (formerly Amec Foster Wheeler) and has over 27 years of related experience for state and local governments across the United States. Brislawn's background includes 12 years of public sector experience including work for the Colorado Office of Emergency Management and FEMA. He has assisted numerous state, local, and federal clients with hazard risk assessment and related resiliency planning including multi-hazard mitigation plans, drought mitigation and response plans, dam failure evacuation plans, and local emergency operations plans. Brislawn has an MS in Geology from Colorado State University and a BS in Geology from Ohio University and is a Certified Floodplain Manager.

Moderator

Joe DeAngelis, AICP

Joe DeAngelis is a planner and senior research associate with the American Planning Association in Chicago, where he focuses on climate adaptation, natural hazard risk, and community resilience. DeAngelis received his planning degree from CUNY-Hunter College, where he researched post-Hurricane Sandy recovery and long-term community adaptation. He has worked for the New York City Mayor's Office, the National Park Service, and as a Resiliency Planner with the New York City Department of City Planning. DeAngelis is currently the project manager for a U.S. Forest Service-funded project focused on regional green infrastructure planning, and a NOAA-funded project focused on integrating climate science into local planning, and is also the co-editor of Zoning Practice, a monthly APA publication.

Go Green With GASB 62!

April 25, 2019

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Investments in distributed water strategies, including conservation/restoration projects and green infrastructure, can generate both water quality and flood loss reduction benefits. However, these initiatives are usually limited in scope and scale as they are funded as "annual expenses" following conventional accounting rules.

Recently, those accounting rules have been expanded to make it easier for cities, towns, and other public entities to finance decentralized projects. The General Accounting Standards Board's (GASB) Statement 62, along with the new 2018 Implementation Guidance, provides a path forward for public utilities opting to capitalize on expenses in distributed infrastructure. This new guidance has the potential to unlock millions in new investment for funding green infrastructure and stormwater solutions, jumpstarting greater community resilience.

ASFPM Executive Director Chad Berginnis will moderate as Cynthia Koehler, executive director of the Water Now Alliance, and Janet Clements, an economist with Corona Environmental Consulting, discuss this new implementation guidance and its potential impacts. Specifically, the webinar will discuss:

How the new GASB Guidance can support green stormwater infrastructure
What you need to know to take advantage of the opportunity to use capital to scale up investment in decentralized projects
Case studies from around the country where communities are starting to invest in decentralized systems
Tap into Resilience, WaterNow's new website dedicated to helping communities and practitioners learn about and implement onsite, localized water strategies with tools, resources, and connections to experts

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Cynthia Koehler

Cynthia Koehler is the co-founder and executive director of the WaterNow Alliance, a nonprofit network of water leaders dedicated to catalyzing sustainable water solutions in communities across the West. She is an environmental attorney and water policy expert with 20 years of experience working on California and federal water policy, and was previously the Legislative Director for California water issues for the Environmental Defense Fund, and Legal Director for Save San Francisco Bay Association. Koehler has also served on the Board of the Marin Municipal Water District Board for the last decade and is currently Board President. She is the recipient of various awards, including The Bay Institute's Hero of the Bay Award, and serves on the Board of the Water Education Foundation among other organizations. Koehler holds a BA from Pomona College in Claremont, California, and a JD and Environmental Law Certificate from the University of Oregon School of Law.

Presenter

Janet Clements

Janet Clements specializes in water resources planning and natural resource and environmental economics. She conducts benefit-cost, triple-bottom-line (TBL), and economic impact analyses to evaluate the economic, social, and environmental implications of policies and programs. Clements is a noted economic expert in the water sector, specifically in the fields of integrated water resource management, water supply planning, green infrastructure, and affordability of water and wastewater services. She also works on climate vulnerability and adaptation planning about water resources, assesses the value of climate services and information, and has extensive experience analyzing water use and trends across sectors. Clements has led several studies to assess the non-market benefits of water resources and related programs.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Flood Economics

February 13, 2019

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The 17th webinar in the series involves discussions from Hilary Steiner and Anil Sarda of The Economist Intelligence Unit, a forecasting and research arm of the Economist Group, publisher of The Economist newspaper. They discuss their research into the economics of flood mitigation and associated best practices for communities nationwide. Shannon Burke, manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center, moderates the discussion. This webinar addresses new insights into flood loss avoidance based on a series of community case studies, a wide-ranging analysis of over 20,000 flood mitigation projects spanning all 50 states and Puerto Rico, the business case for flood mitigation, and vital lessons learned from planners and floodplain professionals on the economics of flood mitigation.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Hilary Steiner

Hilary Steiner is the global director for the Public Policy practice of The Economist Intelligence Unit. She leads a global team of consultants, focusing on developing provocative and impactful programs for clients. Hilary has expertise in evidence-driven policy advocacy, with a particular focus on transnational policy and global norms. She has led the Flood Economics program since its inception in 2015 and has presented its findings at events across the US, including at the National Hurricane Conference, and acted as the moderator for the virtual event Building Resilience: Investing in Mitigation to Reduce Risk.

Presenter

Anil Sarda

Anil Sarda is a senior analyst with the Public Policy practice of The Economist Intelligence Unit. He is an experienced project manager and analyst responsible for overseeing economic impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses, and policy benchmarking studies across the world. Anil has worked on the Flood Economics program since its inception in 2015 and now manages the program, most recently overseeing the completion of four case studies covering the value of building codes and how US homeowners can build back stronger. He was the lead analyst in the research and data analysis behind the Community Case Studies, an in-depth look into 21 communities across the US that have mitigated their flood risk through different actions and funding mechanisms.

Moderator

Shannon Burke

As manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center, Shannon Burke oversees research projects within the center, works to secure future funding, and builds partnerships with organizations working to advance resiliency. Burke has more than 20 years of experience as a hazard mitigation consultant, FEMA specialist, and local government planner for several jurisdictions in Louisiana, including the City of New Orleans Mayor's Office and City Planning Commission. Burke's family was directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, an experience that continues to motivate and guide her work in hazard planning. Because of Katrina, Burke has a particular interest in the power of planning to alleviate the impact of disasters on vulnerable and underserved populations. She has a Master of Science degree from the University of New Orleans College of Urban and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Louisiana State University. She is also a board member of the National Hazards Mitigation Association.

Research Topics in Disasters, Hazard Mitigation, and Resilience

October 9, 2018

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Many of the top universities in the United States invest time, energy, and financial resources into researching the issues that come with natural disasters. Indeed, several universities have founded entire disaster research centers to draw conclusions from data and make recommendations for hazard mitigation practices. This webinar convened national experts and thought leaders from three universities — the University of Colorado's Natural Hazards Center, the University of North Carolina's Coastal Resilience Center, and Texas A&M University to lay out the scope and discuss the implications of current research into disasters, hazard mitigation, and resilience

ASFPM Executive Director Chad Berginnis, moderated as Lori Peek, Director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, Sam Brody, Regents Professor and holder of the George P. Mitchell '40 Chair in Sustainable Coasts at Texas A&M University, and Gavin Smith, Director of the Department of Homeland Security's Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence at the University of North Carolina discuss the most exciting, up-to-date hazard mitigation and resilience research being undertaken by each of their organizations. In this webinar, the presenters discussed:

Acquainting practicing planners and floodplain managers with some of the leading research on these topics and the resources that their universities have to offer.
The data needed to better prepare and plan for the wildfire/flood dynamic
Understanding where the problems are now to mitigate wildfire risk
Communicating risk and taking actions in rural communities and urban environments, including the use of FEMA's Flood after Fire Toolkit

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Lori Peek

Lori Peek is director of the Natural Hazards Center and professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies vulnerable populations in disaster and is the author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-author of Children of Katrina. Lori helped develop school safety guidance for the nation, which resulted in the publication of FEMA P-1000, Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety. Peek, who is president of the Research Committee on Disasters for the International Sociological Association, has conducted long-term investigations in the aftermath of several major disasters. She is currently leading a National Science Foundation project to establish Social Science Extreme Events Reconnaissance (SSEER) and Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (ISEEER) networks for the disaster community.

Presenter

Sam Brody

Samuel D. Brody is a Regents Professor and holder of the George P. Mitchell '40 Chair in Sustainable Coasts in the Departments of Marine Sciences and Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University. He is the Director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores and the Lead Technical Expert for the Governor's Commission to Rebuild Texas. Brody's research focuses on coastal environmental planning, spatial analysis, flood mitigation, climate change policy, and natural hazards mitigation. He has published numerous scientific articles on flood risk and mitigation, and recently authored the book, Rising Waters: The Causes and Consequences of Flooding in the United States published by Cambridge University Press. Brody teaches graduate courses in environmental planning, flood mitigation, and coastal resiliency. He has also worked in both the public and private sectors to help local coastal communities adopt flood mitigation plans.

Presenter

Gavin Smith

Gavin Smith is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Smith is also the Director of the Department of Homeland Security Coastal Resilience Center of Excellence (UNC Coastal Resilience Center) and the Department of Homeland Security's Center of Excellence — Coastal Hazards Center. The UNC Hazards Center research focus areas include modeling, land use planning, technology applications, the social implications of hazards and disasters, environmental hazards management, law and policy, public health, business, and economics. The Coastal Hazards Center research focus areas include hazard modeling, engineering, human behavior, and land use planning. Smith is currently engaged in planning-related research within the center, focused on a national evaluation of local and state hazard mitigation plans, as well as the study of disaster recovery plans and policies.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Flood Risk Reduction: Putting Planning into Practice

July 18, 2018

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Moving toward plan implementation is often a difficult step for communities, especially concerning flood hazard mitigation. However, ensuring that plans are well-integrated, policies are mutually supportive, and codes and ordinances align with community goals all play a major role in a community's aspirations of resilience.

Participants will learn :

How to adapt plans for on-the-ground realities
Specific land use policies that promote flood resilience, and
How to coordinate within regions and local governments to realize long-term community resilience

Shannon Burke, manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center will moderate as Tanya M. Stern, deputy director for planning, engagement, and design with the District of Columbia Office of Planning, and Seth Jensen, principal planner with the Lamoille County (Vermont) Planning Commission, discuss how their communities have used tools such as plan-making, zoning and subdivision ordinances, and locally integrated policies to actualize flood disaster resilience in a land use context.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Tanya Stern

Tanya Washington Stern is the deputy director for planning, engagement, and design at the DC Office of Planning. She is leading the integration of the topic of resilience into the Washington, D.C. comprehensive plan for the first time. Stern also partners with district, regional, and federal agencies on climate adaptation, resilience, and flood management initiatives. In addition, she is a key agency partner for Washington, D.C.'s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. She previously served as the office's chief of staff and was the project manager for the 2013 Height Master Plan. Stern has served in the government of the District of Columbia since 2004 and has held positions in the Executive Office of the Mayor, the Office of Property Management, and the Department of Parks and Recreation. She also has over 10 years of nonprofit experience. Stern holds a master's degree in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and Six Sigma Green Belt certification, and she is a Certified Public Manager.

Presenter

Seth Jensen

Seth Jensen is a lifelong resident of Vermont and has served as a volunteer on his local planning commission since 2005. Professionally, Jensen is the principal planner at the Lamoille County Planning Commission. Lamoille County is a predominately rural region in North/Central Vermont. Due to its topography of narrow river valleys bounded by steep hillsides, and historic development patterns of villages constructed near river confluences, Lamoille County is particularly vulnerable to flooding. Since three major floods inundated the Village of Jeffersonville, Jensen has worked with the community to integrate flood mitigation with other aspects of land use, transportation, and economic development planning.

Moderator

Shannon Burke

The Fire/Flood Dynamic

May 15, 2018

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2017 was a grim year for wildfires. Over 1 million acres burned in Montana and in California. Nearly 9,000 wildfires burned 1.2 million acres of land destroying over 10,000 structures and killing at least 46 people. Then in 2018, more than 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate in Santa Barbara County as an atmospheric river rain event occurred in the same wildfire-ravaged area. Sadly another 21 people lost their lives as a result of flooding and mudflows.

Flood risk grows significantly in areas burned by wildfires and human encroachment into these areas means lives and property are at stake. Yet some things can be done by property owners and local and state officials to lessen the risk.

ASFPM Executive Director Chad Berginnis moderated as Michele Steinberg, manager of the National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA) Wildfire Division, and Traci Sears, Montana's state floodplain manager & NFIP state coordinator, discussed:

How the aftermath of wildfires contributes to flooding problems, including mudflows
The data needed to better prepare and plan for the wildfire/flood dynamic
Understanding where the problems are now to mitigate wildfire risk
Communicating risk and taking actions in rural communities and urban environments, including the use of FEMA's Flood after Fire Toolkit

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Traci Sears, CFM

Traci Sears, CFM, serves as the NFIP/CAP coordinator for the State of Montana in Helena. Her duties include conducting training workshops around the state, working with NFIP communities, conducting Community Assistance Visits (CAVs), and working on various projects through the state floodplain program. Previously, Sears was a planner for Flathead County Planning & Zoning Office in Kalispell for six years. Her duties included subdivision review, Conditional Use Application Reviews, Lakeshore Program, managing the county floodplain program and the CRS program, and working on the county's first Flood Awareness Week. Sears received a BA in Criminal Justice from Florida Atlantic University.

Presenter

Michele Steinberg

Michele Steinberg is the division manager for Wildland Fire Operations at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), where she leads a team dedicated to wildfire safety education, advocacy, and outreach. From 2002 to 2013, she oversaw the development and implementation of the national Firewise Communities/USA Recognition Program. Previously, she served as special projects manager for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), hazard mitigation specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) New England regional office, and regional planner for the Massachusetts Flood Hazard Management Program. She is the author of numerous articles and technical documents on disaster safety and mitigation planning and currently serves on the executive committee of the American Planning Association's Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Planning Division. Steinberg holds a BA in English and American Literature from Brandeis University and a Master of Urban Affairs degree from Boston University.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Flood Hazard Mitigation in Historic Districts

January 31, 2018

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Historic communities and districts face several challenges when attempting to mitigate flood hazards. The 13th webinar in the PIE series features a presentation on flood hazard mitigation in historic districts by Louisette Leonard Scott, AICP, CFM, director of planning and development for the City of Mandeville, Louisiana. Shannon Burke, manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center, will moderate.

Louisette Scott will discuss:

Keeping the historical context of your community intact while reducing risk through hazard mitigation
Embracing mitigation to protect historic properties
Local issues faced by planners when dealing with design standards and flood hazard areas
The various problems faced by homeowners associations when dealing with long-term flood hazards

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Louisette Scott, AICP, CFM

Louisette Scott is the director of the Department of Planning and Development for the City of Mandeville, Louisiana, with over 30 years of experience in city planning. As planning director, she is integrally involved in developing and administering the city's regulations regarding all planning/zoning issues and subdivision development. The City of Mandeville has enjoyed a reputation for being proactive in landscaping, tree preservation, signage, and lighting regulations, as well as design guideline overlay districts. In 2012, the city adopted a Historic Preservation District which will continue to help define and preserve Mandeville's historic character. As a coastal community, Mandeville has been addressing challenges with FEMA requirements and their impact on the local historical context. Scott has been influential in coordinating the design review process with local architects to meet the challenges of architectural design, historic context, and flood hazard mitigation.

Presenter

Shannon Burke

Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard

October 4, 2017

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A community may have a large number of plans addressing a variety of issues: housing, economic development, parks/open space, land use, emergency response, and hazard mitigation are just some of them. The question is, are all of these plans aligned to accomplish your community's resiliency goals? Or are they at cross-purposes with each other?

ASFPM Executive Director Chad Berginnis, moderated as Jaimie Hicks Masterson, associate director of Texas Target Communities, and Phillip Berke, PhD, director of the Institute of Sustainable Coastal Communities through Texas A&M University, discussed an exciting research project and tools being developed for the practitioner community. The project will spatially evaluate networks of plans to reduce hazard vulnerability.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Jaimie Hicks Masterson

Jaimie Hicks Masterson is associate director of Texas Target Communities (TTC) at Texas A&M University. She develops community training curricula on community resilience, vulnerability and asset mapping, city planning, and hazard reduction and mitigation. Masterson received her Master of Urban Planning from Texas A&M University and earned a Certificate in Environmental Hazard Management. Her thesis received first prize in the Engineering and Architecture Category for Student Research Week, the Melbern G. Glasscock Humanities Award, and second prize for the Vice President of Research Diversity Award. She also has background and experience in landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental design and received her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University.

Presenter

Philip Berke, PhD

Philip Berke is a professor of land use and environmental planning in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Director of the Institute of Sustainable Coastal Communities at College Station. His work lies at the intersection of land use planning, urban ecology, and community resilience to environmental hazards. Berke is the co-recipient of several best article awards and honorable mention awards from the Journal of the American Planning Association, co-author of a book selected as one of the 100 Essential Books in Planning for the 20th Century by the American Planning Association, and was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in New Zealand. In 2013, he received the Award for Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring from the University of North Carolina Graduate School. Berke's research is currently supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Naturally Resilient Communities

May 30, 2017

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Green infrastructure can play a crucial role in helping to reduce flood risk, while also providing a wide variety of additional benefits, including improved water quality, enhanced recreational opportunities, and wildlife habitat. In this webinar, planning professionals from Miami-Dade County, Florida; Milwaukee; and Pierce County, Washington, will discuss how they are using green infrastructure to address community flood risk.

This webinar will also feature a description and demonstration of the Naturally Resilient Communities web-based tools that can help your community plan for green infrastructure.

APA Hazards Planning Center Manager Jim Schwab, FAICP, will moderate as Nate Woiwode (The Nature Conservancy), Katie Hagemann (Miami-Dade County Office of Resilience), Karen Sands (Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District), Jacob Pedersen (Pierce County, Washington), and Jill Dixon (Sasaki Associates) discuss:

The benefits of green infrastructure in managing flood risk and cultivating community co-benefits.
Green infrastructure case studies of Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, and Pierce County.
The Nature Conservancy's new web-based tool to help planners, practitioners, and local officials identify nature-based solutions for managing flood risk at various scales and community contexts. This webinar will include a live demonstration of the tool.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Jacob Pederson

Jacob Pederson facilitates and staffs Floodplains for the Future, a collaborative partnership that supports multi-benefit floodplain projects in the Puyallup, White & Carbon Rivers. Hosted by Pierce County and supported by the Floodplains by Design Initiative, Floodplains for the Future includes project teams working on flood mitigation and safety, habitat restoration, landowner outreach, agricultural land conservation, and monitoring. Pederson is a Tacoma native and has master's degrees in Public Administration and Environmental and Forest Sciences from the University of Washington.

Presenter

Jill Dixon

Jill Dixon is a senior urban planner at Sasaki who enjoys working in interdisciplinary teams to tackle complex urban issues. In Boston, she was part of the Climate Ready Boston team, where she focused on social resiliency and communicating climate risks, and earlier researched the city's vulnerabilities as part of Sasaki's Sea Change project, which recently won an ASLA award for communications. Beyond Boston, her resilience work has included coastal resiliency in the Mississippi Delta and economic resiliency in Northeast Ohio and Detroit. Dixon holds a master's in urban planning from Harvard's Graduate School of Design and dual degrees in architecture and economics from Clemson University.

Presenter

Karen Sands, AICP

Karen Sands is the director of planning, research, and sustainability for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) where she's worked for over 15 years. With a career spanning 25-plus years, Sands has held several planning positions in the public and private sectors in Wisconsin, Maine, and New York. She is an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) and serves on boards of directors for the Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission, Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust Inc., Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, and Discovery World. She is also secretary for the APA's Wisconsin Chapter.

Presenter

Katherine Hagemann

Katherine Hagemann is the resilience program manager for adaptation within the Office of Resilience at Miami-Dade County, Florida. Her work focuses primarily on climate change and adaptation to sea level rise. Before moving to Miami she also worked on coastal climate adaptation during the post-Sandy Rebuild by Design and National Disaster Resilience competitions. She earned her Master of Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science where she studied how cities can use a hybrid of gray and green infrastructure to adapt to rising sea levels and reduce flood risks.

Presenter

Nate Woiwode

Nate Woiwode manages the Nature Conservancy's efforts to build the case for employing nature and natural systems to manage flood risk and build resilience in coastal and riverine communities across the United States. Previously, Woiwode worked for the Long Island chapter for eight years, where he helped guide many of the Conservancy's post-Sandy efforts in New York and regionally, including managing engagement in the $1 billion Rebuild by Design competition and served as a key member of the team convened by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to develop long term recommendations on how to make New York State more resilient to the impacts of climate change. He also led the Coastal Resilience Team for the Long Island Chapter and was a co-lead of the New York State Climate Change Team. Woiwode also helped craft and pass New York's Community Risk and Resilience Act and the Seagrass Protection Act as well as serving as a member of the Staff Steering Committee of the NYS Sea Level Rise Task Force.

Moderator

Jim Schwab, FAICP

Jim Schwab joined the American Planning Association in November 1985. Originally the assistant editor of Planning, APA's monthly magazine, he joined APA's research department in August 1990. He serves as the co-editor of the APA monthly publication Zoning Practice. Schwab is the manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center in the Chicago office. He was the project manager and general editor for the FEMA-funded APA Planning Advisory Report, Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning. He also served as the primary author and principal investigator for Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation(2014), produced by APA under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Post-Disaster Temporary Housing: Urban Planning Considerations

March 23, 2017

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After large-scale disasters, the mission of temporary housing is critical. Much has changed since Katrina — one of the largest temporary housing operations in modern history: the technology to construct temporary housing, considerations for resilience, the development and use of the National Disaster Recovery Framework, and a more integrated approach to disaster recovery. Future disasters, especially in anticipation of more intense storms, may challenge us further.

In this webinar, you will learn about the importance of knowing where and how your community will provide temporary housing after a disaster, current federal policies that pertain to the temporary housing mission, new technologies, and standards for improving the resilience of temporary housing, and, incorporating post-disaster housing considerations into local plans and policies.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Shannon S. Van Zandt

Shannon Van Zandt is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University.

Presenter

Thomas A. Womeldurf

Thomas Womeldurf is the Director of State and Federal Programs for the Institute for Business & Technology Safety (IBTS).

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Subdivision Design and Flood Hazard Areas

December 2, 2016

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Please join three professionals as they dive into APA's new PAS Report, Subdivision Design, and Flood Hazard Areas. The discussion will begin with an overview of the drivers, issues, and standards of PAS 584 by Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM). Next, retired Licking County, Ohio, Planning Commission Director Jerry Brems will discuss local issues that planners face when dealing with design standards and flood hazard areas. Finally, Tyler Berding, founding partner of the California law firm Berding & Weil LLP will speak about the many problems homeowners associations confront when dealing with flood hazards over the long term.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

Chad Berginnis, CFM

Presenter

Jerry Brems

Jerry Brems retired from the Licking County Planning Commission after serving as its director for more than 19 years. During his tenure, Licking County became the first Ohio County to participate in the National Flood Insurance Program's Community Rating System. Licking County became the first "Project Impact" community in Ohio in 1998. In November 2003, Licking County's Countywide All Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan became the first multi-jurisdictional all-hazards mitigation plan approved by FEMA Region V. Before working for Licking County, Brems worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in the Floodplain Planning Unit assisting communities participate in the NFIP and was responsible for drafting state floodplain management regulations, ultimately adopted by the Ohio Department of Administrative Services for managing state activities in flood hazard areas.

Presenter

Tyler Berding

Tyler Berding is a founding partner of Berding & Weil LLP, a California law firm that has represented over 1,500 community associations in the past 40 years and written extensively about their operations. He has drafted legislation affecting common interest developments and frequently testified before legislative committees. He served as a member of the California Department of Real Estate's Task Force on Common Interest Developments. Berding is a member of the American Bar Association Forum on the Construction Industry, the State Bar of California, and the Common Interest Development Subsection of the State Bar's Real Property Section, the Foundation for Community Association Research, and Consumer Attorneys of California. Berding has a JD from the University of California, Davis, and an MA and a PhD from Claremont Graduate University.

Moderator

Jim Schwab, FAICP

Jim Schwab joined the American Planning Association in November 1985. Originally the assistant editor of Planning, APA's monthly magazine, he joined APA's research department in August 1990. He serves as the co-editor of the APA monthly publication Zoning Practice. Schwab is the manager of APA's Hazards Planning Center in the Chicago office. He was the project manager and general editor for the FEMA-funded APA Planning Advisory Report, Hazard Mitigation: Integrating Best Practices into Planning. He also served as the primary author and principal investigator for Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation (2014), produced by APA under a cooperative agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

State Resiliency Initiatives: From Issue to Action!

September 22, 2016

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Two state floodplain and resilience professionals discussed how two different statewide approaches are being implemented to better enable their communities and citizens to be more resilient. The conversation focused on the drivers for these state-level initiatives, ties to planning efforts, implementation opportunities and challenges, and community-level actions that have resulted.

Meet the Presenters

Presenter

William Nechamen

William "Bill" Nechamen is the state floodplain management coordinator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), a position he has held since 1996. He has been chief of the Floodplain Management Section in the NYSDEC Division of Water since 2001. Nechamen is a founding member and was the first chair of the New York State Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association (NYSFSMA), currently serves as their executive director and remains an active member. He is the immediate past chair of the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

Presenter

Iain Hyde

Iain Hyde joined the Colorado Resiliency and Recovery Office in 2014. He has nine years of professional experience in emergency management and disaster recovery. He previously worked at the Colorado Office of Emergency Management (Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management) for five years, most recently as the recovery manager. In that role, he worked closely with and provided support to local governments, state and federal agencies, and non-governmental partners before, during, and after disasters. Hyde has worked on a wide range of issues, including hazard mitigation, infrastructure, floodplain management, environmental restoration, economic and community development, and disaster case management. He coordinated Colorado's long-term recovery support activities with communities that were impacted by the 2013 floods, as well as the 2012 and 2013 wildfire seasons.

Moderator

Chad Berginnis, CFM

The Role of Hazard Mitigation in Post-Disaster Recovery

May 6, 2015