Sea level rise, drought, extreme heat, increased frequency and intensity of storms, and the resultant effects from these climate-related changes impact communities and services on which residents and tourists depend. The health and resilience of communities rest on their ability to prepare for future climate impacts, reduce or avoid harm from hazards, and rebound from those impacts when they occur. Communities tend to be more resilient when they are aware of their risks, are prepared to respond quickly and strategically to changing conditions and consider the disproportionate impacts on socially vulnerable populations.
Funding is available on a competitive basis to develop countywide resiliency plans that consider past damages, future threats, and potential economic opportunities and identify strategies and projects to make communities more resilient. It is expected these countywide resiliency plans will ensure that any reconstruction or revitalization efforts strengthen community vitality, maximize use of available funds, and reduce future weather and climate related damages.
Good resiliency plans will reflect each of the following as it pertains to the unique circumstances of the county:
- Address community resiliency to a changing climate, including both adaptation and mitigation strategies to proactively address risks and reduce vulnerabilities, and seek solutions that provide multiple benefits and address multiple goals.
- Incorporate and advance the benefits of nature through preservation and restoration of natural landscapes, and/or the use of green infrastructure and green infrastructure policies that reduce watershed imperviousness, and preserve groundwater infiltration.
- Encourage accessibility and green public spaces including: pedestrian and bike trails that connect people to parks, nature and public spaces; community landscaping, preferably with native plant species; tree-planting and urban forestry; accessible neighborhood parks, greens and/or squares; community gardens; and mitigation of “heat island” effects.
- Encourage climate-adaptive design approach which prioritizes non-structural or natural-based measures approaches to promote resiliency. Any such plan/approach should recommend structural measures only where non-structural or nature-based alternative measures have been proven to be inadequate to protect the principal use.
- Ensure that governmental decision-making is based on sound science and considers cumulative effects.
- Provide a framework that encourages sustainable development or redevelopment of communities in appropriate locations outside of flood prone areas.
- Incorporate consideration of sea-level rise, storm surge, erosion and/or flooding in project design to make projects on public property and/or public facilities more resilient.
- Include an integrated, all-systems analysis as it relates to the systems inter-dependencies among various critical facilities, forms of infrastructure (e.g., transportation, energy, waste management, stormwater management) and relevant governmental functions.
- Integrate and coordinate with other key local and regional planning efforts including Local Waterfront Revitalization Programs, watershed plans, comprehensive plans, the County/Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and, where appropriate, the State Hazard Mitigation Plan.
- Includes an inclusive and robust public engagement plan to ensure broad-based public involvement throughout the planning process.
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