Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning
A hazard mitigation plan is the price of admission to FEMA mitigation funding, and the best ones are more than that: a ranked, costed list of the projects a community would build first if the money arrived tomorrow. GZA prepares and updates FEMA-compliant plans for towns, counties, and regional partners. Our planners run the process and the outreach. Our engineers and hydrologists supply the risk analysis that makes each project defensible when the grant application is scored.
The challenge: a plan due every five years, and a storm every year
Hazard mitigation plans expire every five years, and the update lands on staff who are already stretched. The hazard data in the last plan is older than the last three storms. The project list reads as a wish list, with no costs, no owners, and no benefit-cost case, so when BRIC, HMGP, or a state program opens, nothing is ready to submit. The plan also sits apart from the comprehensive plan, the capital budget, and the resilience study, so the same community is asked the same questions three times.
- FEMA Hazard Mitigation
- Waterfront/Coastal/Riverine System Resilience
- Plant & Animal Habitat/Biodiversity
- Emergency Response Plans & Management
- Critical Infrastructure Hazard Mitigation & Resilience
- Climate Adaptation
