Emergency Preparedness Case Studies
This tab features case studies that describe examples of how adaptation has been incorporated in emergency preparedness planning and policy.
Resources are automatically presented by date. Apply additional filters to narrow the list by state, impact, region, or jurisdictional focus.
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August 1, 2018
This report on Hurricane Sandy Recovery is part of a series of case studies that the Georgetown Climate Center developed to inform efforts to implement innovative restoration projects in the Gulf Coast region after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The synthesis report, Building Gulf Coast Resilience: Opportunities After Deep Water Horizon, and accompanying case studies present lessons for improving coordination among state and federal decisionmakers, expediting environmental review and permitting, and accounting for climate impacts in the design and management of restoration projects.
Author or Affiliated User: Jessica Grannis
Resource Category: Solutions
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2018
In early 2018 the Port of Long Beach, in conjunction with Schneider Electric, began planning a microgrid solar Photovoltaic (PV) and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) project. The project will enhance reliability and resiliency of the port’s electricity supply, and reduce the port’s carbon footprint, while simultaneously strengthening local workforce development initiatives, and providing paid, on-the-job training to port workers. By powering the port’s electric terminal equipment and reducing its reliance on diesel generators and the grid, the project reduces the port’s GHG emissions footprint and criteria air pollutant emissions. The microgrid implementation will use union labor from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, with paid training hours to fill workers’ knowledge gaps in installing comparable microgrids. Moreover, the project enlists and provides educational experience to students from the University of California - Irvine, Advanced Power and Energy program in analyzing its performance data. Funding for the plan comes from a $5 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC), combined with $2.12 million in matched funds from the Port of Long Beach. The grant requires that the project demonstrate benefits to electricity customers in the local grid in the form of enhanced reliability, lower costs, or improved safety. An overriding objective of all CEC grant projects, is to “lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers to achieving the state’s statutory energy goals.” As such, the project must document lessons learned in implementation and maintenance in promotion of replicability of similar projects, and the commercialization of microgrids more broadly.
Resource Category: Solutions
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June 11, 2018
Zurich Insurance Company used its Post-Event Review Capability (PERC) methodology to analyze major flood events in terms of disaster risk management. PERC studies were conducted on 12 flooding disasters worldwide between 2013 and 2018 including floods in Boulder, CO in 2013; Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina, 2015; and Houston in 2017. The report describes the various steps of the disaster risk management cycle, as well as the challenges and focal strategies for risk managers in preparing for and responding to disasters.
Resource Category: Planning
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Along with unprecedented damages to Vermont from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, extreme flooding conditions occur regularly across the state. The Flood Ready Vermont website describes the urgency for preparing for flooding at the community level, and provides tools and resources for adaptation and flooding resilience.
Resource Category: Data and tools
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June 23, 2017
An increasingly common post-disaster mitigation approach, home buyout programs are generally intended to reduce vulnerability to future disasters. However, to date, there has been virtually no quantitative evaluation of whether or not coastal buyout programs are successful in reducing vulnerability. Through a change in vulnerability analysis, this study quantifies the success of the Staten Island buyout program in reducing the nationwide vulnerability of people and property to coastal flood hazards. Results show an increase in overall vulnerability, which includes exposure and social vulnerability, for 99% of the buyout participants studied. Buyout participants tend to relocate within five miles of their origin addresses, move to areas with higher levels of poverty, higher population density and greater percentages of individuals over 65. This analysis concludes that significant uncertainty remains with respect to whether or not the Staten Island buyout program met its objective of reducing the vulnerability of people and property to coastal flood hazards.
Author or Affiliated User: Devon McGhee
Resource Category: Planning
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2017
This paper presents approaches to residential flood mitigation through the RainReady program, developed by the non-profit Center for Neighborhood Technology. Urban flood mitigation programs may be designed in a number of ways, as illustrated by two case studies that each offer unique outcomes for flood risk analysis and reduction; community participation; and distributed stormwater infrastructure design.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Marcella Bondie Keenan , Anna Wolf
Resource Category: Solutions
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January 19, 2017
The Georgetown Climate Center report, Lessons in Regional Resilience, documents lessons learned from regional climate collaboratives, which are bringing together local governments and other stakeholders to coordinate climate change initiatives at a regional level. This synthesis report shares lessons from each of the collaboratives in individual case studies, and offers insight to their goals, planning processes, and funding sources. The report is intended to help local governments consider models for coordinating at the regional level to facilitate planning and action to prepare for the impacts of climate change and draws on examples from six regional collaboratives from around the country.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Annie Bennett , Jessica Grannis
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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2016
In this report, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Regional Plan Association present best practices for state and local governments to encourage residents and communities vulnerable to flooding to relocate from coastal and riverine areas through managed retreat. Based on the experiences of communities in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut following Hurricanes Sandy (2012) and Irene (2011), the report summarizes the political, social, and economic challenges of using buyouts and acquisitions as an adaptation strategy.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Robert Freudenberg, Ellis Calvin, Laura Tolkoff, Dare Brawley
Resource Category: Solutions
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Spring 2016
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is reconstructing the Evergreen Point floating bridge, which runs over Lake Washington along State Route 520 (SR 520) near Seattle, to better accommodate varying winds and storms. The new design will be elevated, which will better protect drivers and the road from waves and storms, and the pontoons that allow the bridge to float will be designed to withstand higher winds. In its climate impacts vulnerability assessment, WSDOT has recognized that high winds could increase as a result of climate change and more extreme weather events.
Resource Category: Solutions
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April 2016
Utilizing case studies from extreme flooding events, this paper synthesizes lessons learned, hazard mitigation strategies, and best practices in adaptation. The focus is on nonstructural adaptation strategies such as disaster planning and mitigation, and property buyouts. The best practices for implementing nonstructural adaptation strategies are also discussed with respect to impacts on, and solutions for, vulnerable communities. The paper is grounded in three case studies of flooding events that each caused widespread damage, occurred across a range of demographic and socio-economic conditions, and involved both structural and nonstructural post-disaster adaptation strategies.
Resource Category: Solutions
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