NATURAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLANNING: OPPORTUNITIES FOR GEOSCIENTISTS

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines hazard mitigation as any sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to life and property from a hazard event. Previously, federal legislation has provided funding primarily for disaster relief and recovery. The disaster experiences of the 1990's, however, made it clear that a proactive hazard risk management approach would be more cost effective than a disaster response driven system. In 1998, FEMA created a Hazard Mitigation Planning unit to promote and support the mitigation planning process at the state and community level. The more recent Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000, Public Law 106-390) reinforces the importance of mitigation planning and requires that states and communities have a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan in order to receive most Stafford Act assistance. Among the many requirements for an approved plan, the part most relevant to geoscientists is the risk assessment. A complete risk assessment must include hazard identification, a hazard profile, and a vulnerability assessment. Based on experience gained over the past several years writing hazard mitigation plans at the state and community level, is was found that that many risk assessments within hazard mitigation plans are conducted with little input from geoscientists. Incomplete or inaccurate risk assessments may result in incorrectly prioritized mitigation measures or strategies and therefore wasted dollars and/or efforts. Based on their unique understanding of the processes involved in natural hazards, geoscientists should seek opportunities to be involved in hazard mitigation planning efforts. Opportunities exist as only a small number of communities nationally have approved mitigation plans. We have also found it instructive for students to collaborate on such planning efforts to gain an understanding not only of the natural hazards, but also of the interactions of geoscience with society.