Buy-In Community Planning

Buy-In is heading to the #ASFPM conference in Salt Lake City this week! Will you be there?

💡 Will you be at the National Adaptation Forum this week? Please consider coming to check out this special symposium I am hosting, featuring critical research from Kristina Hill, Emma Lasky, and Thomas Marlow on the intersection between contaminated sites and flooding. The session will include two pre-recorded sessions, and a discussion of Buy-In Community Planning's interest in this topic, building off of work by Emma Zehner. There will be lots of time for brainstorming on implications for future policy and research. Here's the abstract: Sixty percent of Superfund sites in the US, designated by the EPA for the presence of hazardous toxic materials, face exposure to climate risks like flooding. For example, during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, inundated petrochemical facilities spread a “toxic, industrial soup” throughout Houston, Texas, the ramifications of which are yet to be seen.  Flood risks are expected to grow with climate change due to increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events as well as sea level rise, spread during flood events via surface overflow and also through groundwater rise, threatening the utility of traditional “capping” strategies. This toxic flood nexus and the environmental justice implications it raises are a legacy of discriminatory housing and land practices, waterfront development, and limited regulation. Despite the catastrophic cascading impacts on humans and ecosystems, no federal program exists to address flood adaptation and remediation simultaneously. This panel will feature a compilation of research and practice from practitioners and academics raising awareness on the threats of contaminated flood waters and what will be needed to address this growing environmental threat. Presentations include gaps in the federal buyout framework and its intersections with environmental review (Buy-In); Research on groundwater rise and toxic site exposure (UC-Berkeley); and others to be invited as accepted. Adaptation and Contaminated Sites: Compounding Vulnerabilities in the Toxic Flood Nexus. #NAF2024 #flooding #contamination

Buy-In Community Planning is back at the National Adaptation Forum! #NAF2024 I'm excited to be moderating a discussion with Hannah M. Teicher, Lian Plass, AICP, and Logan Gerber-Chavez, PhD on Receiving Communities as part of the Special Session on Climate Displacement, Managed Retreat, and Relocation with Elizaveta Barrett Ristroph, Ph.D., J.D. and Vidya Balasubramanyam. The other conversations include discussions of Climate-Driven Relocation and #LandBack movements as well as a photo installation exploring the theme of #solastalgia. Session is tomorrow bright and early from 8:30-10:00 on Wednesday 5/15. Hope to see you there!

Today FEMA announced long-sought changes to Benefit-Cost Analysis for hazard mitigation and public assistance grants: - reducing the discount rate from 7% to 3.1% when completing a Benefit Cost Analysis, which expands the range of projects states, Tribal Nations, territories and local governments may pursue - no longer requiring a full Benefit-Cost Analysis for projects being funded through its Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs with a total cost of less than $1 million - making it easier for projects in disadvantaged communities to be eligible for mitigation grant funding by Implementing distributional weights in determining the cost-effectiveness of a hazard mitigation project. The distributional weights will automatically adjust the Benefit-Cost Analysis results by increasing the building replacement value for properties located in census tracts with household incomes below the national median. We will also continue to offer FEMA BCA assistance to disadvantaged communities and Tribal Nations to determine hazard mitigation project cost-effectiveness.. These changes facilitate access to make more communities resilient to natural hazards and the effects of climate changes; and, address long-standing barriers certain communities—particularly those that are underserved—have had accessing mitigation grants through the through the Hazard Mitigation Assistance grant programs and Public Assistancemitigation funding. A Benefit Cost Analysis is a quantitative analysis used to assess the benefits and costs of a hazard mitigation project by comparing the disaster impacts avoided by the mitigated project to the cost of the project. During FEMA’s Year of Resilience, this is a major step forward towards our goal to build local capacity to withstand tomorrow’s hazards as well as the agency’s “people first” commitment to help communities, families and businesses build climate resilience. Kudos to the entire team! Special thx to Jody Springer Gerilee Bennett (she/her) Eric L. Derrick Hiebert, our OMB colleagues who helped update circular A-94 and Cass Sunstein who has been a phenomenal partner along the way. https://lnkd.in/eKmHAENM

When we think of #climate adaptation, we often think about our physical infrastructure - but the experience of communities navigating demographic change and building #welcoming #infrastructure has shown that we can also prepare for the future by anticipating #migration, developing equitable policy and reinforcing our bonds as neighbors. In this new white paper, we lift up the role of communities at the intersection of #climate and #migration and the importance of de-siloing our work to build a more resilient and just future for all. #EarthDay

🌟 Big Spotlight on Buyouts! We're excited to share the journey of Jean Pettaway, who recently sold her flood-prone property and eliminated her second mortgage with help from our Strategic Buyout Program. The voluntary program is helping property owners move to safer areas outside of flood zones. 🏠✨ Check out Jean’s story ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eNic5_gj #NCORR #recoveryandresiliency #ResilientNC #mitigation #floodbuyout #EdgecombeCountyNC #TarboroNC #disasterrecovery #hurricanerecovery

Exciting updates!! Buy-In is excited to announce we have won the Phase 1 HHS Environmental Justice Community Innovator Challenge along with our partners Climigration Network and Anthropocene Alliance members David Southgate, MS, MPA and Camille Hadley! The Community Innovators Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services provides small grants to explore community-driven strategies to address environmental and climate change health issues, and develop innovative and effective community strategies to address health disparities in communities and Tribes disproportionately burdened by environmental and climate change-related hazards. You can read more about the program here: https://lnkd.in/gVQKsmYe What does health have to do with #buyouts? 💔Buy-In has been surveying households across the country who have lived through flooding events to understand how flooding has impacted their lives. In one community that lived through Hurricane Katrina, 40% of surveyed households self reported that they or someone in their family experience stress, anxiety, or emotional trauma from flooding, even 20 years later. In another community that recently experienced a hurricane, this number was reported as high as 86%. In a small town with frequent evacuations from flash flooding, the number is 84% . 💡 Across these and other partner communities, anywhere from 40-80% of households would consider relocating to keep to keep their families safe, if they received fair compensation to do so. Thinking about moving is hard, but being trapped without resources to become resilient in place or relocate is also causing significant mental health burdens for communities on the frontline. Working on climate change and mental health? Follow along for updates or feel free to share resources in the comments below!

Happy Earth Day! 🌟 Today we are launching our 📚 Buy-In Resource Library - a collection of resources we think are helpful for people who are looking to learn more about the current state of research, knowledge, and practice on #buyout programs. 💡 Check out a great summary of some buyouts 101 research in a new Buy-In Blog Post by our friend and colleague Nick Wrubel by clicking the link below! This is an open source library that we hope will continue to evolve - if you think something is missing, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the blog page, library page, or even here in the comments, to help our library grow! 🌟

As more and more people across the United States consider relocation away from coastlines and floodplains to adapt to increasing flood risk, new questions arise, such as: 🌱 What will happen to the landscape that is left behind? 🌊 What kinds of new environments can be created? 🌟 How can these novel ecologies help improve the sustainability, resilience, and biodiversity of our neighborhoods and cities? You can tune into a conversation with Rosetta S. Elkin, Shameika Hanson of The Nature Conservancy, and our Executive Director, Kelly Leilani Main, moderated by Despo Thoma of SCAPE Landscape Architecture DPC, to talk more about Landscapes of Retreat this Thursday! Register here: https://lnkd.in/gU64CQKt

LWW Members Shaieree Cottar and Johanna Wandel have published their research "Municipal perspectives on managed retreat and flood mitigation: A case analysis of Merritt, Canada after the 2021 British Columbia flood disaster" in the journal Climate Change, Volume 177, article number 50, (2024). Congratulations and thank you for advancing this important work! Abstract: "In response to the catastrophic flooding that occurred in British Columbia, Canada in November 2021, the City of Merritt is facing a difficult decision about whether to rebuild or not. The developing situation in Merritt provided a unique opportunity to explore the different types of adaptations (i.e., investments in climate resilient infrastructure, rebuilding, construction of structural mitigation, zoning, and buyouts) considered by policymakers in advance of official municipal decisions. Through qualitative mixed methods (e.g., interviews, open houses, town council meetings), the study explored preliminary discussions among decision makers surrounding long term risk reduction options including rebuild and retreat strategies, perceptions of flood risk, recovery challenges faced by small-scale municipalities, the development of the community’s flood mitigation plan, and recommendations for post-disaster transitional supports. The results indicated that communities in the post-disaster recovery phase are considering the use of buyouts as a risk reduction tool amongst broader flood mitigation strategies, however policy constraints and a lack of funding are impeding the implementation of a flood mitigation plan that includes buyouts. The findings suggest that decisions about post disaster recovery are often independent of broader municipal climate change adaptation plans instead focusing on short-term risk reduction mechanisms. Additionally, transitional supports including interim housing need to be accounted for in recovery planning. Governments in Canada can capitalize on the policy windows during the post-disaster recovery stage and learn from municipalities about the challenges and opportunities in the design and implementation of flood mitigation plans that can help to improve disaster policy." Full article here: https://lnkd.in/gTe2rZHQ