In a conversation Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, discusses Federal Agency’s address of climate change issues through policies and monetary support.
The 2023 Annual FEMA report is titled ‘Navigating the New Normal’. With the record-breaking warming trend in recent years and the increasing occurrence of disasters due to climate change, how is this new normal shaping FEMA’s approach to disaster management?
Climate change is the crisis of our generation and we are seeing the toll that increasingly frequent and severe weather events are having on communities nationwide.
While FEMA continues to lean forward to help communities respond to and recover from disasters, we have also provided historic levels of mitigation funding to help communities build resilience, with these investments being greatly increased under President Biden and through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
FEMA’s latest project selections totaled nearly $3 billion and we are encouraged to see more and more communities from across the country take advantage of these programs, including economically disadvantaged communities that are better able to access this critical funding.
What is the importance of geospatial and space data in the phases of emergency/disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery?
In the last two years, using geospatial data to assess damages from disasters has become a new tool for FEMA to get funds into the hands of survivors as quickly as possible.
Geospatial data and analysis is important to Recovery operations for many reasons. Understanding the impact to communities from hazard events requires interacting hazard data along with all types of geospatial data available for given communities including: census demographics, economic data, cadastral data, public and private structure data, major infrastructure data (communication/power/ transportation networks), remote sensing data, and any other datasets that help describe and visualize the status of communities before and after disasters.
Recovery uses many different types of analysis with this data to understand the impact of disaster events to public and private property. This helps to determine the types of Individual and Public Assistance programs to activate and deliver to individual survivors and communities throughout the entire recovery process for any given disaster.
From reservists as first responders to its regional centers, FEMA has a very elaborate on-ground system for addressing the complexity of emergency/disaster events. How might AI-based predictive analytics help?
FEMA is facing increasingly more frequent, severe, and complex disasters and often in areas that are not prepared for them. In the past year, FEMA responded to hurricanes in the desert and wildfires on tropical islands.
To meet the mission, FEMA must leverage every possible solution to address complex emergency or disaster events.
Predictive analytics and AI solutions can assist with increasing the accuracy of forecasting disasters, with real-time monitoring during a disaster to directly impact responders, and with communicating more detailed and timely warnings to avoid potential risks.
FEMA already uses flood inundation models before an event and satellite radar data of floodwaters immediately postevent to predict the impacts to households. This helped FEMA to pre-position resources and expedite disaster declaration decisions.
Another example is in 2022, when Hurricane Ian’s path took it over a broad swath of Florida, and it became clear that the traditional approach of manually conducting geospatial damage assessments was not going to be possible.
FEMA deployed a computer vision model that narrowed the number of structures needing human review from over a million to just 77,000, shortening the time of completion from weeks to days.
This automation helped identify areas with the worst damage, prioritize operations, and help survivors faster.
As AI develops, FEMA hopes to continue to leverage the capabilities and enhance operational efficiency, increase evidence-based decision- making, and improve disaster response for the survivor.
As per estimates, natural disasters lead to infrastructure losses in the billions of dollars. How can FEMA’s expertise be of use in building resilient infrastructure and supporting communities to build back better?
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law takes decisive action, allowing $1.2 trillion to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen the nation’s resilience, including underserved communities that are most vulnerable.
The threat from climate change cannot be overstated and the Act provides $6.8 billion that FEMA will invest in communitywide mitigation to reduce disaster suffering and avoid future disaster costs in the face of more frequent and severe events arising from wildfires and droughts to hurricanes, tornadoes and floods.
Additionally, building codes save lives, time, and money. Buildings that are designed and constructed to modern building codes withstand the effects of natural hazard events, including flooding, high winds and earthquakes, better than buildings that are not. This is why FEMA encourages jurisdictions to adopt and remain in line with the current model codes.
The National Institute of Building Science’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 2019 Report found that designing buildings to the standards of the 2018 International Building Code (IBC) and International Resident Code (IRC) resulted in a national benefit of $11 saved for every $1 invested when compared to buildings constructed following 1990-era building codes.
Every federal dollar spent on mitigating risks today saves $6 in the future. FEMA’s Building Codes Save study estimated that communities who adopt modern building codes will save the nation approximately $132 billion in damage by the year 2040.
Eight out of ten Americans believe superior building codes protect their homes. Yet only 32% of areas jurisdictions in the U.S. have adopted the latest natural hazard-resistant building codes.
Modern building codes provide a baseline of protection against natural hazards and extreme weather events. Building Codes shift the focus from reactive disaster spending to proactive mitigation investments that create resilient communities.
FEMA’s Building Codes Strategy organizes and prioritizes FEMA activities that advance the adoption and enforcement of hazard-resistant building codes and standards for agency programs and communities nationwide.
The three goals of the FEMA Building Codes Strategy are to: integrate building codes and standards across FEMA; strengthen nationwide capability for superior building performance and drive public action. These goals advance the vision of a resilient nation with superior building performance in disasters.
The FEMA Public Assistance Program provides funding for hazard mitigation measures as part of the restoration of disaster damaged public infrastructure. FEMA is working to double this investment in mitigation as part of Recovery in coming years.
Every federal dollar spent on mitigating risks today saves $6 in the future.
FEMA also implemented DRRA 1235b with the Consensus-Based Codes, Standards, and Specifications Policy and continues to update that policy with the most relevant up-to-date consensus-based codes and standards available.
This ensures that we build back to the highest standards possible and protect the Federal taxpayer’s investment. For every $1 invested in up-to-date codes and standards on Federal investments, we help to save $11 in future losses, as demonstrated by the NIBS 2019 Report.
As amended by Section 1235(b) of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA), Section 406(e) requires FEMA to fund repair, restoration, reconstruction, or replacement in conformity with “the latest published editions of relevant consensus- based codes, specifications, and standards that incorporate the latest hazard-resistant design and establish minimum acceptable criteria for the design, construction, and maintenance of residential structures and facilities that may be eligible for assistance under this Act for the purposes of protecting the health, safety, and general welfare of a facility’s users against disasters.”
FEMA’s Consensus-Based Codes, Specifications and Standards for Public Assistance (Policy) defines the framework and requirements for consistent and appropriate implementation of consensus-based design, construction and maintenance codes.
These codes, specifications and standards apply to repair and replacement of disaster damaged elements and facilities impacted by devastating hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, severe storms, tornadoes and other climatic events.
