"Substantiating Mitigation—Florida’s Loss-Avoidance Assessment Strategy,” will be presented by Carly Forster,
Long-Term Recovery and Hazard Mitigation Team Lead for the Risk and Resiliency
Group at ARCADIS. In the October webinar, Forster will talk about Florida’s assessment strategy for its mitigation efforts.
Before most mitigation projects are approved for funding,
they are subject to benefit-cost analyses. These analyses estimate the
potential losses avoided due to natural hazard events over the life of the
project (benefits). If the estimated benefits outweigh the costs of the
project, which take the form of capital costs and maintenance costs, a project
is considered to be cost beneficial. Because policymakers have taken an interest
in the effectiveness of mitigation during actual hazard events, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and states complete loss-avoidance
assessments to evaluate project success post-disaster. These evaluations also
estimate what damages would have occurred during the disaster if the mitigation
project had not been implemented. Historically, these assessments have been
somewhat difficult to implement and it was thought that only engineers could
accomplish them.
The state of Florida commissioned the development of simple
loss-avoidance calculators for flood and wind mitigation projects in order to
facilitate the loss avoidance process, and thus encourage greater investment in
mitigation by demonstrating its actual benefits. These calculators help cut
some of the long corners in traditional loss avoidance assessments to make the
process more accessible for local entities and other states. During the webinar,
Forster will discuss how the calculators were developed, demonstrate how to
prepare a loss avoidance assessment, show how to use the calculators and
emphasize the importance of data gathering pre- and post-disaster, as well as
throughout project management.
Foster is a specialist in hazard
mitigation, benefit cost analysis, safe growth analysis at ARCADIS, a
leading global natural and built asset design and consultancy firm. She is a FEMA-recognized Hazus practitioner, Certified
Floodplain Manager and certified planner recognized by the American Institute
of Certified Planners (AICP). Forster is a proponent of comprehensive risk management,
which requires integrating business continuity, hazard mitigation, smart growth
and emergency preparedness, response, recovery and post-disaster redevelopment
planning mechanisms. She has
been active in long-term recovery and mitigation planning activities throughout
the South and Northeastern United States, including in New York and New Jersey
as those states recover from Sandy. Foster develops mitigation strategies and
programs for small and large-scale clients. She
writes protocol for state-level FEMA program management and developed the
methodology and system the state of Florida will be using to conduct loss-avoidance
studies for implemented flood and wind mitigation projects.
|