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<br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />e <br /> <br />PSOO-15 <br /> <br />Dr. Jae Park <br />NC Division of Emergency Management <br />1830 B Tillery Place <br />Raleigh NC, 27604 <br />(919) 715-8000, ext25I <br /> <br />Towards a Sustainable Hazard Mitigation Program in North Carolina <br /> <br />In the recent years, there have been active collaborative efforts to build communities that are more <br />sustainable in terms of balancing community livability, economic viability, and environmental sensitivity. <br />These efforts incorporate the concept of building communities that are more resilient to natural hazards. <br />The role of state government becomes critical by embedding hazard mitigation practices into sustainable <br />development. This poster illustrates a conceptual framework in which state governments can contribute <br />their hazard mitigation resources in order to help guide such community-based efforts. <br /> <br />The major characteristics of this framework are: <br /> <br />I. Hazard Mitigation should be ongoing and evolutionary. The framework has four major components <br />to capture all aspects of hazard mitigation-hazard identification and risk assessment, mitigation <br />policy making, implementation, and evaluation, <br />. Comprehensive hazard identification and risk assessment should be accomplished prior to policy <br />decision making. Technology-based risk assessments wiD improve the validity of risk analysis, <br />which should provide a basis for sound hazard mitigation policy making. <br />· Mitigation policies should include regulatory and non-regulatory measures such as code <br />enforcement through NFIP regulations, hazard mitigation grant programs, risk communication <br />and hazard mitigation planning. <br />. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation process will provide opportunities to measure the <br />effectiveness of mitigation policies and will capture lessons learned from experience. <br />2. Build capacity to lead local governments toward hazard resilient communities. In order to effectively <br />train local government officials, the development of a cadre of highly educated and experienced staff <br />at the state level in the areas of Geographic Information System (GIS), grant writing and <br />management, hazard database management, hazard mitigation planning, National Flood Insurance <br />Program (NFIP) and community outreach. <br />3. Developing horizontal and vertical partnerships across federal, state and local agencies, non-profit <br />organizations, universities and environmental organizations are critical to address crosscutting issues. <br />4. Obtaining high level of supports and commitment from the general public and political leaders should <br />be pursued in order to implement mitigation policies successfully through the state. <br />5. Establish within state government a self-sustaining economically viable hazard mitigation program, <br />which is not reliant on disaster related funds. <br /> <br />This framework is examined based on the organizational and functional structures of the Hazard <br />Mitigation Program in the State of North Carolina. Qualitative as well as quantitative research should be <br />followed in near future to analyze the effectiveness of this approach. <br /> <br />\ <br />