Resource released: Building Resilient States: Profiles in Action

Washington, D.C. — Communities shouldn’t wait for a flood or a hurricane to see how land use choices will affect their ability to remain resilient in the face of disaster. Many states and municipalities are already thinking strategically about how land use, transportation, and infrastructure decisions can help them prepare for and mitigate the impact of disasters. A new resource profiles some of the nation’s best examples of these ideas at work.

Building Resilient States: Profiles in Action highlights local, regional, and statewide efforts to build more resilient communities from the ground up. The report was produced by the Governors’ Institute on Community Design (https://www.govinstitute.org), a program run in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Smart Growth America.

Profiles in Action looks at examples in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon, focusing on each of the seven steps in our resilience Framework:

1. Put someone in charge
2. Seek the advice and expertise of partners outside state government
3. Integrate future risks into a state Hazard Mitigation Plan and land use policy
4. Ensure that state investments do not increase vulnerability
5. Develop strategies to address assets that are already in high-risk areas
6. Help communities become more resilient
7. Develop a process for monitoring, measuring, and reporting on progress

The Framework was originally released in October 2015 in Building Resilient States: A Framework for Agencies (https://www.govinstitute.org). That report was an introduction to integrating land use and transportation issues into states’ conversations about resilience. Profiles in Action, a companion to that report, more deeply explores the advice provided in the Framework and shows how some states are putting these ideas into action.

Download Building Resilient States: Profiles in Action at https://smartgrowthamerica.org/resources/building-resilient-states-profiles-action.