Hazard Mitigation Planning

Hazard mitigation planning can break the cycle of disaster-repair-disaster in a community and prepare it for a more sustainable future.

The Local Planning Assistance Center (LPAC) and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management partnered to assist communities in developing all-hazard mitigation plans. In addition to providing technical assistance and training to local governments, the LPAC team prepared materials to help local governments develop their own community plans. Materials included maps, data and assistance documents.

• Resource guide development
• GIS applications and data
• Public participation processes
• Site visits to PDM '02 grants

What's New?

• The Careful County mock plan now available in final version.
• Audio has been added to PowerPoint presentations.
• Hazard mitigation planning resource CD available.
• School district boundaries and public school locations data sets now available on the LMIC Clearinghouse.

Assistance Documents

Maps - Maps of statewide hazards have been collected or created for communities to use in their local all-hazard mitigation plans. They can be found on the maps page.

Data Sets - The LPAC team has created a data matrix to help counties address data for their all-hazard mitigation plans. While there is not a list from FEMA indicating the required data sets, data from Minnesota's data matrix will provide communities with a solid base of information. Many GIS data layers can also be downloaded from the Land Management Information Center's (LMIC) Clearinghouse

PowerPoint Presentations - LPAC has presented materials on specific parts of the all-hazard mitigation plan.  PowerPoint presentations are now available online.

• Introduction to Hazard Mitigation Planning
• Community and Hazard Profiles with audio
• Creating the Risk Assessment  with audio
• Public Participation with audio
• Goals and Strategies with audio
• Working with Data with audio

Careful County All-Hazard Mitigation Plan - The Careful County All-Hazard Mitigation Plan is a mock plan intended to help Minnesota communities design their own plans. While Careful County is a fictitious county, the plan does address all hazards addressed by the state's hazard mitigation plan. Careful County mock plan is available in Microsoft Word or PDFUpdated March 2004.

Useful Handouts and Worksheets

• Creating Community and Hazard Profile
• Risk Assessment
• Public Participation and Coordination
• Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 Brings New Planning Requirements to Local Governments

Hazard Mitigation Planning Resource CD - LPAC staff created a hazard mitigation resource CD. The CD contains the Careful County Mock Plan in both Word and PDF formats, the PowerPoint presentations with audio (above) and other resources related to specific sections of the hazard mitigation plan. Contact Aaron Buffington at aaron.buffington@state.mn.us to obtain a CD.

GIS and other assessment tools

Local Planning Assistance supports the use of several tools to analyze hazards and develop hazard mitigation plans.

• EPICplanner: The new version has been updated with additional datasets. Also, it now includes additional functions to do heads-up digitizing and GPS downloads.
• Datanet:  An online system consisting of summarized statistical information.
• HAZUS: A natural hazard loss estimation methodology developed by FEMA in partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences.

Hazard Mitigation Planning Programs

Mitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It's the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from tornadoes -- and more.

Two of FEMA's mitigation grant programs include the Hazards Mitigation Grant Program (HGMP) and the Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program (PDM).

Useful Links

• Minnesota Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: A direct link to the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management's homepage. HSEM is creating the state hazard mitigation plan. They will also review community hazard mitigation plans.
• FEMA hazards page - Site includes many hazard definitions and background information.
• State Hazard Mitigation Plan - This is Minnesota's state hazard mitigation plan in a PDF format.
• AMEM (Association of Minnesota Emergency Managers)
• NEMA: National Emergency Management AssociationNEMA is the professional association of state and pacific Caribbean insular state emergency management directors.
• LMIC's Clearinghouse Catalog -Lists downloadable GIS data available for Minnesota. Most data sets have statewide extent.
• NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) - This is a great site for locating historic data on hazard events occurring within  counties in Minnesota. Information can be used for the hazard profile and risk assessment segments of your plan.
• Firewise Program - Addresses the risk of homes in the wildland/urban interface to wildland fire.
• PCA's Karst page

Contacts

For further information on hazard mitigation planning contacts:

• Deborah Pile at (651) 297-2375 or deborah.pile@state.mn.us
• Aaron Buffington at (651) 296-1715 or aaron.buffington@state.mn.us
• Lisa Dressler at HSEM (651) 297-2007 or lisa.dressler@state.mn.us