Mitigation Action Categories
FEMA organizes mitigation actions into six broad categories. These categories have been adjusted slightly to better align with New York City’s built environment. For example, the FEMA category Natural Resource Protection was changed to Coastal/Natural Resource Protection and the FEMA category Structural Projects was changed to Infrastructure Projects. These categories allow mitigation actions to be compared and provide a standardized method for eliminating unsuitable actions. All mitigation actions identified in New York City’s HMP fall within one of the following mitigation action categories, described below:
| Mitigation Action Category | |
| Coastal and natural resource protection | Actions that, in addition to minimizing the hazard losses, also preserve or restore the functions of natural or coastal systems. |
| Emergency services | Actions that protect people and property, or increase the capacity of emergency response during and immediately following a disaster event. |
| Infrastructure projects | Actions that involve the engineering of infrastructure systems (energy, telecom, water, transportation) to be more resistant to the impacts of hazards. |
| Prevention and policy | Government, administrative, or regulatory actions and processes that influence the way land and buildings are developed and built. |
| Property protection | Actions that involve the modification of existing buildings or structures to protect them from a hazard, or removal from the hazard area. |
| Public education and awareness | Actions to inform and educate citizens, elected officials, businesses, and property owners about the hazards they face and protective measures they can take to best prepare for or respond to hazards. |
Examples of Mitigation Action Categories in Practice
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is leading a Resilience Hubs project which will support retrofits to support community resiliency during disasters and evaluate community spaces that can serve as resiliency hubs for NYCHA residents. The NYCHA Resilience Hubs project falls under the Emergency Services mitigation action category, because these hubs will provide resiliency services and shelter for NYCHA residents during and following a potential disaster event.
The New York City Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation’s ongoing New York City Green Property Certification program was established to provide formal recognition to properties that achieve all applicable government standards for environmental investigation and cleanup in New York State. Because this program increases public understanding and awareness of cleanup sites as safe places to live and work, it is considered a Public Education and Awareness action.
Prioritization
The Mitigation Strategy culminates in a synthesis of mitigation actions and our capability to advance them based on prioritization and implementation criteria. As the proposed projects require a range of timelines and resources, our Mitigation Strategy allows us to identify both short- and long-term approaches to implementation.
The evaluation criterion was developed based on the Social, Technical, Administrative, Political, Legal, Economic, and Environmental (STAPLEE) evaluation criterion provided by FEMA. However, it consolidated the variables in STAPLEE to fit with the “Capability Assessment” entries in the Mitigation Actions Database, includes two new variables that incorporate social vulnerability and climate change, and incorporates the results from the public survey to gauge “support.”
By utilizing the “Capability Assessment” within the Mitigation Actions Database, the HMP can better document how existing capabilities of each agency are available to support the mitigation strategy.
| Variable | Description | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Support | Does the public support the overall implementation and specific mitigation action? | range |
| Social | Does this mitigation action address a socially vulnerable population? | 0/1 |
| Environmental | Does the mitigation action address climate change? | 0/1 |
| Planning and Regulation Capability | Implementation of ordinances, policies, site plan reviews, local laws, state statutes, plans, and programs that relate to guiding and managing growth and development. | 0/1 |
| Administrative and Technical Capability | City agency staff and their skills and tools that can be used for mitigation planning and to implement specific mitigation actions. | 0/1 |
| Financial Capability | Resources that the City has access to or is eligible to use to fund mitigation actions. | 0/1 |
| Education and Outreach Capability | Programs and methods that could be used to implement mitigation activities and communicate hazard related information. | 0/1 |
The third step in evaluating and prioritizing mitigation actions was to produce a final score that is a sum of the different scores from the evaluation criterion variables. That score was than coded and assigned to a final prioritization of low, medium, or high to each mitigation action.
The final prioritization of mitigation actions does not affect NYCEM’s procedures for assisting agencies in applying for FEMA grants.