1.3. Organizing Resources

After you have determined your planning area, outlined the SOW, and made crucial planning process decisions, it is time to organize your resources to support the planning process. Resources can be your partners, data resources, plans and studies, and technical assistance.

The planning process is powered by staff, stakeholders and volunteers from across the private, public and non-governmental sectors. Many partnership options can exist within a planning area. These options can be based on current planning projects, relationships and partnerships. Think about whether your community works with regional organizations, councils of government, or other established multi-jurisdictional partnerships for planning activities.

Creating a mitigation plan does not require formal training in community planning, engineering or science. However, you should include subject matter experts in the planning process. Consider how personnel or contractors can help with:

• Identifying hazards, assessing vulnerabilities, and understanding significant risks.
• Facilitating meetings, involving partners and the public, and decision-making activities.
• Forming an organized and functional plan with maps or other graphics.

You have many options when considering outside help for plan development. You could contract with a regional planning agency, local college or state university. You may also want to reach out to another community that has already finished the planning process for advice. Before getting outside help from any of these sources, consider:

• The SOW, including administration, coordination and engagement.
• The expertise, type and extent of help needed.
• The level of interaction between support services, other members of the planning team, partners and the public.

Private consultants are another resource. They can help you coordinate, manage and carry out the mitigation planning process. Consultants can support facilitation, administration and documentation of the planning process. All information should be provided by and approved by each participant. If your community decides to hire a consultant, consider looking for a professional planning firm. Any support services for the planning process should:

• Recognize the unique demographic, geographic, technical and political considerations of each participating community.
• Show knowledge or experience with land use and community development.
• Know all the policies and regulations that apply to the mitigation plan. This should include federal law, FEMA regulations and policies, state laws and local ordinances.
• Know that community input and public participation are key to any successful mitigation plan.
• Have demonstrable mitigation planning experience working with underserved communities and socially vulnerable populations.
• Show familiarity with emergency management and multi-hazard mitigation, climate adaptation and resilience concepts.
• Share past performance information and references

For more information on engaging the right people and partners in the planning process, see Task 2: Build the Planning Team.

current technical information, plans, reports and studies used in the plan. Incorporating these resources makes sure you build off of the latest research and data, which leads to a stronger, more comprehensive mitigation plan. Carefully review related documents and data. If something can help you assess your risks, vulnerabilities and capabilities or set a strategy, include it in the plan.

Hazard mitigation planning, and community planning in general, does not happen in a vacuum. The mitigation plan should support and be supported by other local plans and policies. This can ensure the success of mitigation actions. It can also bolster the effectiveness of other planning mechanisms in working toward resilience. Take the time to gather these plans and policies and see how they may tie in to risk reduction.

Planning Mechanism	What it Supports	What to Look For
Climate Action or Adaptation Plan	Risk Assessment	Detailed climate projections; descriptions of climate risks; existing climate-related goals and actions
	Mitigation Strategy
Comprehensive, General, or Master Plan	Risk Assessment	Information on hazards, development trends, goals and policies, land use plans, and other ordinances that support risk reduction
	Capability Assessment
Emergency Operations Plan	Risk Assessment	Data on hazards or events of concern and vulnerabilities
	Capability Assessment
Economic Development Strategy or Plan	Planning Process	Existing partners; prioritized economic growth areas, growth industries and their relative risks
	Risk Assessment
	Mitigation Strategy
Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for Dams	Risk Assessment	Location and characteristics of dams; inundation maps
	High-Hazard Potential Dam Requirements
Land Use Ordinances	Risk Assessment	Hazard-specific provisions and overall development rules
	Capability Assessment
Pre-Disaster Recovery Plan	Planning Process	Information on potential partners; risk reduction plans and strategies
	Risk Assessment
	Mitigation Strategy

Before you start the planning process, find out if other planning efforts could be aligned or integrated with the mitigation plan. This can save time and money and can also lead to better outcomes for your community. For instance, you could fold mitigation plan development into the community’s process for updating their comprehensive plan, economic development plan, or community wildfire protection plan. However, keep in mind that not every planning mechanism can coordinate with your mitigation plan.

The Risk MAP program supports community resilience by providing data, building partnerships, and supporting long-term hazard mitigation planning. FEMA provides flood hazard and risk data products to help guide mitigation actions. These products fall into two categories: regulatory and non-regulatory.

Communities use regulatory products as the basis for official actions required by the NFIP. Traditionally, FEMA flood studies produce regulatory products for a community. These include a Flood Insurance Study (FIS) Report and Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) that communities use for floodplain management purposes. The FIRMs are the official community maps that show special flood hazard areas and flood risk premium zones. When the NFIP completes a flood study, the data and maps are assembled into an FIS report. This report has detailed flood elevation data in flood profiles and data tables. These maps and products can be primary sources of flood data for your local plan. It is key to understand that flood hazards are dynamic and change over time because of development, land use changes, climate change and other variables.

Non-regulatory products go beyond the basic flood hazard information found in the regulatory products. These products provide a more user-friendly analysis of flood risks within a Risk MAP Flood Risk Project. They include:

• Changes Since Last FIRM. Thisshows changes made to the regulatory floodplain and floodway during a map update.
• Water Surface Elevation Grids. Thisdataset allows the user to find flood elevations for the entire floodplain.
• Flood Depth Grids. These illustrate the varying flood depths in flood prone areas.
• Percent Annual Chance Grids. These display the likelihood that a given location will flood in any single year.

Not every community receives both regulatory and non-regulatory products. The FEMA Map Service Center is the best place to find these materials. Communities should review the products available for their area when beginning or updating a mitigation plan.

Some parts of the planning process or plan preparation can benefit from technical assistance. If you need outside technical assistance to help form the plan, think about how to use that aid to build long-term community capabilities. Creating a mitigation plan does not require formal training in community planning, engineering or science. However, subject matter experts should be included in the planning process. Consider how personnel or contractors can help with:

• Identifying hazards, assessing vulnerabilities and understanding significant risks.
• Facilitating meetings, partner and public involvement, and decision-making activities.
• Forming an organized and functional plan with maps or other graphics.

Both states and FEMA provide training and technical assistance to local governments as a part of their mission. The state is responsible for providing training and technical assistance in applying for HMA grants and developing mitigation plans. To better understand what kind of technical assistance may be available to your local community, reach out to your SHMO.

Different grant programs may also provide some level of technical assistance based on the grant type and potential project. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program offers non-financial direct technical assistance. This can provide mitigation planning help.