Proposed Legislation Seeks to Stimulate Investment in Coastal Resiliency
2017年5月16日
![U.S. 众议员罗伯特·C. &宝贝,鲍比” Scott U照片.S. 代表. 鲍比·斯科特和艾米丽·斯坦希尔伯](/news/2017/5/build_resilience/_jcr_content/par/float/image.img.600.jpg/1574736701330.jpg)
By 乔恩·考利
Waves gently lapped onto a Newport News beach 五月 15 as U.S. 代表. 罗伯特·C. "Bobby" Scott stood with Emily Steinhilber of 最靠谱的网赌软件's RESEARCH处 and members of the Wetlands Watch environmental group to informally introduce legislation intended to help communities improve coastal resilience.
的平静, late-spring day was the perfect setting, 斯科特说, to highlight the need to proactively pursue infrastructure improvements that would minimize impacts from storms and recurrent flooding.
斯科特的计划, the Building Up Infrastructure to Limit Disasters through Resiliency Act - also referred to as 《网上十大网赌娱乐大全》 - would authorize $1 billion a year to establish a program similar to the National Disaster 弹性 Competition (NDRC), a competitive grant program facilitated by the U.S. Department of 住房 and Urban Development (HUD).
去年,弗吉尼亚州获得了120美元的奖励.5 million through the NDRC to address recurrent flooding in Norfolk's Chesterfield Heights neighborhood as a result of a competitive grant effort spearheaded by Old Dominion.
斯科特选择了索尔特溪流域, 位于纽波特纽斯东南部, as the location to discuss his proposed legislation because a proposed sea wall project there, along with several others in Hampton Roads, were not approved through the HUD competition because of limited federal funding.
The bill would also create a National RESEARCH Center for 弹性 to work with HUD to establish a network to share best practices and provide assistance to communities interested in investing in resilience measures.
Steinhilber said the proposed legislation would promote cooperation across communities, which is essential to proactively address sea level rise encroachment because "watersheds do not stop at political boundaries."
She stressed the importance of using a "multijurisdictional approach. It's just so important for solutions that actually make the most sense and that use our limited resources the best way possible, as opposed to just knocking projects out,施泰因希尔伯说.
斯科特说 《网上十大网赌娱乐大全》 is modeled after HUD's 2013 initiative, 桑迪飓风之后, that reallocated $1 billion from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act to begin investing in resilient strategies through the NDRC program.
"With these projects, you can save a lot of money," he said. "The estimate, if we don't do anything, is that there is about $5 trillion in damages we can expect. But if we take the preventative approach, we can save about 80 percent of those damages - that's what prevention and the bill does."
斯科特说 he chose HUD as the funding apparatus of his bill because it served as the mechanism for Virginia's successful $120.5 million grant application, in which 最靠谱的网赌软件 played a key coordinating role.
"We have the experience," the Democrat said. “我们不想重新发明轮子."
The Virginia NDRC application was led by Old Dominion, which for decades has been a hub of climate change and sea level rise research. It was one of 13 projects to receive funding in a competitive bid process that saw 40 entries from 26 states and Puerto Rico.
The grant application involved staff from Old Dominion's RESEARCH处 and Virginia 建模, 分析仿真中心(VMASC), 以及切萨皮克的城市, 诺福克和纽波特纽斯, all of whom gathered input from local stakeholders. In all, more than 100 workshops, work groups, committee meetings and forums were held to seek input.
最终产品, 茁壮成长, aligns with HUD's national objective to directly benefit low- and moderate-income residents and households by focusing on unmet recovery needs, as well as building regional resilience capacity to adapt to sea level rise and manage extreme weather events.
ThRIVe has five major goals: unite the region; create coastal resilience; build water management solutions; improve economic vitality, 加强弱势Community. This comprehensive approach is designed to capitalize on the region's strengths, convert risk and vulnerabilities into economic opportunities, and demonstrate best practices to low-lying areas nationwide.