Integrating Climate Change into Hazard Mitigation Planning: A Survey of State Hazard Mitigation Officers

Abstract

The increased number of catastrophic disasters in the United States in recent decades has been accompanied by consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels, floods, storms, extreme temperatures, drought, and wildfires. Climate change and extreme events are interrelated, and climate change is likely to lead to more frequent and severe hazards. Hazard mitigation offers tools to address the hazards that are influenced by climate change and minimize community-level exposure or vulnerability. State Hazard Mitigation Officers in the 56 U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia involved in FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program were surveyed to assess the extent to which climate change has been integrated into State Hazard Mitigation Plans (SHMPs) and the barriers and facilitators to such climate change integration. The majority of responding states reported integration of climate change into SHMPs, and increased climate change projection evidence was commonly cited as a driver of such integration. However, lack of funding and competing hazard mitigation priorities were the most commonly reported barriers to integration. Political prioritization was reported as both a barrier to and facilitator of integration. There is an ongoing need to effectively translate climate change research to practitioners to support evidence-based hazard mitigation policy and practice.