Grant from EPA to incorporate Green Infrastructure solutions into the State Hazard Mitigation Plan
KAMM received a grant from EPA to incorporate Green Infrastructure solutions into the State Hazard Mitigation Plan. There have been significant efforts for EPA and FEMA to collaborate on flood-related mitigation efforts using nature based solutions.
Objective of the Grant: Incorporate Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID) concepts as nature based mitigation actions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Enhanced State Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Green Infrastructure Definition
Section 502 of the Clean Water Act defines green infrastructure as:
“…the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters.“
KAMM Final Report – Nature Based Solutions for Hazard Mitigation in Kentucky
April 2022
The intent of this effort is to provide a pathway for Nature- Based Solutions (NBS) to be viable mitigation measures for natural hazards in the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s State Hazard Mitigation Plan (SHMP). The Commonwealth has identified the need to institutionalize natural and nature-based solutions into
hazard mitigation planning efforts to achieve water quantity, water quality, and habitat co-benefits.
Additionally, these efforts will identify a wider variety of funding sources to be leveraged or directed to water quantity and water quality improvements, including EPA, FEMA, and other agency resources and funds.
Nature-based solutions (NBS) or Green Infrastructure (GI) can reduce damage from natural hazards as well as (or better than) traditional engineered projects, often at less cost. Nature-based solutions provide a unique opportunity to strengthen natural resource management efforts and create better, more resilient communities for current and future Kentuckians.
Floods, stormwater flooding, landslides and droughts pose significant risks to Kentucky communities.
High flows resulting from heavy rains, especially in urban areas can damage habitat, infrastructure, and
property. In addition, rains can cause or increase erosion and cause water pollution. Stormwater runoff
often contains trash and contaminants like bacteria and heavy metals.
Nature based solutions for flood hazard mitigation often achieve enhanced water quantity management
and improvements to water quality and habitat. Urban flooding and stormwater runoff has been identified as significant emerging issue that often requires a need for innovative approaches to mitigation. NBS mimic the natural environment to slow, infiltrate and treat water, especially from urban
stormwater flooding situations. NBS are particularly suited to mitigate urban natural hazards issues because they take advantage of the inherent relationship between water quantity and water quality.
Institutionalizing nature-based solutions is one approach that will benefit mitigation activities and water
quality enhancements across the Commonwealth.
Ongoing community actions may be leveraged as activities to enhance Hazard Mitigation Plans. Often,
communities solve problems by adhering to a singular approach. NBS often have several co-benefits for
communtities and are motivated and supported by nature to offer environmental, economic, and social
benefits, while also increasing resilience. NBS solutions cover a range of approaches, including policies,
ordinances, restoration, management, conservation, and nature-based infrastructure (e.g., green infrastructure and low impact development). Many NBS approaches, once implemented, ultimately perform the same ecosystem services as natural systems, like wetlands. Stakeholders and communities can utilize FEMA’s hazard mitigation planning process, a regulatory requirement tied to eligibility for mitigation funding, to educate partners and build support for green infrastructure development.
Objectives
• Enable cost-effective planning • Implementation of water quality and hazard mitigation efforts
• Encourage co-planning management of natural hazards (e.g., flooding, drought, landslides, algal blooms)
• Nonpoint source water quality planning with a secondary emphasis on drinking water source protection (both drought and water quality)
• Urban long-term stormwater planning – greenways, best management practices (BMPs)
• Codes and ordinances
• Protection of undeveloped natural areas (floodplains, hydric soils, wetlands, forests, etc.)
• Agricultural soil health to enhance infiltration and retain soil moisture for drought and flood mitigation, and reduce stormwater runoff.
Link to Nature Based Solutions for Hazard Mitigation in Kentucky Final – April 2022
Learn More About KAMM Grant
Nature-based solutions provide a unique opportunity to strengthen natural resource management efforts and create a better, more resilient future for all Kentuckians.
EPA Presentation
Download the presentation by Drew Parker, EPA RIV, Incorporating Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development (LID) into State Hazard Mitigation Plan
KAMM/KDOW Presentation
Download the presentation by Carey Johnson, KAMM Past Chair and At-Large Representative Creating Resilient and Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century – Infusing nature-based solutions into Hazard Mitigation Plans
This presentation outlines the intent to create a Resilient Commonwealth.
Kentucky’s Efforts and Partners
Communities have been implementing nature based solutions for years. Generally as a result of MS4 (Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer System) programs or EPA consent decrees.
But…leveraging best practices from local stormwater programs with statewide planning and mitigation efforts in a systematic manner is a fairly new concept…at least in Kentucky.
Partners
- EPA Region 4
- FEMA Region IV
- Kentucky Emergency Management
- Kentucky Division of Water
- The Nature Conservancy – Kentucky
- Kentucky Association of Mitigation Managers (KAMM
Kentucky’s Mitigation-related Collaborative Efforts
- State Hazard Mitigation Council
- Includes a quorum of the KAMM Board
- Ohio River Basin Alliance
- Dept. of Local Government (DLG) State Flood Control Match Fund
- State-owned Dam Repair Fund
- Kentucky Nature Preserves
- Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Grants
- HMGP (Hazard Mitigation Grant Program)
- BRIC ( Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities)
- FMA (Flood Mitigation Assistance)
- Risk MAP (Mapping, Assessment and Planning)
- Silver Jackets
- Public Assistance 406 mitigation
- Clean Water Act – CWA Section 319(h) watershed planning
Key Terminology
Nature-based solution: locally appropriate, cost-effective actions that mimic or support natural processes while simultaneously providing economic, social, and environmental benefits
Green Infrastructure: a type of nature-based practice that uses natural hydrological processes and natural elements such as soil and plants to capture stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface water
Low-impact Development: a planning and design approach to manage stormwater runoff using green infrastructure
Co-benefit: shorthand for “collaborative benefit,” which are the multiple, sometimes multidisciplinary benefits that arise from a singular practice
Ecosystem service: benefits people obtain from ecosystems (e.g., food, water, oxygen)
Ecosystem-based management: an integrated management approach that considers the multiple and varied interactions within an ecosystem
Hazard Mitigation Plan: federally-mandated plan that aims to abate and prevent the impact of natural hazards, like floods, drought, tornados, mudslides.
Community Rating System: a voluntary, incentive-based community program that recognizes, encourages, and rewards local floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum standards of the National Flood Insurance Program
Watershed Management Plan: flexible framework that addresses water quality issues in a given watershed
Mitigation Matters!
Have questions? Contact us at help@kymitigation.org.
Don’t forget to join the KAMM group on LinkedIn and Facebook.
KAMM is a non-profit 501 (c) (3).
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