What is FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Assistance Grant Program (PDM)?
FEMA’s Pre-Disaster Mitigation Assistance Grant (PDM) is a federal grant program which provides funding for projects which plan for and implement sustainable cost-effective measures designed to reduce risk to citizens and property from future natural disasters, while also reducing reliance on federal funding from future disasters. Eligible recipients are the governments of states, local municipalities, and federally recognized tribes and territories. The hazard mitigation department of FEMA oversees the PDM, as well as the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and the Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant (FMA).
What Can PDM Funding Be Used For?
PDM funding is for projects which plan for and implement sustainable cost-effective measures designed to reduce risk to citizens and property from future natural disasters, while also reducing reliance on federal funding from future disasters. Eligible recipients must submit hazard mitigation plans to FEMA for approval as a precondition of receiving PDM funding.
What is a Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan?
Pre-disaster mitigation plans are considered eligible hazard mitigation plans submitted to FEMA for approval which reduce the risk of damage from future disasters and reliance on federal funding in the event of future disasters. For pre-disaster mitigation plans to be considered for PDM funding they must demonstrate their contributions to each of those objectives.
How Can UrbanEcoTech Help Resilience Planners Make a Successful Pre-Disaster Mitigation Plan?
Successful mitigation plans should identify hazards, assess community needs, describe a community-wide strategy for reducing risks associated with future natural disasters and demonstrate a path to reducing reliance on federal funding in the event of a future disaster. UrbanEcoTech can help resilience planners identify where hazards are most prevalent in their communities, understand why those areas are being impacted the most severely and plan responses which will target those critical factors using local data. Even further, by focusing on nature based solutions, UrbanEcoTech can help communities demonstrate paths to increasingly reduced risk over time and fortified resilience in the event of future disasters.
What Types of Eligible Projects Can UrbanEcotech Help With?
UrbanEcoTech helps resilience planners design and implement nature based solutions using local data to drive an evidence based approach to results. As a result, projects designed using UrbanEcoTech help communities build improved resilience to disasters over time and can greatly reduce risk in the event of future disasters.
What Are Some Examples of Pre-Disaster Mitigation Actions Using UrbanEcoTech?
There is a large diversity of nature based solutions which reduce the risk of damage from future disasters including urban forests, rain gardens, green roofs, tree trenches, coastal dunes, wetland restoration and protection, stormwater and waterfront parks, living shorelines (i.e. mangroves), and many others. These nature based solutions offer their communities many critical co-benefits in addition to their impact on disaster related damage risk reduction. Nature based solutions are eligible actions for PDM projects and should be included in official community hazard mitigation plans.