National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program

Public Comments Submitted on the NEHRP Strategic Plan in 2006

The National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) agencies (Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Geological Survey) will update the NEHRP Strategic Plan in 2007, targeting NEHRP activities for the next five years (2006-2010).

In undertaking this update, the NEHRP agencies plan to update the plan delineated in the March 2003 report, FEMA 383, Expanding and Using Knowledge to Reduce Earthquake Losses: the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program Strategic Plan 2001-2005 (PDF 217KB).

To help with the updating process, the NEHRP agencies sought public comments from the earthquake hazards reduction community on any aspect of the 2001-2005 strategic plan and how it might be improved in April and May 2006. The public comment period closed on May 26, 2006.

The NEHRP Secretariat received a number of Strategic Plan Comments (PDF 228KB). These comments are in addition to the Typical Public Comments from the April 17, 2006 NEHRP Stakeholder Input Forum at the Quake '06 Conference in San Francisco.

The NEHRP agencies very much appreciate the time, effort, and thought that went into the many comments that were submitted. The comments reflect the tremendous cooperative and constructive nature of the earthquake hazards reduction community.

The NEHRP agencies are now in the process of reviewing the various comments. This review is expected to take several weeks. Responses to all comments will be crafted, with the goal of making meaningful updates to the NEHRP Strategic Plan. Based on the working level reviews that are occurring, and the responses to them, the NEHRP Secretariat will make recommendations to the Interagency Coordinating Committee regarding appropriate modifications to the Strategic Plan.

Questions about these comments or the ongoing review process may be addressed to info@nehrp.gov.

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Typical Public Comments from the April 17, 2006 NEHRP Stakeholder Input Forum at the Quake '06 Conference

On Monday, April 17, the NEHRP agencies hosted an open forum at the Quake '06 conference, during which stakeholders were given opportunities to comment regarding the NEHRP Strategic Plan and possible revisions to it. As emphasized during the forum, the NEHRP agencies encourage stakeholders to submit their formal comments via the NEHRP web site. Following is a compilation of the various comments, listed largely in the order they were made, from the forum. They are provided here for stakeholders to see the general nature of the comments that were made and understand the kinds of inputs that would be helpful for developing an updated and improved NEHRP strategic plan. The NEHRP agencies welcome all such stakeholder inputs as these and will give appropriate consideration to all comments that are made.

• Need to include community-wide resilience, which involves systems approach.
• Need to incorporate a multi-hazard approach for program – tie designs for mitigating all hazards together in one framework.
• Must capitalize on opportunities (e.g. national attention brought on when major earthquakes occur) as they arise – need to recognize/acknowledge branding.
• Need coherence and coordination between NEHRP agencies and state/local partners.
• Need improved program marketing.
• Must pay attention to socio-economic issues, which must be an intimate part of any successful hazard mitigation program.
• Education is very important aspect of any successful hazard mitigation program. Very important to interact with state/local agencies. Must educate both professional and general communities.
• Need measurable goals/performance measures.
• Should incorporate national annualized loss studies that are being updated now.
• Issue of seismic rehabilitation/retrofit/strengthening for existing structures (FEMA 273 Þ FEMA 356 Þ ASCE 41) is very important, and there are many needs for NEHRP initiatives for improving current states-of-art/practice. Are there plans to assist ASCE develop new data/guidance?
• Need to develop organized national archives on national earthquake experiences.
• Connections between NEHRP agencies and state/local agencies must be established at high levels (not just working levels) within respective bureaucracies.
• Need more emphasis on impacts of remote sensing technologies.
• Must include community-wide vulnerability sciences (shed "20th Century approach" for "21st Century approach," new strategic plan needs to be revolutionary, not evolutionary!).
• When can 2000 census-based version of FEMA loss study (updated FEMA 366, which was based on 1990 census data) be expected?
• FEMA's annualized building loss study is old and needs updating.
• Must consider broad interdependent networks in reformulating strategic plan. Business continuity was mentioned – need to address challenge of information networks.
• Build into new plan some aspect of self-examination of program effects on communities and areas.
• What involvement does NEHRP have in post-event recovery?
• What is NEHRP's ultimate goal? Where will it end?" Where will it go?

It is understandable that the NEHRP agencies would look at adopting an "evolutionary" approach to developing the next version of the strategic plan, rather than a "revolutionary" approach. Some of the previous comments reflect a need for fresh perspective in strategic plan development. An appropriate "middle ground" approach might be to add a fifth goal in the current strategic plan that looks ahead at developing the "revolutionary" plan that does address issues such as disaster-resilient communities, use of scenarios, etc. This goal would involve a comprehensive, broad-based review of NEHRP and the development of forward-looking NEHRP strategic plans for the 2010-2020 time period.

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