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An Embryonic Action Plan, including a Conceptual Framework, for Regional
Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration among Federal Hazard Mitigation
Partners in the Pacific Islands
Download the action
plan (PDF, 45KB: requires a plug-in such as Adobe®
Reader® to view).
This document is based on deliberations that took place during
the Roundtable of Federal Hazard Mitigation Partners in the Pacific
Islands (FHMPPI) in Honolulu, Hawai`i, on March 11 and 12, 2003.
This meeting brought together representatives from Pacific Island
agencies, institutions, and organizations involved in hazard mitigation–related
projects and activities being conducted at the federal level.
The objectives of this meeting were to
- Enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration among
federal network partners in the Pacific Islands. Specifically:
- Describe agency, institution, or organization hazard mitigation
projects and activities—what they involve, where they
are being conducted, by whom, and when;
- Identify gaps and overlaps, priority needs, and information
dissemination challenges and opportunities; and
- Develop an action plan to support sustained dialogue among
Pacific Island partners.
- Cultivate a sense of community and an appreciation for the
unique physical and cultural characteristics of the Pacific
Islands.
The March 2003 meeting took the form of a series of panel
presentations and discussions on the topics of data collection
that supports hazard identification, tools and techniques that
can be used in risk and vulnerability assessments or in evaluating
mitigation options, and mitigation measures or mechanisms being
implemented. Each panel was asked to consider gaps and overlaps,
priority needs, and information dissemination challenges and opportunities
associated with a given topic area. This information was used
to support a roundtable discussion focused on the identification
of actions that can be taken to support communication, coordination,
and collaboration among the federal ohana, or family
of hazard mitigation partners in the Pacific Islands. What follows
is an outline of priority action items identified by the roundtable
participants.
Action Items
During the next three months:
- Create a regional mitigation partner Web site where
materials presented and generated at the March 2003 meeting
can be found. This will include presentations, summaries of
panel discussions and roundtable deliberations, and the projects
and activities database produced prior to the meeting.
- Consider establishing a regional mitigation partners'
listserve as a means of facilitating an ongoing post-meeting
dialogue.
During the next year:
- Convene and conduct a 2004 Roundtable of Federal Hazard
Mitigation Partners in the Pacific Islands. Tentatively,
this follow-up meeting will be held in Honolulu on March 16
to 18, 2004. An organizing committee will be established within
the next few months. Reports from the working groups (see below)
and deliberations regarding action items are likely to be key
elements on the agenda. Consideration may also be given to the
identification of a regional coordinator, ideally someone with
the weight and credibility necessary to secure high-level support
and consistent funding. It is envisioned that, at least for
the next few years, representatives from Pacific Island agencies,
institutions, and organizations involved in hazard mitigation–related
projects and activities conducted at the federal level will
meet annually.
- Establish a regional coordinating council or some
such entity (Figure 1). Its role will be to:
- support ongoing dialogue between the providers and users
of hazards-related products and services;
- support capacity-building by serving as a conduit for
technical expertise, assistance, and training; and
- evaluate and prioritize hazards-related products and services
needs so as to leverage financial support.
This entity will be composed of individuals from within the
federal ohana, including but not limited to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and
U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS), tasked with the delivery of hazard
mitigation–related products and services in the Pacific
Islands. It will also include representatives from both the
user and provider communities (e.g., state/territorial emergency
managers and university researchers). Recruitment of coordinating
council members will commence in the next few months. It is
envisioned that the coordinating council will include, among
others, a representative from each of the individual working
groups (see Figure 1, below). The potential role of and connections
to existing coordinating bodies such as the South Pacific Applied
Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the South Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP), Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
(PREL), Hawai`i State Hazard Mitigation Forum, and the Pacific
Partnership will need to be explored.
- Establish several working groups, or hui o hana.
It was noted at the March 2003 roundtable that there are several
equally valid ways in which hazard mitigation–related
efforts can be organized: for example, by use sector—emergency
managers, incident responders, mitigation planners, researchers,
and elected officials; by stages in the planning and response
process—inventory, analysis, and implementation; by physical
processes—climate change and variability, earthquakes,
volcanoes and tsunamis; and by geography and culture—Micronesia,
Melanesia, and Polynesia. Recognizing this enmeshed nature of
hazard mitigation–related efforts, it is proposed that
regional coordination be facilitated through the formation of
hui o hana that encompass clusters of ongoing or proposed
activity. Based on the deliberations that took place during
the March 2003 meeting, the following areas have been
identified as nuclei of activity or interest around which a
hui o hana could be formed:
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework for
Regional Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration among
Federal Hazard Mitigation Partners in the Pacific Islands. A regional
coordinating council composed of individuals from within the federal
ohana, among others, will play the lead role in supporting dialogue
between the users and providers of information. Members of the
council will be drawn from several working groups or hui o
hana. These working groups will provide guidance to the council
in its efforts to evaluate and prioritize regional hazards-related
products and services needs.
- Climate Risk Management. Needs and opportunities pertaining
to climate change, such as NOAA's Pacific RISA project, will
be explored by this working group.
- Coastal and Ocean Processes and Observations. Efforts leading
to an improved understanding of the coastal processes that
may manifest as hazards (e.g., erosion and flooding) and the
observing systems that support an improved understanding will
be considered by this working group. An example is the University
of Hawai`i (UH) Hawai`i/Pacific Regional Ocean Observing System
project.
- Communications Infrastructure and Information Dissemination.
This working group will examine needs and opportunities pertaining
to the provision and distribution of information, such as
the efforts of NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) in the
area of communications infrastructure and underserved communities.
- Data Analysis and Decision-Support Tools and Training. This
working group will examine needs and opportunities pertaining
to data analysis reporting methodologies and techniques (see
below). Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other information
technology tools will also be considered. Training in the
use of techniques and tools is included in this context. Ongoing
or proposed efforts that are relevant in this regard include
NOAA's Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments
(RISA) program, the Pacific Disaster Center's (PDC) hazards
atlas for the Asia-Pacific region, FEMA's Map Modernization
and Hazards U.S. (HAZUS) projects, and NOAA's Coastal Storms
Initiative projects.
- Data Management. Deliberations that took place during the
March 2003 meeting suggest that developing guidelines
and protocols to facilitate regional geospatial data sharing
is a high priority. This working group will examine needs
and opportunities pertaining to data compatibility and conformity,
as well as other data development-related issues (see below).
FEMA's recently announced Interagency Geospatial Preparedness
Team is relevant in this regard, as are FEMA's Map Modernization
project, the USGS's National Map project, U.S. Office of Management
and Budget's Geospatial One-Stop, and NOAA's Digital Coast
and Enterprise GIS projects, among others.
- Education and Outreach. This working group will examine
general educational needs and opportunities. Examples include
the University of Hawai`i Disaster Management Degree Program,
the East West Center–University of the South Pacific
Training Institute on Climate and Extreme Events in the Pacific,
and PREL's network of subregional service centers.
- Post-Disaster Evaluation and Performance Indicators. This
working group will examine needs and opportunities pertaining
to extreme events, post-disaster damage assessment, and the
determination of loss estimates, as identified at the March
2003 meeting, such as the proposed Pacific Disaster
Center post-disaster clearinghouse. The identification of
criteria that can be used to assess the effectiveness of hazard
mitigation measures (e.g., NOAA's recent efforts in the area
of performance indicators) will also be considered by this
group.
- Seismic and Volcanic Risk Management. Efforts leading to
an improved understanding of the seismic and volcanic processes
that may manifest as hazards (e.g., earthquakes and lava flow)
will be considered by this working group. Work being conducted
by the Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) is noted in this regard.
- Traditional Knowledge and Practices. This working group
will seek to document cultural-based information pertaining
to natural hazards and examine the extent to which this traditional
information can be used to augment Western, science-based
responses to natural hazards.
- Tsunami Risk Management. Efforts leading to an improved
understanding of the tsunami risks and the dissemination of
information about these risks will be considered by this working
group. Ongoing International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC)
and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) efforts
are noted in this regard.
Although general interest and activity areas are identified above,
it is envisioned that through a series of meetings and workshops
each hui o hana will define its own scope of work, analyze
gaps and overlaps, prioritize products and services needs, and
outline an action plan. In this way, and through their representatives,
the hui o hana will provide guidance to the regional
coordinating council. It is recognized that hui o hana
may not be formed in all of the interest areas identified above.
However, considering that activities are already underway in several
of these areas, it is anticipated that by the March 2004 PRiMO
meeting significant progress will be made towards establishing
hui o hana as the mechanism to facilitate regional integration.
- Commence a dialogue with end-users. It is envisioned
that this will take the form of a series of informational and
educational workshops held throughout the Pacific Islands. The
workshops will engage users of hazards-related products and
services from a range of sectors including emergency managers,
hazards planners, incident responders, elected officials, and
other policy and decision makers. By providing insights into
critical products and services needs, they will provide guidance
to the regional coordinating council. The East West Center's
Pacific Assessment follow-on project is an example of just such
an effort to connect with users "eyeball to eyeball."
Described as a series of briefings, meetings, and workshops
designed to explore the challenges and opportunities associated
with using information on climate vulnerability and change to
support decision making at local, state, national, and regional
levels, the first set of briefings, meetings, and workshops
tentatively scheduled for October in Guam or the Northern Mariana
Islands might serve as a prototype for the sort of user-directed
information sharing, education, and perhaps training envisaged
under this action item. It may also serve to enlist representative
end-user members on the regional coordinating council. Potential
linkages with the proposed NWS environmental education and outreach
warning coordination meteorologist initiative team are noted
here.
- Develop a regional hazards-related projects and activities
database. The projects and activities database produced
prior to the March 2003 meeting is a good start. In its
current form it contains a great deal of information about what
long-term activities and short-term projects are being conducted
by a range of agencies, institutions, and organizations in the
Pacific Islands. However, the information it contains is not
really in a form in which the different projects and activities
can be readily searched and compared. Additional work on the
synthesis, as well as the reporting and display of existing
information, is warranted. An effort to capture additional information,
which includes a revision of the existing Web-based submittal
form, is also warranted. Focusing attention in this area
over the next year will help to generate information needed
to develop the databases and tools suite described below.
- Identify and prioritize regional and subregional products
and services needs. The regional coordinating council will
play the lead role, with the working groups described above
acting as the supporting cast. Decisions about which sectors
and subregions to focus on (e.g., Micronesia, Melanesia, and
Polynesia), exactly what information is needed to support decision
making in each of the sectors or subregions, and who is responsible
for overseeing these efforts will be reached through a process
of ongoing dialogue between the providers and users of hazard
mitigation–related products and services.
During the next two years:
- Develop a regional database or set of subregional databases
to enhance access to and ease of use of hazards-related data
and information. In addition to data pertaining to specific
hazards including coastal storms (i.e., erosion and flooding),
sea level rise, tsunami, earthquakes, and volcanism, the databases
will include framework, economic, environmental, and cultural
assets data. (A specific need for building inventories and cultural
assets data identified during the March 2003 meeting is
noted here.) Consideration will need to be given not only to
how this information will be served, but also how it is regularly
updated. (Data compatibility and conformity issues were also
noted above.) The concept of an integrated regional information
service consisting of a distributed information network composed
of a set of subregional hubs and accessed via portals targeted
at and customized to meet the needs of users in specific sectors
and subregions should be explored in this context. Ongoing or
proposed efforts that are relevant in this regard include NOAA's
Pacific RISA, the Pacific Disaster Center's hazards atlas for
the Asia-Pacific region, FEMA's Map Modernization project, the
USGS's National Map project, U.S. Office of Management and Budget's
Geospatial One-Stop, and NOAA's Digital Coast and Enterprise
GIS projects.
- Develop a suite of regionally approved GIS and other information
technology–based data analysis and decision-support tools.
The concept of a series of subregional information hubs with
portals tailored to specific user sectors is also relevant in
this regard. Suites of products and services might be identified
for specific user sectors. In some cases, existing data and
products may simply need to be repackaged. In other cases, new
data and products may need to be developed. An inventory
of existing tools and an analysis of their validity and applicability
is one of the first steps needed in this area. The customer-oriented,
needs-based approach to the development and deployment of products
and services championed here will take advantage of opportunities
afforded by regional affinities, but at the same time address
the variability in "forecasting" needs that exist
both spatially and temporally within the Pacific Islands region.
Ongoing or proposed efforts that are relevant in this regard
include NOAA's Pacific RISA, PDC's hazards atlas for the Asia-Pacific
region, FEMA's Map Modernization and HAZUS projects, and NOAA's
Coastal Storms Initiative projects.
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