Regional Resilience Toolkit
Building Blocks for Regional Resilience
BACKGROUND
Metro and the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization (RDPO) received one of four national awards in 2020 to partner with the EPA and FEMA in applying their new Regional Resilience Toolkit. This technical assistance helps regions build large-scale resilience to natural disasters and to align resilience priorities across federal, state, and local planning requirements and funding sources.
In recent years the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region has experienced multiple wildfire smoke events, and we are increasingly experiencing the impacts of extreme heat (ie. urban heat islands). In addition, the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic taught us the value of counting public health as a regional asset (in mitigation planning frameworks). Therefore, we focused the Regional Resilience Toolkit technical assistance on mitigation needs for wildfire smoke and extreme heat in our communities, to enhance mitigation efforts to protect our public health.
THE FINAL REPORT + MATRIX OF MITIGATION ACTIONS
The technical assistance produced a report titled “Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke: Reducing Risks to Public Health in the Portland Region” (April 2021) which outlines findings from the 3-part workshop series convened in January 2021. The report provides guidance for planners looking to incorporate wildfire smoke and extreme heat hazards into their natural hazard mitigation plans (NHMPs). The matrix of proposed mitigation actions outlines potential actions partners may choose to include for each hazard in their NHMP.
THE January 2021 WORKSHOP SERIES
A series of three mini-workshops were delivered in January 2021 for stakeholders around the 5-county region (Clark, Columbia, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties). The sessions focused on adding extreme heat and wildfire smoke to the region’s natural hazard mitigation plans and other related plans.
Resources + Links
Session 1 (January 13, 2021): Included elected officials, public health and emergency management leadership to hear their priorities and concerns related to extreme heat and smoke risks in our region.
Session 2 (January 19, 2021): Shared resources with the region’s emergency management planners and key partners from subject matter experts on the impacts of extreme heat and wildfire smoke in our region.
Session 3 (January 21, 2021): Develop an action plan to incorporate extreme heat and smoke into natural hazard mitigation plans and other relevant planning documents and tools within our region.
