NAWM, in partnership with the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) through a cooperative agreement with the US EPA, is engaged in a training program to advance the integration of Clean Water act Programs with natural hazard mitigation planning and implementation. The focus of the training is on integrating programs to improve interagency planning and implementation of co-beneficial projects that reduce flood risk and improve water quality, among other benefits.
Historically, natural hazard programs have worked from a reactionary position to act quickly in response to natural disasters instead of mitigating impacts before disaster strikes. Likewise, water quality and aquatic resource programs have relied on an aging infrastructure system to support water quality needs a system that did not include considerations for climate change or the level of growth seen in certain regions of the country. Our nation is now much better equipped to predict natural hazards due to advances in technology and modeling, and a much more holistic understanding of the inter-relationships between wetland and natural floodplain functions, watershed dynamics, and the level of resiliency that nature-based solutions can provide for protecting communities from natural hazards. We also have a greater understanding of how these functions support water quality as well as many other co-benefits for communities, particularly those that are underserved and/or have limited capacity. This means we now have more opportunities to become proactive in how we manage risk, by working with natural ecosystems and employing their inherent functions to reduce risk from natural disasters and improve aquatic resource (and thus public) health.
Beginning in 2023, NAWM and ASFPM will host one in-person training workshop a year for five years. Each year, the workshop will be delivered to a different regional cohort, delineated in the map below:
2023: Cohort 1: Great Lakes/ Midwest area (Red) - Completed
September 12-13th, Andrew W. Breidenbach Research Center, Cincinnati, OH
2024: Cohort 2: Southeast (Green)
November 13-15th, Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
2025: Cohort 3: West (Purple)
2026: Cohort 4: Northeast (Yellow)
2027: Cohort 5: Great Plains (Blue)
Each regional cohort will include representative pairs from 9 communities, 9 states, and 2 Tribes. Although not pictured on the map below, U.S. territories will be included in this project with the regional cohort in Green and can recommend communities located within their territorial boundaries. The state and territory pairs will be from the same state or territory in which the local community is located to facilitate relationship building. We anticipate that we will reach participants from 45 states and 10 Tribes.
If you are interested in having your community participate in an upcoming training, please click here!
In addition to the five training workshops, there will be quarterly cohort calls and a ten-part webinar series on associated topics. The webinar recordings, materials and tools created for the training workshops, along with other information and resources on best practices, lessons learned, and relevant case studies will be posted online as they become available.