SCDRP Newsletter: January 24, 2025

It's not too late to sponsor the 9th Annual Meeting! Click Here to learn about sponsorship benefits and opportunities.

The SCDRP 2024 Impact Survey is closing today! We are hoping to get 10 more responses to our survey before the end of the day. Please click the image below to fill out our 5 minute survey to help us evaluate our impact and determine which services and initiatives are most valuable to our members.

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Missed yesterday's Partnership Meeting? Watch the recording below!

This month's Partnership Meeting was co-hosted by the Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA). SECOORA staff members Emily Noakes, Communications and Engagement Specialist, Cotie Alsbrooks, Water Level Manager, and Theo Jass, WebCOOS Manager, gave a brief overview on SECOORA work in the Southeast, followed by a presentation from the session's primary speaker, Kaylee Mooney. Kaylee Mooney is a graduate student at Florida Gulf Coast University and winner of the 2023 SECOORA Data Challenge. Kaylee shared about her ongoing work to implement vulnerability into historic hurricane normalizations.

New Resource from the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency!

North Carolina Resilient Communities Planning Guide: The Guide is a collection of resources tailored to help North Carolina communities develop a resilience plan or integrate resilience into existing planning documents, such as a comprehensive plan or strategic plan. Because each community’s needs are unique, the Guide doesn’t offer a fixed approach. Instead, it provides users with a set of considerations, options to up- or down-scale its approaches and examples of other communities’ actions.  

NOAA is seeking partner organizations interested in bringing a new workshop, “Let’s Talk About Trust,” to their community. This goal of this workshop is to strengthen relationships between coastal managers and marginalized communities.  By hosting this course, partners provide a space for participants to explore trust- and relationship-building resources, discuss key concepts among peers, and collaboratively identify successful strategies to overcome challenges. All experience levels are welcome, and the six-hour workshop can be customized to fit the group’s needs.

Do you have an announcement, question, or a request for information, resources, or connections that you’d like to send out to SCDRP’s wide network of disaster resiliency and climate professionals? Email us at scdrp@secoora.org with your request and contact information, and it may be featured in our next newsletter!

Join us! Discover SCDRP Membership options and benefits by clicking below:

FEMA, Cherokee Nation Sign Historic Agreement that Will Help Disaster Survivors

On January 15, FEMA signed an Intergovernmental Service Agreement with the Cherokee Nation to allow the Tribal Nation to deploy to support FEMA operations during disasters. This agreement, which is the first of its kind to be signed, will create integration in disaster response between the Cherokee Nation and the federal government, and will increase the capabilities of tribal emergency managers. 

Resources

Community of Practice for Extreme Heat Management in Public Transport Systems (Guidance Document) Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure 

This CDRI guidance document addresses the growing impact of extreme heat on public transport systems. It outlines challenges, key frameworks, practical recommendations, and real-world examples, providing a roadmap for developing heat-resilient infrastructure. The guidance combines concise insights to support decision-making and promote sustainable, climate adaptive public transport systems. 

Climate Resilience for Health Care (CR4HC) Toolkit: This toolkit offers evidence-based actions, case studies, and resources to enhance resilience against climate-related disasters. It supports emergency preparedness efforts and aims to mitigate risks such as infrastructure damage, supply chain disruptions, and service interruptions. 

EPA EJScreen Multisite Tool: EJScreen is EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and socioeconomic indicators. This tool allows you to evaluate multiple regions at once through an environmental justice screen. 

Climate change solutions:This tool from Yale Climate Connections offers resources for individual actions to take to reduce pollution, and ways to start conversations with those in your community.

Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities and Flood Mitigation Assistance Obligations Dashboard: The dashboard shows, by location, where mitigation investments (excluding FMA Swift Current) are being directed, using Open FEMA GO datasets. The tool provides greater transparency and accessibility to better communicate FEMA’s progress in obligating pre-disaster hazard mitigation investments.

Workshops, Trainings, and Events

Calls for Information, Comments, Surveys, Applications:

Join FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council (YPC)

The intent of the Youth Preparedness Council is to bring together young leaders who have an interest in making a difference in their communities and in advancing disaster preparedness efforts on a national and local level. Youth Preparedness Council members complete disaster preparedness projects that help improve the disaster resiliency of the nation. The application cycle will be announced shortly.

The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) is seeking applicants and internship partners for the new Professional Science Master (PSM) degree as part of UVI’s Marine and Environmental Science program (MMES).

Natural Hazards Center

Annual Hazards and Disasters Student Paper Competition (Due January 24, 2025)

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is seeking suggestions for experts to participate in a new study on the future of drought in the United States. The Study committee will consider approaches for drought characterization, assessment, and response under a changing climate. Nomination Deadline: January 24.

The Natural Hazards Center is seeking submissions for the 50th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. Submissions accepted through January 31.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft of the Interim Framework for Advancing Consideration of Cumulative Impacts, providing agency programs and regional offices with tools and principles to consider cumulative impacts in their work. EPA welcomes public feedback on the draft Framework by February 19.

The Natural Hazards Center is inviting researchers from all disciplines to submit abstracts focused on any topic related to hazards and disasters for the 2025 Researchers Meeting, which will be held July 16-17, 2025 in Broomfield, CO. Researchers may present research or lead a roundtable discussion. Deadline to submit abstracts is February 28, 2025.

The Southeast Regional Climate Center (SERCC) requests feedback on "Expanded Caribbean Section of Southeast Quarterly Impacts and Outlook Report"

The American Society of Adaptation Professionals invites its members and organizations with experience in environmental justice and community advocacy to sign-up to provide technical assistance for communities impacted the most via the EPA Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (“TCTAC”) Program.

Thank you to our Supporting Group Members!

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