DisastersPost-Sandy infrastructure must be more resilient: Sandy Task Force

The task force appointed by President Barack Obama, charged with developing a strategy for rebuilding areas damaged by Superstorm Sandy, has urged  coastal communities to recognize  that owing to climate change, storms are going to be more frequent and more destructive, and that floods are going to occur more frequently. The best way to prepare for the more extreme weather ahead is to build a more robust and resilient infrastructure that can withstand the more demanding challenges.

USA Today reports that the task force has published a report with sixty-nine recommendations. Among the recommendations are the development of an electric grid more capable of performing during storms, the building of a communication system which will not collapse during intense storms, and an improvement of planning standards for storm-damaged communities.

“More than ever, it is critical that when we build for the future, we do so in a way that makes communities more resilient to emerging challenges such as rising sea levels, extreme heat, and more frequent and intense storms,” the report said.The chairman of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, discussed the report with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “If we build smart, if we build resilience into communities, then we can live along the coast. We can do it in a way that saves lives and protects taxpayer investments,” said Donovan.

Two of the report’s key recommendations are for taking sea-level rise into account to help engineers predict flooding zones, and new flood-protection standards for major infrastructure projects built with federal funds. These two recommendations are among those rcommendations alrady being implemented. The task force also supported Rebuild by Design, an ongoing competition in which ten teams of architects and engineers worldwide are exploring ways to address vulnerabilities in coastal areas.

At a recent press conference, Mayor Bloomberg addressed the issue of the future of coastal communities, saying, “We’re always going to have people, I think, want to live in areas that are problematic from an environmental point of view. We still want to leave it to you, the individual, to make your decisions, but the federal government has some economic incentives, because if you do get in trouble, we’re going to have to come to your aid anyway.”

The task force could not tackle all issues pertaining to rebuilding communities after flooding, but in the case of insurance and the National Flood Insurance Program, the presidential task force did recommend that federal agencies should streamline their review processes for reconstruction projects related to Sandy. If standard government procedures and reviews are applied in times of emergency, reconstruction work could take up to four years. A consolidation of reviews typically performed by multiple agencies would be more effective.