Community Resilience Programs DCRA's Community Resilience Programs provide Alaskan communities with technical assistance, tools, training and funding to become healthier, stronger and more resilient to natural hazards. Community Resilience Resources New! A Phased Approach to Village Relocation: Guidance for incremental, community-driven village relocation Web Resources Adapt Alaska - Living with Climate Change in Alaska U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit EPA's Regional Resilience Toolkit HUD Community Resilience Toolkit FEMA's Community Resilience Indicators FEMA Resources for Climate Resilience National Coastal Resilience Fund Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Climate Resilience Program Resilience Presentations Risk MAP Coordination Efforts in Alaska (presentation to FEMA Region 10 Mitigation Summit, March 9, 2023) Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation Programs (presentation to Alaska Climate Adaptation Community of Practice, January 13, 2022) Perspectives on Building an Actionable Science Community (presentation to the National Science Foundation's Navigating the New Arctic Annual Community Meeting, November 10, 2021) Alaska Coastal Resilience Partnership: Partnering to Support Alaska's Environmentally Threatened Communities (presentation to the American Planning Association's Sustainability and Resilience Series, "What's all this I hear about Sustainability, Resilience, & Climate Change?", June 16, 2021) Increasing Resilience in Alaska’s Environmentally Threatened Communities (presentation to the American Planning Association's Housing and Community Development Division Webinar, January 29, 2021) What are Alaska Tribal Infrastructure Needs for Addressing Climate Impacts? Key Findings for Alaska (presentation to National Tribal & Indigenous Climate Conference, September 15, 2020) Community Responses to Natural Hazard Risks (presentation at Bureau of Indian Affairs Providers Conference, December 5, 2019) Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP): Assisting Imminently-Threatened Alaska Native Villages (presentation to Governor's Climate Action Leadership Team, February 27, 2018) Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation in Alaska (presentation at Climate Impacts to Infrastructure Workshop for Governor's Climate Action Leadership Team, February 26, 2018) Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) (presentation to Alaska Seismic Hazards Safety Commission, October 26, 2017) Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP): Assisting Imminently-Threatened Alaska Native Villages (presentation to U.S. Arctic Research Commission, October 10, 2017) Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP): Assisting Imminently-Threatened Alaska Native Villages, (presentation to White House Arctic Executive Steering committee, Community Resilience Working Group, June 13, 2017) Strategic Management Plans: Shishmaref, Shaktoolik, Kivalina (presentation at Alaska Planning Conference, November 15, 2016) Strengthening Local Resilience through Community-Based Adaptation Efforts (presentation at Rights, Resilience and Community-Based Adaptation Efforts Workshop, September 20, 2016) Alaska Community Coastal Protection Project (presentation to State of Alaska Emergency Response Commission, April 29, 2016) Addressing Coastal Erosion Impacts in Alaska through Village Planning Groups (presentation at Arctic Council Resilience Workshop, Fairbanks, March 14, 2016) Increasing Community Resilience by Integrating Hazard Mitigation into Local Comprehensive Planning Efforts (presentation at Alaska Planning Conference, November 13, 2012) Phases of Community Resilience Understanding risk is fundamental to making informed local decisions to respond and adapt to that risk. The graphic below illustrates the process through which communities can increase understanding of risk, leading to the decision-making process of planning, and ultimately, the implementation of actions to increase community resilience. DCRA's efforts to assist communities in each stage of this process are described below. (Click graphic to open larger a version.) Assistance to Environmentally Threatened Communities Link to webpage DCRA staff provides assistance to environmentally threatened communities in partnership with the Denali Commission, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and a number of other state and federal agencies and organizations. Currently, the focus is on 27 communities, most of whom were identified as highly vulnerable for flood, erosion, permafrost degradation and aggregated threats in a 2019 Alaska Statewide Threat Assessment. Staff assists these communities with local planning as well as providing access to the broad range of local government resources DCRA has to offer. Alaska Community Coastal Protection Project (ACCPP) Link to webpage Completed in 2016, the Alaska Community Coastal Protection Project focused on three of the most imminently threatened villages in Western Alaska: the communities of Kivalina, Shaktoolik and Shishmaref. The project was based on the premise that careful planning, agency collaboration and strong community leadership are essential to successfully addressing the needs of imperiled communities. Through this effort, comprehensive Strategic Management Plans were prepared for each community. These plans take a comprehensive approach to increasing community resilience to climate impacts and natural hazards by strengthening local capacity, assessing and guiding community and infrastructure development, and supporting environmental protection and human safety. The Strategic Management Plans received a National Recognition Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for ACEC's 2018 Engineering Excellence Awards. During the planning process, Village Inter-Agency Planning Groups were organized for each community.These planning groups continue to be held to help each community implement the strategic actions within each strategic management plan (see below). Village Inter-Agency Planning Groups The focus of each inter-agency planning group is to reduce duplication and increase engagement between imminently-threatened communities, agencies and organizations to develop solutions to increase resilience in each community. The focus of the Newtok Planning Group has been on the village of Newtok's relocation to Mertarvik on Nelson Island. The inter-agency planning groups for Kivalina, Shaktoolik and Shishmaref have been focused on implementing the imminent and critical action items identified by each community in its Strategic Management Plan. Newtok Planning Group Kivalina Inter-Agency Planning Group Shaktoolik Inter-Agency Planning Group Shishmaref Inter-Agency Planning Group Alaska Climate Change Impact Mitigation Program (ACCIMP) Link to webpage Completed in 2016, the Alaska Climate Change Impact Mitigation Program was established by Alaska's Twenty-Fifth Legislature (2008) to provide technical assistance and funding to communities imminently threatened by natural hazards intensified by environmental climate. The intent of the program was to help impacted communities develop a planned approach to shoreline protection, building relocation and/or eventual relocation of the village. The program was implemented through two measures: Hazard Impact Assessments and Community Adaptation Planning Grants. The products of the ACCIMP remain available online to provide useful examples of hazard impact assessments and adaptive strategies for increasing community resilience in some of Alaska's environmentally-threatened communities. For more information contact: Sally Russell Cox Local Government Specialist 5 / State and Federal Programs Division of Community and Regional Affairs Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development 550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1650, Anchorage, AK 99501-3569 Phone (907) 269-4588 Fax (907)269-4539 Email: sally.cox@alaska.gov Revised 1/4/2024