Open-Access Expertise

You know that part of your yard that turns into a small pond every time it rains? Or what about that plaza down the road that floods if someone even whispers the word “storm?” These water-logged areas may have been prevented with better planning. But now that they exist, what’s next?

That last question is the one local leaders across the country ask themselves when faced with repeated damage to specific areas of their communities from natural hazards.

“Local governments tend to act in siloed capacities,” said Phil Berke, research professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Coastal Resilience Center. “Planning, recovery and prevention of recurring damage requires all the different parts of local government to work together.”

Berke and colleagues at Texas A&M University created the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS) nearly 10 years ago to show gaps or conflicting efforts in a municipality’s departmental planning — like when an economic development team wants to build a new shopping center in a seemingly viable area of town that actually has a documented history of flooding.

This spring, with funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Coastal Resilience Center and a partnership with the American Planning Association (APA), PIRS got its own website.

The tool, along with educational resources on how to use it, is now available for communities to examine their municipal planning.

“It’s yet another way to help communities ensure all their citizens are considered and protected when it comes to natural disasters,” said a doctoral student in Houston, who is now using the PIRS system to study redevelopment from hurricane Harvey.

Read the complete Carolina Story…

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