Level Up Audio Project

Find out how Clark County, Nevada, took a first step to reduce its risk to earthquakes by making a log of unreinforced masonry buildings.  

• The Natural Hazard Retrofit Program Toolkit (2021) 
• Clark County URM Database Report (2015)  
• FEMA P-774: Unreinforced Masonry Buildings and Earthquakes- Developing Successful Risk Reduction Programs (2009) 
• FEMA P-154: Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards (2015) 
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Discover how practitioners can encourage mitigation action by understanding how our minds tick.

Episode Notes:

Availability Heuristic: If a threat has never happened or happened too long ago, people will discount it. We believe what comes to mind most readily that we were impacted by. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0010028573900339

Optimism Bias: We overestimate our chances of winning and of avoiding natural d...

Journey to Hilo and Honolulu to learn how two practitioners are using storytelling and local knowledge to communicate tsunami risk to communities.

Episode Notes:

Pacific Tsunami Museum: http://tsunami.org/

Honolulu’s Tsunami Evacuation Mapping Project: http://www.honolulu.gov/site-dem-sitearticles/35781-tsunami.html

The following subject matter experts supported the Honolulu’s Tsunami Evacuation Mapping Project: Dr. Kwock Fai Cheung...

Explore how federal, state, and local agencies are working together to reduce flooding and restore habitat for endangered fish in northern California.

Episode Notes:

Martin Slough Enhancement Project: http://www.naturalresourcesservices.org/projects/martin-slough-enhancement-project

Georgetown Climate Center: www.georgetownclimate.org

The following agencies provided grant funding for the Martin Slough Enhancement Project:

• Califor...

Learn how the city is working to alleviate high temperatures by engaging communities in planning a shade-boosting bicycle and pedestrian streetscape project.

Episode Notes:

Alameda Drive Project: https://www.tempe.gov/government/engineering-and-transportation/transportation/streetscape-projects/alameda-drive

Tempe Urban Forestry Master Plan: https://www.tempe.gov/government/community-services/parks/urban-forest/urban-forest-master-pl...

In Butte County, California, much of the natural fuel that allows wildfires to spread is found on private property. Communities must approve, and landowners need to agree, to remove brush from these lands and reduce wildfire risk. This is not unusual—many types of mitigation work involve private property! In this episode, Calli-Jane DeAnda from the Butte County Fire Safe Council speaks about her experience with community outreach a...

Streambeds are vital ecosystems that can both serve and threaten the communities they run through. Because of the sensitivity of the ecosystems and the potential for increased flooding, stream work requires permits. Securing permits can be time consuming and costly. In this episode, Roland Sanford from the Solano County Water Agency in California shares how his agency works with local landowners to provide microgrants for flood mit...

When you ask emergency managers and city planners what they need to make their community more resilient to disaster, most have the same answer: money. Federal and state grants can help finance projects, but the requirements can be labor intensive and often require a financial match from the community. Carolyn Steffan from the City of Tehama in California stitched together funding from multiple sources—federal and state—to protect r...

Most communities develop numerous planning documents to guide growth and development. These plans are often created and adopted in standalone processes, leading to fragmented implementation. Tiffany Wise West, the Sustainability and Climate Action Manager for the City of Santa Cruz, California, managed to avoid that trap and developed a Climate Adaptation Plan in conjunction with the city’s Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. In this epi...

Hazard mitigation efforts often focus on property and infrastructure, but every community’s most important resource is its people. Lucas Zucker, the policy and communications director for the California-based organization Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, talks about ways communities can support low-income and immigrant populations before, during, and after hazard events. To learn more about FEMA as...