CUERE Fall 2024 Seminar Series

The FEMA BCA 6.0 Toolkit is an effective approach to completing a Benefit/Cost Analysis (BCA) to support Hazard Mitigation Assistance project selection. The tool requires basic hazard modelling and cost estimating expertise that should be common to its intended users in city, county and tribal nation emergency planning agencies. Complicated, larger scale projects would require more specialized engineering services. While the toolkit contains numerous default hazard models, it lacks urban nuisance flooding which is increasingly common within urban areas with changing rainfall patterns. Unsurprisingly, the HMA project design is the most impactful/important aspect of the overall BCA process. The project’s hazard probability modeling establishes the foundation that all subsequent project decisions rely on. Current FEMA hazard risk models are increasingly outdated and fail to reflect changing weather patterns. This failure is magnified in urban areas with their interconnected stormwater management systems, rendering the existing models almost obsolete. The extent and magnitude of the proposed mitigation project drives almost all subsequent decisions and estimates. Choosing favored engineering solutions like constructed wetlands or bioretention ponds can make a project cost effective due to the inclusion of intangible/indirect benefits that more hard-scape infrastructure (i.e. concrete flood walls, etc) doesn’t earn. FEMA Policy changes regarding discount rates and Distributional Weights Methodology altered the BCA results, but did not impact final project BCRs in any meaningful way (i.e. increasing a BCR from <1.0 to >1.0) indicating that they would have limited impact on overall HMA project selection.

John Resta retired as a Department of Army Civilian employee in December 2020. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Health for the Office of the Army Surgeon General in Falls Church, VA and the Director of the Army Public Health Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. In these roles he served as principal staff advisor to the Army Surgeon General and Commander, US Army Medical Command for all aspects of the Army’s Public Health Enterprise, overseeing the activities of over 4,000 military and civilian personnel and directly managing the activities of over 1,300 military and civilian personnel in the fields of public health, occupational and environmental health risk management, environmental engineering, risk communication and health promotion and wellness. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Bel Air Recreation Committee for over 30 years and currently serves as the director for the Bel Air Festival for the Arts. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Discovery Center at Waters Edge and chairs the Nominating Committee overseeing Board Member recruitment and development. He holds engineering degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Delaware and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland. He also holds a policy degree from the National Defense University and is currently a Public Policy Doctoral student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.