Resource

The Disaster Planning Integration Toolkit enables rural communities to use an asset-based approach to developing their Community Development Resilience Plan (CDRP) by integrating disaster resilience, economic development and green infrastructure.

It contains a county-level disaster risk assessment dashboard that helps communities assess their housing, infrastructural, economic, community health, and environmental risks to understand their vulnerabilities. It is connected with a Disaster Planning Integration Library that organizes precedents for surveys, planning processes, strategies, and funding mechanisms that rural communities can use in their day-to-day disaster planning efforts.

The assessment tool and the disaster planning library are integrated into a comprehensive planning framework that enables communities at different stages of planning expertise to prepare for and mitigate the hazardous impacts of disasters on their environmental and economic conditions. Apart from addressing a range of disaster-related externalities, the project strengthens connections between community resiliency, strategic planning, and disaster preparedness planning. It will increase the number of rural communities across the United States that include a community disaster plan section/module in their CEDS plan and strengthen the reach and coverage of Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COADS) in rural areas.