Environmental planning, hazards, and resilience

Learning objectives

• Walk through the NEPA process from categorical exclusion to record of decision.
• Explain brownfields and the purpose and contents of a Phase I environmental site assessment.
• Describe floodplain basics, the National Flood Insurance Program, and hazard mitigation planning under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000.
• Distinguish climate mitigation from adaptation, and explain resilience and managed retreat.
• Apply green infrastructure, wetland protection, and wildland-urban interface strategies.
• Summarize the Endangered Species Act, NPDES permits and TMDLs, coastal zone management, and Superfund as they affect local planning.
• Explain how communities plan for recovery before and after a disaster.

Key concepts

Environmental review under NEPA

The National Environmental Policy Act requires federal agencies to consider environmental effects before acting. It applies to projects with a federal nexus: federal funding, permits, or land. The process scales with a project's significance:

1. Categorical exclusion (CE): actions that normally have no significant effects (for example, many minor repairs) skip detailed review.
2. Environmental assessment (EA): a concise analysis to decide whether effects could be significant. It ends in either a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) or a decision to prepare an EIS.
3. Environmental impact statement (EIS): required for major federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. The steps are a notice of intent, scoping (defining the issues and alternatives, with public input), a draft EIS analyzing a reasonable range of alternatives, including no action, a public comment period, a final EIS, and a record of decision (ROD).

NEPA is procedural: it requires study and disclosure, not the least harmful choice. Many states have their own environmental review laws, some of which reach local decisions.

Video coming soon

9 more sections follow in the full lesson.

Key terms

• Categorical exclusion: A class of actions that normally needs no detailed NEPA analysis.
• Environmental assessment (EA): A concise NEPA analysis to determine significance.
• FONSI: A finding of no significant impact.
• Environmental impact statement (EIS): A detailed NEPA analysis for major federal actions with significant effects.
• Record of decision (ROD): The document announcing the agency's decision after an EIS.
• Brownfield: A property whose reuse is complicated by potential contamination.
• Phase I ESA: A records review, site reconnaissance, and interviews to identify contamination risks.
• Mitigation sequence: Avoid, then minimize, then compensate for environmental impacts.
• Green stormwater infrastructure: Systems that manage rainfall where it falls.
• Base flood (100-year flood): A flood with a 1% chance of occurring in any year.
• NFIP: The National Flood Insurance Program.
• Hazard mitigation plan: A plan assessing hazard risk and setting actions to reduce it.
• Climate adaptation: Actions preparing for expected climate impacts.
• Climate mitigation: Actions reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Managed retreat: Planned relocation away from high-risk areas.
• Wildland-urban interface (WUI): The zone where development meets wildland vegetation.
• Habitat conservation plan (HCP): A plan that supports an incidental take permit under ESA Section 10 by minimizing and mitigating harm to a listed species.
• Total maximum daily load (TMDL): The most of a pollutant an impaired water body can receive and still meet standards.
• NPDES: The Clean Water Act permit program for discharges from point sources.
• Ecosystem services: Benefits nature provides, such as flood storage, water filtration, and cooling.
• Pre-disaster recovery plan: A plan, adopted before a disaster, for how the community will make recovery decisions.
• Buyout: Voluntary public purchase of hazard-prone property, which is then kept as open space.