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Benefits of Mitigation: Overview of Assessments of Future SavingsFriday, February 3, 2006 Dennis Moore, Co-chairs of the Congressional Hazards Caucus and Chairman Bill Shuster of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Mitigation of natural hazards can save lives, property and other indirect
losses associated with catastrophes such as hurricanes and floods. In
the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the devastating flooding spawned by
the storm, cost-effective mitigation has become an even greater priority.
Assessing the costs and benefits of mitigation has posed problems because
information is often anecdotal. Congress called for an independent assessment
in 2000 and in December 2005, the Multihazard Mitigation Council of
the National Institute of Building Sciences released a detailed report
on the benefits of mitigation for many different hazards and concluded
“a dollar spent on mitigation saves society an average of $4.”
In January 2006, the National Research Council released a report on
the benefits of improved seismic monitoring concluding that annualized
mitigation costs of tens of millions could save hundreds of millions
in potential future losses. Speakers and their presentations Moderator: Brian Pallasch, American Society of Civil Engineers David Maurstad, Acting Mitigation Division
Director and Federal Insurance Administrator for Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) L. Thomas Tobin, MMC Project Manager, Tobin
and Associates, Mill Valley, California Adam Z. Rose, Economist, The Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, Pennsylvania William Leith, Advanced National Seismic
System Coordinator, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston Virginia Adam Z. Rose, Economist, The Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
Thomas Tobin provides an overview of the Multihazards Mitigation Report Sponsors for the briefing include
the following members of the Hazards Caucus Alliance:
Information about the speakers Dr. Bill Leith is Coordinator of the Advanced National Seismic System, and Associate Coordinator for the Earthquake Hazards and Global Seismic Network Programs at USGS. Also while at the USGS, Bill advised the Department of Defense on the dismantling of the former Soviet Nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, and in the implementation of a series of large-scale explosion experiments to calibrate global and regional seismic monitoring systems. He received his Ph.D. degree in Geology/Seismology from Columbia University. David Maurstad is Acting Federal Insurance Administrator
and head of the Mitigation Division for Homeland Security’s Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Maurstad has been serving as director
of FEMA's Region VIII in Denver since his appointment by President George
W. Bush in October of 2001. As a FEMA regional director, Maurstad coordinated
FEMA's disaster prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities
for six states: Colorado, Montana, North and South Dakota, Dr. Adam Rose is Professor of Energy, Environmental, and Regional Economics in the Department of Geography at The Pennsylvania State University where he focuses on the economics of natural and man-made hazards. He is a faculty affiliate of the DHS Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events and of the NSF Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, where his work emphasizes resilience to natural disasters and terrorism at the levels of the individual business, market, and regional economy. He received his Ph.D. degree in Economics from Cornell University. Tom Tobin has worked on natural hazards, risk management
and public policy issues for 40 years. As a consultant, he helped the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shape Project Impact and
the Disaster Resistant University initiatives. He is chief operating
officer for GeoHazards International bringing resources and technical
knowledge to developing countries to reduce earthquake risk. Tom is
a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in civil engineering,
has a Master of Science degree in geotechnical engineering from California
State University at San José, and is a registered professional
engineer. The Alliance invites your participation in the briefing and in future Caucus events. For more information, contact Linda Rowan at 703-379-2480 ext. 228; rowan@agiweb.org.
Contributed by Margaret Anne Baker and Linda Rowan, AGI Government Affairs Staff Posted: January 30, 2006; Updated February 9, 2006 Please send any comments or questions about this web site to Maeve Boland. |
