This lesson provides an examination of the Mitigation coordinating structures and operational planning.

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to describe coordinating structures used to support mitigation.

Coordinating structures help to facilitate preparedness and delivery of capabilities, and they provide guidance, support, and integration to aid in the preparedness of the whole community and building resilience at the local, regional, and national levels.

Coordinating structures are composed of representatives from multiple departments or agencies, public and/or private sector organizations, or a combination of these.

They ensure ongoing communication and coordination among all parties involved in preparing and delivering capabilities before and after disasters.

The coordinating structures for mitigation should focus on creating a national culture shift that embeds risk management and mitigation in all planning, decision making, and development.

Regardless of the level of the coordinating structure, consideration of risk management and mitigation will reduce the Nation’s risk and associated consequences.

Local communities have specific cultures, values, norms, and laws that reflect their history, residents, and geography.

The Mitigation Framework seeks to use the local organizations and entities within a community that can build resilience and community vitality.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Local and regional economic development organizations
• Public works agencies
• Private development enterprises
• Planning commissions
• Community emergency response teams
• Faith-based organizations
• Citizen Corps Councils
• Service groups
• Voluntary organizations
• Public and private schools
• Resources and referral/advocacy agencies for children, families, and those with disabilities and others with access and functional needs
• Local mitigation committees.

Through the National Mitigation Framework, the existing structures to implement mitigation capabilities are being expanded.

Structures that advance mitigation include:

• State hazard mitigation planning committees
• Long-term recovery groups
• State Disaster Recovery Coordinators and related coordination structures associated with the National Disaster Recovery Framework Water conservation boards
• Coastal commissions
• Regional/Metropolitan planning organizations
• Region healthcare coalitions
• Mutual aid compacts.

Each of the Nation’s critical infrastructure sectors has a Coordinating Council. Leveraging the efforts of the state, local, tribal, and territorial Coordinating Council; can encourage multi-jurisdictional decision making.

Even with the value these existing structures offer, additional integrating structures may be necessary.

For example, the Silver Jackets Program developed through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brings together multiple state, Federal, and sometimes tribal and local agencies to learn from one another and apply their knowledge to reduce risk at the state level.

The State of California is using FEMA’s Integrating Disaster Data into Hazard Mitigation Planning: A State and Local Mitigation Planning How-to-Guide as the state works with state agencies; local officials, planners, and emergency manager; tribal governments; and the state’s large urban areas in developing disaster mitigation projects and long-term vulnerability reduction.

Through lessons learn; stakeholder development; and in-state and extra-state partnership development the state is better able to provide planning and mitigation assistance to the state’s in-state stakeholder.

For more information, view the Integrating Disaster Data into Hazard Mitigation Planning: A State and Local Mitigation Planning How-to-Guide

Federal agencies play a critical role in supporting local actions through the use of Federal resources.

The President leads the Federal government mitigation efforts to prepare the Nation for all hazards.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is the principal Federal official responsible for domestic incident consequence management and the coordination of preparedness activities.

Federal unity of effort ensures that Federal response and recovery operations and preparedness activities, such as mitigation, are complete, synchronized, and mutually supportive.

Now let’s turn our attention to the policy-level coordination that occurs at the Federal level.

1. National Security Council
2. Sector-Specific Agencies (SSA)
3. Mitigation Framework Leadership Group

Review each item before proceeding to the next screen.

Select this link to access all coordinating structures.

The SSAs were created to leverage expertise and institutional knowledge to enhance the protection and resilience of the Nation’s critical infrastructure.

In accordance with the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, the SSAs are tasked with building a safer, more secure, and resilient nation.

Science and technology (S&T) is essential for continuous improvement of National Preparedness.

The whole community should design, conduct and improve operations based on the best, most rigorous scientific data, methods and science-based understandings available.

Effective mitigation relies upon the whole community’s ability to establish science-based understanding of their threats and hazards and make well-informed decisions to reduce risks as a result.

The continued development and advancement in science and technology is allowing an increase in the nation’s overall ability to mitigate the effects of disasters.

The National Weather Service and many television stations have advanced Doppler radars to give advanced indications of major storms and embedded tornadoes. This allows for an increase in warning times that mitigate the number of injuries and deaths associated with tornadoes. Advancements in meteorological satellites allows more accurate predictions of hurricane landfalls, wind speeds and moisture content of hurricanes allowing communities more time to evacuate and officials more time to prepare for the onset of the hurricane. NASA has developed better sensor technology for satellite observation of the solar activity, allowing better intensity warnings of solar flares. The U.S. Geology Survey built a series of geomagnetic observatories throughout the United States that monitors the geomagnetic field. NASA’s satellites and the U.S.G.S. geomagnetic observatories provide a warning mechanism that allows the electric power generation industry the time to take critical equipment off-line to mitigate the effects of space weather on the nation’s electric power grids.

As we discussed in the first lesson, the National Preparedness Goal sets the vision for preparedness nationwide and identifies the core capabilities necessary to achieve that vision across the five mission areas.

Mitigation supports prevention, protection, response and recovery activities by reducing the impact of disasters and creating better prepared, more resilient communities. Let’s take a look at how mitigation relates to the other mission areas.

1. Prevention
2. Protection
3. Response
4. Recovery

You will need to review each item before proceeding to the next screen.

Select this link to access all mission areas.

Protection places particular attention on security and deterrence of threats, while mitigation emphasizes achieving resilience by reducing vulnerabilities. Both seek to minimize consequences and have a shared focus on critical infrastructure.

Addressing the security of that infrastructure falls within the Protection mission area, and addressing the resilience of the infrastructure falls within the Mitigation mission area.

The Response mission area includes the capabilities necessary to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs after an incident. Effective community mitigation efforts directly limit the impact of an emergency or disaster, thereby reducing the required scale of response operations and associated costs of response.

Threat and hazard information and risk assessment data can trigger crucial lifesaving and life-sustaining operations, particularly during natural disasters. Tools, such as inundation mapping for flood events, can be used to plan and determine appropriate lifesaving actions.

The National Planning Frameworks explain the role of each mission area in national preparedness. The concepts included in the frameworks are used to guide operational planning, which provides further information regarding roles and responsibilities, identifies the critical tasks in executing the core capabilities, and identifies resourcing, personnel, and sourcing requirements across the whole community.

The Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 provides guidance for developing emergency operations plans at the local, state, tribal, and territorial levels. It promotes a common understanding of the fundamentals of risk-informed planning and decision making to help planners produce integrated, coordinated, and synchronized plans. Even though CPG 101 was designed for emergency management planners, certain elements of CPG 101—the basics of planning, format and function of planning, and planning processes—also apply to mitigation planning at the local, state, tribal, and territorial levels.

For more information, review the Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 (https://www.fema.gov/plan).

At the Federal level, each framework is supported by a mission-area-specific Federal Interagency Operational Plan (FIOP). The FIOPs describe the concept of operations for integrating and synchronizing existing national-level Federal capabilities to support local, state, tribal, territorial, insular-area, and Federal plans. These FIOPs are based on the idea that success relies upon a whole community approach and is dependent upon Federal interagency collaboration and integration.

Departments, agencies, Federal coordinating structures, and interagency partnerships should use the FIOPs as a guide for operations and to build a resilient nation. In using the FIOPs, it is important to recognize that success relies upon a whole community approach and is dependent upon Federal interagency collaboration and integration.

The FIOP begins with a list and brief description of planning assumptions that establish context for the Concept of Operations, Authorities and References, and Annexes sections. Next, the Concept of Operations section describes how Federal capabilities that support mitigation activities throughout the whole community are integrated, synchronized, managed, and delivered.

A concept of operations is a written or graphic statement that clearly and concisely explains what the decision maker/leader intends to accomplish in an operation using the available resources.

For more information, you can view all available FIOPs (http://www.fema.gov/federal-interagency-operational-plans).

The FIOP describes a review cycle with a clear frequency and timeline, monitoring process, and assigned roles and responsibilities.

It identifies a responsible entity and process for recording and documenting lessons learned from exercises, disasters, and other incidents that have made a significant impact on the Mitigation mission area.

The section describing the review cycle will assign roles and responsibilities to all Federal departments and agencies that will review, adjudicate policy level issues, and approve the Mitigation FIOP.

Each Federal executive department and agency develops department-level operations plans.

Department-level operations plans describe how the organization will deliver mitigation core capabilities to fulfill their responsibilities as described in the Framework and FIOP. They identify the specific critical tasks, responsibilities, and resources required to fulfill the department’s mission area.

Operational plans are used to determine priorities, objectives, and strategies that help protect against potential threats.

There are several resources in place to support the Mitigation mission.

To assist National Mitigation Framework users, FEMA maintains an online repository that contains electronic versions of the National Mitigation Framework documents, as well as information, training materials, and other tools to assist mitigation partners in understanding and executing their roles under the National Mitigation Framework.

National Mitigation Framework (http://www.fema.gov/national-mitigation-framework)

We have reached the end of this lesson. In the lesson, we described the coordinating structures used to support mitigation. Specifically, we discussed:

• Local coordinating structures
• Multi-jurisdictional, state, tribal, territorial and sector coordinating structures
• Federal coordinating structures
• National coordinating structures
• Science and technology
• The relationship of Mitigation to the other mission areas
• Operational Planning
• Supporting Resources

Let’s take a look at some the key points that were discussed throughout the course.

The goal of this course was to familiarize you with the National Mitigation Framework, which outlines how the nation can expand its commitment to mitigation and strengthen resilience.

The National Mitigation Framework, which is part of the National Preparedness System, establishes a common platform and forum for coordinating and addressing how the Nation manages risk using mitigation capabilities and describes mitigation roles across the whole community.

The National Mitigation Framework addresses the capabilities necessary to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.

The National Mitigation Framework sets out four principles that guide the development and execution of the core capabilities for Mitigation. These are:

1. Resilience and Sustainability
2. Leadership and Locally Focused Implementation
3. Engaged Partnerships and Inclusiveness and
4. Shared Risk-conscious Culture.

Several partners have a role in mitigation, including:

• Community members and the private sector
• Individuals, families, and households
• Communities and community organizations
• Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
• Private-sector entities
• Local governments
• State, tribal, territorial, and insular area governments
• Federal government

The way we can measure, describe, and implement our security and resilience techniques is through core capabilities. Mitigation core capabilities including the following:

• Cross-cutting Core Capabilities
• Planning
• Public Information and Warning
• Operational Coordination
• Mitigation Core Capabilities
• Community Resilience
• Long-term Vulnerability Reduction
• Risk and Disaster Resilience Assessment
• Threats and Hazards Identification

Several coordinating structures are used to support mitigation. These include:

• Local coordinating structures
• Multi-Jurisdictional, State, Tribal, Territorial and Sector Coordinating Structures
• Federal coordinating structures
• National Security Council
• Sector-Specific Agencies
• Mitigation Framework Leadership Group

Science and technology (S&T) is essential for continuous improvement of National Preparedness. Effective mitigation relies upon the whole community’s ability to establish science-based understanding of their threats and hazards and make well-informed decisions to reduce risks as a result.

Operational planning provides further information regarding roles and responsibilities, identifies the critical tasks in executing the core capabilities, and identifies resourcing, personnel, and sourcing requirements across the whole community.

Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 provides guidance for developing emergency operations plans at the local, state, tribal, and territorial levels.

At the Federal level, each framework is supported by a mission-area-specific Federal Interagency Operational Plan (FIOP). The Mitigation FIOP includes a list and brief description of planning assumptions that establish context for the Concept of Operations, Authorities and References, and Annexes sections.