Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Statewide and Regional Resiliency Planning Resources
Extreme weather events such as hurricanes and flooding impact our society in numerous ways. This was evident in New Jersey when Superstorm Sandy hit the eastern seaboard. The hurricane made landfall in New Jersey and caused billions of dollars in damage. It was one of the largest and costliest recorded storms to impact the U.S. Northeast. Much of the damage was associated with infrastructure; including buildings, transportation links and facilities, electricity distribution, water retaining structures, and water/wastewater treatment systems. The damage revealed the importance of appropriate preparation and response strategies in the face of extreme weather events.
The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) manages the majority of federal funds being used to assist the State in recovering from Superstorm Sandy. These funds come from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Disaster Recovery programs of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. DCA is committed to efficiently and effectively addressing the long-term needs of New Jersey’s Sandy-impacted residents and communities.
While many of the DCA Sandy Recovery programs are designed to help homeowners, tenants, landlords and developers, DCA recognized that county and local governments need data, information and tools to help them with resiliency and preparedness planning and established the Statewide and Regional Planning Assistance Grant Program (SRPAG). To that end, in October 2015, DCA announced the Statewide and Regional Planning Assistance Grant Program and requested proposals from nonprofit organizations, universities and colleges to provide planning support for statewide and regional research and land use modeling tools for pre-disaster planning, disaster recovery and the advancement of statewide and regional resiliency planning. Of the twelve proposals received, three were funded, based on a score ranking: NJIT, Rowan University and the University of Notre Dame.
These SRPAG-funded projects are addressing a range of storm-related resiliency issues including social, economic, environmental and/or infrastructure needs. The funded activities also promote community engagement and collaboration at a regional level to further strengthen resilience via final work products that will be replicable beyond the initial phase of several pilot projects. These projects will allow local decision makers to benefit from innovations in planning that have been developed and tested at the educational institutions and apply them to real-world solutions here in New Jersey. Once implemented, these projects will provide immediate resiliency solutions replicable across New Jersey. Just as important, they can be utilized at little or no cost to our communities.
Click the links below to learn more about each of the resiliency-related planning tools that have been produced under the SRPAG program:
NJIT developed an online training tool called the New Jersey Community Microgrids Planning Academy which assists localities with the planning and feasibility analysis of microgrid development and implementation. A microgrid is a small-scale power grid that can operate independently or in conjunction with the area’s main electrical grid. Microgrids enable critical infrastructure, such as pumping stations and emergency operations, to function when the main grid experiences a power outage. This web-based tool guides users through the assessment of resources, logistics and opportunities necessary to determine potential for developing a microgrid. The Academy also provides information needed to apply, with a high chance of success, for further funding under the BPU Town Center Distributed Energy Resource Microgrid Feasibility Study Incentive Program.
The University of Notre Dame developed a web-based storm modeling and rapid risk assessment tool called NJcoast which allows decision makers to conduct high fidelity evaluations of wind, wave and surge hazards for any landfalling storm scenario in real time. The tool can also examine user -defined “what if” scenarios. Users who do not have technical backgrounds in geospatial data processing are able to access and interact with the NJcoast map features online. NJcoast provides customized views for specific groups of users such as first responders, emergency managers and planners by integrating local, state and national GIS data sources. Maps generated by users can also be easily shared with other team members to assist with logistics coordination during a storm event. A short informational video is available to provide additional details on this exciting tool.
Rowan University developed NJ Flood Alert, a web-based tool which helps communities prepare and plan for extreme storm scenarios via a user-friendly, web-based decision-making framework without prior scientific knowledge or advanced computer programing skills. Through loss assessment modeling, the NJ Flood Alert tool determines the vulnerability of critical assets, infrastructure and evacuation routes and provides recommendations and strategies to enhance community resilience by minimizing and managing risk. Please check back to look for a link to the NJ Flood Alert website in the near future.
