The newly formed HRPDC Hampton Roads Special Committee on Recurrent Flooding and Sea Level Rise met for the first time on Friday, June 20^th. The committee was established with three objectives:

1. Develop recommendations for local governments
2. Advocate for federal and state support
3. Serve as primary regional contact for coordinating efforts with federal agencies and academic institutions.

 The committee developed a list of issues to tackle in support of the first objective including:

• Revise wetland mitigation policies to account for potential inundation of wetland banks including coordination with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Identify a tool to measure the resiliency of hard infrastructure assets.
• Integrate sea level rise into the Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan under revision.
• Assess the potential financial impact of sea level rise on local government revenues.
• Investigate the impact of sea level rise on economic development strategies especially the state’s priorities.
• Integrate sea level rise into the planning and design of VDOT and HRTPO transportation projects.

The committee discussed HRPDC’s plans to hold Dutch Dialogues in the region. The Dutch Dialogues have been held in New Orleans and St Louis and consist of work sessions between local stakeholders and Dutch experts on water management. The sessions focus on developing actions specific to a neighborhood scale problem that take a broad approach to managing sea level rise, stormwater, and groundwater to address both flooding and water quality problems. Reports from these efforts are available at http://dutchdialogues.com/.

The committee was also asked to review the draft charter for ODU’s “Intergovernmental Planning Pilot Project” to address Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience. The committee will provide input on the local government role in this effort. Diane Kaufman from Senator Tim Kaine’s office encouraged the committee members to attend the congressional workshop, “Hampton Roads Sea-Level Rise and Preparedness Action Items at the Federal Level”, on June 30th where our congressmen and state and local elected officials will be discussing the needs of the region.