Hazard Mitigation Building Codes, Laws, Regulations & Policies
- Link to No Code. No Confidence building codes campaign.
- FEMA’s Building Code Resources page contains documents. summarizing the International Codes’ hazard-resistant provisions.
- The FEMA Building Codes Toolkit provides guidance to help property owners understand building codes.
- The Natural Hazards and Sustainability for Residential Building publication outlines using green building practices to retain or improve natural hazard resistance.
Reducing Flood Losses Through the International Codes: Coordinating Building Codes and Floodplain Management Regulations, 5th Edition
- Chapter 2 describes three approaches for coordinating the I-Codes and local floodplain management regulations and identifies several advantages and considerations when relying on the flood provisions of the codes.
- Chapter 3 explains several differences between the NFIP regulations and the I-Code requirements related to specific terminology and provisions. Many requirements in the codes exceed NFIP minimum requirements, and some provisions are more specific than the NFIP, especially in the International Building Code®, which references ASCE 24, Flood Resistant Design and Construction.
- Chapter 4 contains questions that states and communities should answer to know whether and how to modify existing floodplain management regulations to coordinate with building codes.
- Chapter 5 describes modifications that can be adopted to incorporate higher standards in State and local building codes that are based on the I-Codes to further increase building and community resilience to flood damage.
- Chapter 6 introduces the model code-coordinated ordinances prepared by FEMA. The model ordinances are available at: http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/96224.
- Appendix A lists cited references and other resources that are useful for understanding and interpreting the requirements of the NFIP.
- Appendix B provides sample checklists for a plan review and inspection.
Quick Reference Guide: Comparison of Select NFIP and 2018 I-Code Requirements for Special Flood Hazard Areas
Building Codes for Mitigation: Using ASCE 24
Flood Resistant Provisions of the International Codes®
Highlights of ASCE 24 Flood Resistant Design and Construction
Guidance for Applying ASCE 24 Engineering Standards to HMA Flood Retrofitting and Reconstruction Projects
Understanding Substantial Damage in the International Existing Building Code
WIND PROVISIONS
EPA Smart Growth Fixes for Climate Adaptation and Resilience – Changing Land Use and Building Codes and Policies to Prepare for Climate Change
Local governments are seeking ways to adapt to current and projected climate change impacts to better protect lives and property and ensure they can continue to offer a good quality of life and a thriving economy now and in the future. Smart Growth Fixes for Climate Adaptation and Resilience: Changing Land Use and Building Codes and Policies to Prepare for Climate Change (2017) can help local government officials, staff, and boards find strategies to prepare for climate change impacts through land use and building policies.The policy options described in this publication bring multiple short- and long-term environmental, economic, health, and societal benefits that can not only prepare a community and its residents and businesses for the impacts of climate change, but also improve everyday life. The strategies can be worked into a community’s regular processes and policies—for example, through scheduled updates to zoning and building codes. This approach allows incremental change, which might be easier for some communities because it costs little or nothing extra compared to “business as usual” and gives communities the opportunity to adjust codes based on the most up-to-date climate observations and projections.To help readers determine which policy and code changes might be appropriate for their community’s capacity, desire, and need to make changes, the options in each chapter are categorized as modest adjustments, major modifications, and wholesale changes. What might be a modest adjustment for one town could be a major modification in another. Because an important question to determine in building resilience is resilience of what to what, the publication is divided by impacts that communities are likely to face as the climate continues to change:
- Chapter 2: Overcoming Barriers to Climate Adaptation discusses potential social and legal barriers.
- Chapter 3: Overall Strategies discusses smart growth strategies that help adapt to multiple climate change impacts and that can be a foundation for the policies in subsequent chapters.
- Chapter 4: Adapting to Flooding and Extreme Precipitation includes code and policy options that deal mainly with riverine flooding and managing stormwater to prevent flooding and water pollution. This chapter includes green infrastructure strategies that can also help communities cope with extreme heat and other policy options that are relevant to sea level rise.
- Chapter 6: Adapting to Extreme Heat discusses strategies to protect people from heat waves, including green building and energy efficiency.
- Chapter 7: Adapting to Drought includes water conservation strategies for individual buildings as well as entire communities.
- Chapter 8: Adapting to Wildfire focuses on smart growth and green building strategies to protect neighborhoods from fire damage.
- Click here for a sortable table of the policy options included in the publication.
- about smart growth and climate change.
- Smart Growth Fixes for Climate Adaptation and Resilience (PDF)(94 pp, 5 MB, 2017)
CodeMaster for Flood Resistant Design
(2011, 2015)
FEMA has released the publication of FEMA Policy 203-074-1, Minimum Design Standards for Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) Projects in Flood Hazard Areas. The policy will align structure elevation, dry flood proofing and mitigation reconstruction projects in flood hazard areas, that are funded by the HMA grant program, with a nationally recognized consensus standard for flood resistant design and construction. The Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration’s (FIMA) HMA programs provide grant funding assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments for eligible and cost-effective projects that increase resiliency by reducing and eliminating risks to property from flood hazards and their effects. All HMA-funded projects in flood hazard areas will be required to be designed and built according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standard 24-05, Flood Resistant Design and Construction, or its equivalent, as the minimum design criteria. ASCE 24-05 is a nationally recognized consensus standard for all flood resistant design and construction projects. The use of this recognized standard, and involvement of licensed design professionals for design and construction of HMA-funded projects in flood hazard areas, will provide for more consistent and efficient verification of engineering and technical feasibility and will help preserve the public investment toward reducing risk. FEMA has also developed an implementation guidebook, Guidance for Applying ASCE 24-05 Engineering Standards to Hazard Mitigation Flood Retrofitting and Reconstruction Projects, which identifies key design and construction requirements that apply to HMA flood mitigation projects. The guidebook also provides guidance on how the standard should be applied to each HMA-eligible flood project type. |