Congressional Research Service: 'Building Resilience – FEMA's Building Codes Policies and Considerations for Congress' (Part 1 of 3)
Here are excerpts:
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SUMMARY
The built environment plays a critical role in determining the severity of a natural hazard's impact on a community. How many lives are lost, how long a recovery takes, and how many dollars would be needed if rebuilding often depends upon the structural integrity of the buildings struck by the tornado, hurricane, fire, earthquake, flood, or other natural disaster. For this reason, experts and agencies promoting hazard resiliency often focus on the development, adoption, and enforcement of hazard-resilient building codes and design standards.
In recent years,
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Contents
Introduction ... 1
Value of
Building Codes and
State, Local, Federal, and Nonfederal Roles ... 4
Role of the
Federal Role ... 4
Building Codes Adoption and Enforcement Shortfalls ... 5
Developing Hazard-Resistant Codes in an Age of Climate Change ... 6
Reliance on Historic Hazard Data ... 6
Incorporating Climate Risk into
Federal Authorities and Limitations ... 8
Land Use Planning and Hazard Zones ... 9
Mitigation Plans ... 10
Community Disaster Resilience Zones ... 11
The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard ... 12
National Flood Insurance Program Requirements Related to Planning and
Code Requirements: Authorities, Developments, and Variations Across Programs ... 15
Building Code Development, Adoption, Enforcement: FEMA Assistance and Incentives ... 16
Public Assistance ... 16
Hazard Mitigation Assistance ... 20
Hazard Mitigation Grant Program ... 20
Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund Program ... 20
Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant Program ... 21
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities ... 21
National Flood Insurance Program ... 24
Additional FEMA Technical Assistance ... 26
Research and Development ... 26
Multiagency Coordination ... 26
Public Awareness ... 27
Monitoring
Considerations for
Building Codes and Equity ... 28
Streamlining and Standardizing Post-Disaster Federal
FEMA Assistance in Hazard Zones ... 30
Concluding Comments ... 34
Figures
Figure 1. Vertical Elevation and Horizontal Extent of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard Floodplain ... 13
Figure 2. State and Territory
Figure 3. Building Code Adoption Portal ... 28
Tables
Table 1. Key FEMA Authorities Related to
Table 2. FEMA
Table 3. FEMA Incentives and Assistance for SLTT Building Code Work ... 25
Appendixes
Appendix. Chronology of Recent FEMA Actions ... 35
Contacts
Author Information ... 36
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Introduction
In 1990, a representative of the
This saying, as well as similar sentiments, has been included in testimony since at least 1973, well before
According to seismologists and other experts, it is not seismic shaking but "the collapse or failure of ... structures ... that ... kill most of the people in an earthquake."/3
Emergency managers and engineers have long echoed the point that the nature of the built environment often determines the severity of a disaster no matter whether the inciting event is an earthquake, hurricane, flood, or fire. How buildings withstand seismic shaking, high winds, floodwaters, or falling embers may determine the number of casualties, how long the power is out, and how many millions of dollars would be needed if rebuilding. The potential for hazards to become dangerous, disruptive, or costly often depends on where and how people build./4
Nearly one-third of the
Given that Americans are estimated to spend approximately 90% of their time indoors,/6 individuals are most likely to experience a hazard inside of a building. The impacts of natural hazards are expected to increase during the useful lifetime of much existing and new
For these reasons,
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1 Statement of
2 See, for example, Statement of State of California State Geologist
3 Senate Oceans and Atmosphere, Earthquakes, p. 99.
4 See, for an exemplary discussion of this point,
5 CoreLogic, "Risk Redefined: CoreLogic Climate Change Catastrophe Report Emphasizes Need to Address Increasing Frequency of Hazard Events,"
6
7
8
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To encourage resilience,
The 118th
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Terms
Building Codes - Building codes are officially adopted comprehensive specifications regulating building construction, materials, and performance to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.10 Building codes may reference more than one design standard.
Design Standard - A design standard is a specified criteria or standard that dictates that a provision, practice, requirement, or limit be met;/11 for example, the use of the 1% annual chance flood or the degree of protection of a structural project.
Natural hazards -
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Value of
The federal government has allocated increasing resources to disaster relief and recovery,/13 and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the rising number of natural disasters and increasing reliance on the federal government for response and recovery assistance is a key source of federal fiscal exposure./14
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9 See, for example,
10
11
12
13 See, for example,
14 GAO, Climate Change: A Climate Migration Pilot Program Could Enhance the Nation's Resilience and Reduce Federal Fiscal Exposure, GAO-20-488,
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In
Subsequent research revealed that the construction practices in place at the time were not only insufficient to withstand the powerful winds, but had also magnified the damage./16
Thirty years later, studies of damage from Hurricane Ian in southwest
Experts have also pointed out how hazard-resistant building codes reduce earthquake damage. In 2010, both
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15
16
17
18 The Moment Magnitude, MW, is an indicator of the amount of energy released during an earthquake. The MW scale is logarithmic, with an increase of one step corresponding to a tenfold increase in the measured amplitude of the ground motion of the earthquake, and 32 times more energy release. In other words, an MW 8.0 earthquake releases 32 times more energy than an MW 7.0 earthquake. For more information on how earthquakes are measured, see CRS Report RL33861, Earthquakes: Risk, Detection, Warning, and Research, by
19 A magnitude 8.8 earthquake releases 500 times as much energy as a magnitude 7 earthquake.
20
21 See, for example,
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Building Codes and
State, Local, Federal, and Nonfederal Roles
Role of the
In 1994, the three groups publishing model codes merged to form the
Federal Role
In the last decades of the twentieth century, the federal government - including
The federal government continues to collaborate with the ICC and similar organizations to help develop, revise, and promote hazard-resistant model building codes./28 The ICC updates I-Codes on a three-year cycle and includes hearings and opportunities for public comment.
State and Local Roles Most states and local jurisdictions adopt model codes that are created on a national or international level by standards-developing organizations like the ICC, and amend them where needed prior to adoption into state laws and local ordinances. Building codes are administered at a community level; the federal government cannot mandate the level of code enforcement in states or communities. Some states have adopted statewide building codes that apply to virtually every type of structure while others employ lesser degrees of regulation and code applicability. Statewide codes sometimes allow certain individual jurisdictions (e.g., cities or a particular class of counties) to deviate from the standard, weakening the model minimum code in response to objections based on the cost of compliance./29
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22
23 These were
24 Ibid;
25 For detailed discussion of building codes and hazard-resistant design, see CRS Report R47215, Hazard-Resilient Buildings: Sustaining Occupancy and Function After a Natural Disaster, by
26
27
28
29
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Building Codes Adoption and Enforcement Shortfalls
Nearly two-thirds of Americans live in communities that have not adopted the latest model building codes,/30 and many jurisdictions do not consistently adopt and enforce building codes - leading to significant threats to public health and individual safety - particularly in the face of a hazard./31 According to
Many jurisdictions particularly struggle to adopt and adequately enforce codes in the wake of a disaster. Local officials may face a large number of damaged structures and a high volume of permit applications, and there may be pressure on local officials to waive requirements that are perceived to hamper rapid reconstruction or "getting back to normal."/38 The sudden, widespread increase in building activity, loss or displacement of workers, and other factors may lead to personnel shortfalls. For this reason, some jurisdictions have established mutual aid agreements to allow building departments to augment staff in times of need.
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30 The
31 See
32
33 Ibid.
34
35
36
37 The third of three primary goals driving
38 See, for example,
39
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Developing Hazard-Resistant Codes in an Age of Climate Change
Reliance on Historic Hazard Data
In general, existing building codes and standards in
Standard-developing organizations generally have not used forward-looking climate information, relying instead on historical observations rather than incorporating long-term planning for climate hazards or employ climate projections. Further, standards-developing organizations vary in whether they update the climate information in design standards, building codes, and voluntary certifications on a regular basis./41 Recent increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events attributed to climate change,/42 coupled with the use of historical data, means that the codes may more accurately reflect historical dangers than current or future risk./43
For example, the International Building Code allows for some degree of protection against sea level rise in its elevation requirements, but the ICC recognizes that the code may need to evolve to respond to changing risk./44
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40
3-4, https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-11/fema_building-codes-save_study.pdf.
41 GAO, Climate Change: Improved Federal Coordination Could Facilitate Forward-Looking Climate Information in Design Standards,
42 See for example,
43 Global Resiliency Dialogue, Delivering Climate Responsive Resilient
44
The ICC participates in the Global Resiliency Dialogue (GRD), a joint initiative with research organizations from
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Since 2015, the I-Codes have required at least one foot of freeboard be incorporated into elevation requirements,/45 designed with reference to the elevation of current assessments of the 1%-annual-chance flood (a flood event with a 1% chance of being equaled or exceeded in a given year)./46 This risk calculation does not account for changes in water level and hazard probability associated with climate change and extreme events. For example, one study found that as sea level rises, by the late 21st century the historical 100-year flood would occur annually in
Incorporating Climate Risk into
The I-Codes used throughout
An example of enhanced hazard-resistant standards are the FORTIFIED Home performance-based engineering and building standards developed by the
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45
46 The area that will be inundated by the 1%-annual-chance flood is known as the Special
47 Reza Marsooli,
48 Global Resiliency Dialogue, The Use of Climate Data and Assessment of Extreme Weather Event Risks in
49
50 The IBHS has not developed FORTIFIED standards for floods.
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Continues with Part 2 of 3
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The report is posted at: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47612
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