RiverSmart Policy Recommendations Report, Sept 2016

Supporting New England Communities to Become River-Smart: Policies and Programs that can Help New England Towns Thrive Despite River Floods
2016, Eve Vogel, Nicole Gillett, Christine Hatch, Benjamin Warner, Jerry Schoen, Laurel Payne, Daphne Chang, Peter Huntington, John Gartner, Noah Slovin

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For smaller documents, we have split the report into 6 parts: cover & preface, chapter 1 (Floods in New England), chapter 2 (The science of dynamic rivers), chapter 3 (New England governance, municipal needs, current policy, and institutional models), chapter 4 (Recommendations),  and Conclusion

UMass’s RiverSmart project has developed five target policy recommendations that could make federal and state programs significantly more effective and helpful to New England communities in their efforts to becomeriver-smart.

The report's five target recommendations are:

1: Develop Fluvial Hazard Assessments
2: Upgrade Vulnerable Stream Crossing Infrastructure
3: Support River-Smart Planning and Mitigation
4: Provide Outreach and Training on River Dynamics and River-Smart Practice
5: Designate, Recognize and Support River-Smart Regional Intermediaries

Additionally the report has the following chapters, which we have designed to be very readable and useful, including for the non-expert:

Chapter I. Introduction: River Floods in New England: Common in History, Commonly Destructive Today
Chapter II. River Science, River Floods, and River-Smart Management
Chapter III. The Challenge of River-Smart Governance in New England Communities: Lessons for Policy

We also have a series of 22 featured Examples which describe how various organizations, people, and programs around New England are advancing river-smart river, flood and land use management in ways aligned with our recommendations.

If you are a community leader, a government agency staff person, a policy maker, or just someone concerned about rivers or the threat of river flood damage, we invite you to take our ideas and adapt them for your needs. Use them to advocate for new and refined policies and programs that will help you and others make your state, community, region or property more river-smart. Our ideas are built on those of many other people, and we hope this report will become another step and building block, a resource for anyone and everyone in the region.