Theory & Background
This is the minimum Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) required for FEMA hazard mitigation projects
What is 1.0?
When your EMC says she does *not* have at least three past outage reports from the utility company, this is the BCA approach you should select in the toolkit
What are Professional Expected Damages?
The threshold under which the subapplicant's total project cost must be in order to use the cost-effectiveness narrative in lieu of a BCA toolkit
What is $1 million?
Breaking a complex flood mitigation project into a design stage and a construction stage in order to give FEMA all the data they need
What is phasing the project?
An example of this type of documentation are maps of the wildfire risk and photos of the structures being protected
What is supporting documentation?
A BCA toolkit input describing how frequently and severely a hazard occurs
What is recurrence interval?
Reducing costs associated with deploying firefighters, police officers, and EMS personnel during a flood event can be counted as this type of benefit
What are avoided emergency response costs?
When a project's Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) is below 1.0, this alternative justification may be used to demonstrate its long-term value.
What is cost-effectiveness narrative?
To control stormwater runoff and reduce localized flooding, a common drainage project involves installing or widening these structures
What are culverts?
This wildfire mitigation activity is ineligible on its own, and must be combined with defensible space
What is ignition-resistant construction?
This value is important to the calculation of the BCR because it establishes how long the mitigation measure will last
What is Project Useful Life?
Raising a low-water crossing to reduce washouts is an example of this kind of avoided damage
What are avoided physical damages?
Jurisdictions often confuse cost-effectiveness narrative with this other document related to cost estimates
What is a budget narrative?
This FEMA map, showing flood risk and Special Flood Hazard Areas, establishes existing flood risk in a BCA
What is a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)?
Eligible FEMA wildfire mitigation projects must be located in this zone, where structures intermingle with vegetative fuels
What is the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
In a BCA for flood mitigation, this value represents the estimated cost to rebuild a flooded structure, excluding land value
What is Building Replacement Value?
When a project prevents flooding in a hospital, ensuring uninterrupted medical care for the community, this benefit is considered
What is avoided loss of function/service?
FEMA provides these simplified formulas for certain project types, eliminating the need to use the BCA Toolkit
What are pre-calculated benefits?
To be cost-effective, a flood mitigation project ought to raise the first floor of a structure above this level, also known as the 1-percent-annual-chance flood
What is Base Flood Elevation?
These are the three types of eligible wildfire mitigation project activities
What are defensible space, hazardous fuels reduction, and ignition-resistant construction?
The only project type considered 100% effective at reducing risk, meaning they have $0 expected damages after mitigation
What is aquisition and demolition?:
Avoided mental health costs such as stress and anxiety is an example of this type of benefit
What is social benefit?
For this type of safe room FEMA provides a standardized benefit value so that an individual BCA is not required
What are residential safe rooms?
This report is important in the BCA because it estimates post-project flood risk
What is a Hydrologic and Hydraulic (H&H) study?
Any possible type of post-wildfire mitigation which reduces the risk of flooding and erosion in burned areas
Soil stabilization, flood diversion, or reforestation
*installing warning equipment and systems