Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and establishing precedents that can be followed elsewhere. The Task Force
and federal agencies are also piloting new ways to support resilience in the
Sandy-affected region; the Task Force, for example, is hosting a regional
―Rebuilding by Design‖ competition to generate innovative solutions to
enhance resilience. In the transportation sector, the Department of
Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is dedicating $5.7
billion to four of the area's most impacted transit agencies, of which $1.3
billion will be allocated to locally prioritized projects to make transit systems
more resilient to future disasters. FTA will also develop a competitive process
for additional funding to identify and support larger, stand-alone resilience
projects in the impacted region. To build coastal resilience, the Department of
the Interior will launch a $100 million competitive grant program to foster
partnerships and promote resilient natural systems while enhancing green
spaces and wildlife habitat near urban populations. An additional $250 million
will be allocated to support projects for coastal restoration and resilience
across the region. Finally, with partners, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is
conducting a $20 million study to identify strategies to reduce the vulnerability
of Sandy-affected coastal communities to future large-scale flood and storm
events, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will
strengthen long-term coastal observations and provide technical assistance to
coastal communities.
II. Protecting our Economy and Natural Resources
Climate change is affecting nearly every aspect of our society, from
agriculture and tourism to the health and safety of our citizens and natural
resources. To help protect critical sectors, while also targeting hazards that cut
across sectors and regions, the Administration will mount a set of sector- and
hazard-specific efforts to protect our country's vital assets, to include:
Identifying Vulnerabilities of Key Sectors to Climate Change:
The
Department of Energy will soon release an assessment of climate-change
impacts on the energy sector, including power-plant disruptions due to drought
and the disruption of fuel supplies during severe storms, as well as potential
opportunities to make our energy infrastructure more resilient to these risks. In
2013, the Department of Agriculture and Department of the Interior released
several studies outlining the challenges a changing climate poses for
America's agricultural enterprise, forests, water supply, wildlife, and public
lands. This year and next, federal agencies will report on the impacts of
