Chemung County Resilience Plan

Communities face a growing range of hazards and vulnerabilities in the face of a changing climate, including heat waves, flooding, failing infrastructure, and more. As climate change intensifies, Chemung County was grappling with how to best avoid, withstand, and bounce back from climate hazards.

Chemung County engaged evolveEA and Thornton Tomasetti to create a resilience plan that builds upon existing planning efforts, and prioritizes key actions with immediate impact. The plan identifies climate hazards, describing how they currently impact the community and how impacts are projected to change over time. A vulnerability assessment describes how these climate hazards impact the community, key infrastructure, and the regional economy. Informed by this analysis and community and steering committee input, resilience measures were developed, which are organized into three categories:

• Plan: Measures that organize and communicate information to help the community prepare for future hazards.
• Prevent: Measures that help the community stop future hazards from occurring, or strengthen assets to limit their harm when they do happen.
• Respond: Measures that help the community recover quickly from hazards and provide assistance to those most affected.

The resilience plan also includes five priority focus areas. These high priority resilience measures are detailed to greater resolution and include illustrative graphics that can be used for grant applications and/or immediate action in collaboration with partners.

The Chemung County Resilience Plan prepares county government to safeguard the community against the increasing threats of the changing climate, and provides robust, actionable, and sustainable measures to meet the unique needs of the county.