CREATE Researcher Professor Adam Rose was recently invited as one of five panelists to speak at a White House Roundtable on the Business Case for Climate Resilience on November 28, 2016. Due to a health issue, now resolved, he was not able to attend, but his introductory remarks were presented by a professional colleague, Ryan Colker, an Advisor to the President of the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Professor Rose is affiliated with NIBS by serving on the Board of Advisors of its Multihazard Mitigation Council (MMC).
Professor Rose’s remarks pertained to his recent work for the World Bank on co-benefits of disaster risk management and his on-going work with the MMC on estimating benefits of hazard mitigation projects. His remarks on his World Bank research summarized sources of private sector co-benefits, reasons why they are often not taken into account, and policies to have them incorporated into mitigation investment decisions.
His remarks related to the MMC pertained to his previous research and a new initiative. Professor Rose was the research team leader of the 2005 MMC report to Congress, entitled Mitigation Saves: An Independent Study to Assess the Future Savings from Mitigation Activities. This report, often known as the “four-to-one” study because that was the average benefit-cost ratio estimated for a sample of 10 years of FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) projects, is still widely cited in congressional testimony and has resulted in significant amounts of additional funding for hazard mitigation. Since nearly all HMGP grants were for public sector projects, and public sector assets represent only about 10% of the value of buildings and infrastructure in the US, the MMC is undertaking a Mitigation Saves 2 initiative to focus primarily on private sector decision-making. Professor Rose is serving on the Advisory Board of this new study. Ryan Colker provided details of this and other NIBS initiatives at the Roundtable. More info.