The Priority Risk Index is increasingly used as a methodology for quantifying jurisdictional risk for hazard mitigation planning purposes, and it can evolve to meet specific community needs. The index incorporates probability, impact, spatial extent, warning time, and duration when assessing each hazard, but it does not explicitly integrate a vulnerability and consequence analysis into its final scoring. To address this gap, a new index was developed- the Enhanced Priority Risk Index (EPRI). The new index adds a sixth category, vulnerability, calculated from a vulnerability and consequence analysis of the impacts on seven sectors identified in Standard 4.1.2 of the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP). To obtain a vulnerability score, impacts are ranked by sector from low (1) to very high (4), then a weighting factor is applied to each sector. The vulnerability score is added to the EPRI and provides risk levels based on the number of exploitable weaknesses and countermeasures identified within a specific jurisdiction. The vulnerability score and resulting EPRI are scalable and can be applied across jurisdictions, providing a transferable methodology that improves the hazard identification and risk assessment process and provides an approach for meeting EMAP accreditation standards.

The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan promotes the ideology of integrating green infrastructure into the City’s water management strategy to cultivate resiliency. In order to develop enough green infrastructure to have a significant impact on the hydrological functioning of the area, New Orleans officials are investigating different options for encouraging property owners to manage their stormwater on-site. Philadelphia Water Department’s parcel-based stormwater utility fee has been offered as a model for working within the constraints of the municipal government’s regulatory authority to increase the water retention capacity of individual properties. This thesis provides an analysis of Philadelphia Water Department’s stormwater utility policy and offers recommendations to other cities, like New Orleans, that are considering adopting a similar policy in their jurisdiction.

Sustainable development is achieved through the equal promotion of environmental protection, economic development and social equity. Urban planners play a key role in sustainable development through the mediation of tensions inherent between these priorities. Using urban planning theory that focuses on the conflicts between the priorities of sustainable development and lessons learned from planning practice provides a basis from which to evaluate the claims of sustainability present in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. Outreach initiatives, policy frameworks and ecosystem co-management are suggested to make the planning and implementation processes of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan more feasible in terms of its ability to foster sustainability. Additionally, conceptualizing integrated stormwater management for Greater New Orleans within the context of the Louisiana coastal crisis can help to make the goals of the Urban Water Plan more realistic in the long term and boost institutional capacity to promote regional resilience.

Events or forces of nature with catastrophic consequences, or "natural disasters," have increased in both frequency and force due to climate change and increased urbanization in climate-sensitive areas. To create capacity to face these dangers, an entity must first quantify the threat and translate scientific knowledge on nature into comprehensible estimates of cost and loss. These estimates equip those at risk with knowledge to enact policy, formulate mitigation plans, raise awareness, and promote preparedness in light of potential destruction. Hazards-United States, or Hazus, is one such tool created by the federal government to estimate loss from a variety of threats, including earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. Private and governmental agencies use Hazus to provide information and support to enact mitigation measures, craft plans, and create insurance assessments; hence the results of Hazus can have lasting and irreversible effects once the hazard in question occurs. This thesis addresses this problem and sheds light on the obvious and deterministic failings of Hazus in the context of the probable earthquake in Portland, OR; stripping away the tool's black box and exposing the grim vulnerabilities it fails to account for. The purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, this thesis aims to examine the critical flaws within Hazus and the omitted vulnerabilities particular to the Portland region and likely relevant in other areas of study. Second and more nationally applicable, this thesis intends to examine the influence Hazus outputs can have in the framing of seismic risk by the non-expert public. Combining the problem of inadequate understanding of risk in Portland with the questionable faith in Hazus alludes to a larger, socio-technical situation in need of attention by the academic and hazard mitigation community. This thesis addresses those issues in scope and adds to the growing body of literature on defining risk, hazard mitigation, and the consequences of natural disasters to urban environments.