Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness

In September 2016, Governor Baker issued Executive Order 569, directing the Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Secretary of Public Safety to coordinate efforts across the Commonwealth to strengthen the resilience of communities, prepare for the impacts of climate change and mitigate damage from extreme weather events. The state agencies were charged with establishing a framework that each City and Town could use to assess local vulnerabilities to climate change and to develop appropriate action-oriented response strategies.

The Commonwealth’s agency response is the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Grant Program (MVP) which provides Massachusetts communities with support to plan for resilience and implement key adaptation actions.  The MVP framework, developed by The Nature Conservancy, employs a workshop-based model designed to help local stakeholders in:

• Characterizing climate-related and extreme weather hazards of highest concern to the community;
• Understanding the science of climate change and adaptation. EOEEA has established a website www.resilientma.org as a data clearinghouse for science and state-specific geographic data on climate change;
• Identifying existing and future vulnerabilities and asset strengths in areas of infrastructure and critical facilities, socio-economic characteristics and environmental resources;
• Developing and prioritizing actions for community resilience based on identified opportunities for risk reduction and resilience building;
• Implementing key actions through community partnerships.

With completion of the resilience building planning process, a city or town can become a formally designated MVP community, eligible for MVP action grants to undertake technical plans as well as design and construct priority resilience projects.