The Goal of The RAFT
The goal of The RAFT project is to help Virginia’s coastal localities improve resilience to flooding and other coastal storm hazards while remaining economically and socially viable. Local governments in Virginia’s coastal region face daunting challenges, such as sea level rise and frequent flooding. Historical and projected sea level rise present coastal localities with challenges that affect residents, businesses, and key national security facilities, as well as public health, infrastructure and economic development.
One important gap in the toolbox of Virginia’s localities is an easy and accessible way to define and measure a locality’s resilience. The RAFT attempts to fill this gap. While it draws ideas for indicators from many other resilience and sustainability report cards to create a scorecard covering environmental, economic, and social resilience, The RAFT does not rely on a locality’s ability to conduct a self-assessment but instead offers the opportunity for an independent, objective assessment.
The long-term goal is to make this tool widely available to all coastal Virginia localities with the greatest need, risk, or interest.
