Purpose
In this activity, you will develop and define your implementation plan to provide you with a clear understanding of what lies ahead.
Why?
An implementation plan (pages 59-63) builds upon the work completed in the previous steps and helps to establish a clear, equitable, and actionable path towards the implementation of resilience strategies and actions in your community. Depending on the approach and goals of your current planning process, this step may be focused on a particular hazard or satisfying the needs of a particular planning process such as the Pre-disaster Recovery Plan [Navigate to Step 4 Activity 3].
When?
This activity can begin in conjunction with finalizing Step 4, Activity 3, and should be revisited consistently in the following steps and activities. This is generally not an activity that has a defined start and end date. Resilience planning should be ongoing.
Tips
- Return to this activity throughout implementation. Revisit the timeline you determine for individual strategies and actions and the broader timeline necessary across documents for resilience planning in your community.
- Think long-term. It is important to keep in mind that your implementation plan timeline will extend over a long period of time. Some resilience strategies and actions will have clear completion dates while others will be ongoing.
- Utilize work completed by other organizations/states: See the California Adaptation Planning Guide and local case studies.
How does my community do this?
- Draft your implementation plan. This process can be as detailed as you would like. For example, you could create and publish a standalone document highlighting the specific steps your team should take for implementation. Or, your team could work from the existing spreadsheet you have already created (see the workbook).
- Determine the timeframe for implementing actions. Short-term or immediate actions might include ones that can be done quickly, for a low cost, or as part of routine operations; whereas long-term or ongoing actions (and strategies) might require changes to by-laws, planning documents, or a dramatic increase in a department's operating budget. To determine timelines for short- and long-term strategies/actions, your resilience team should consider the specific circumstances in, and characteristics of, your community as well as the specific shocks and stressors you’ve identified in previous steps. Likewise, within specific plans, you will want to include resilience strategies/actions that have already begun but will be expanded to address the impacts that have been identified in this process. Keep in mind that short-term strategies/actions may also have to be supplemented by longer-term and ongoing strategies/actions.
- Identify windows of opportunity for action. Assess your resilience planning timeline and determine which projects need to be (or can be) implemented first, when relevant plans and documents will need to be updated or drafted, and what funding opportunities you have available to you now (and in the near future). This allows you to better understand when you will need to make key decisions and how these decisions will fit together over time. Consider the following questions:
- What priority projects should be implemented first?
- What funding do you have available to you currently? Are there potential funding opportunities to help you with implementation in the near future?
- Are there additional plans that need to be updated in the future that align with your priority resilience strategies?