Hazard Mitigation are actions taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risks caused by hazards or disasters, such as flooding, wildfires, landslides, drought, or severe weather. Mitigation strategies help to lessen the effects of natural hazards and thereby reduce risks to people, economies, and natural environments. 

Types of Mitigation Techniques: 

• PREVENTION: Government, administrative, or regulatory actions that influence the way land and buildings are developed to reduce hazard losses. This includes planning and zoning, floodplain laws, capital improvement programs, open space preservation, and stormwater management regulations.

• PROPERTY PROTECTION: Modification of buildings or structures to protect them from a hazard or removal of structures from a hazard area. Includes acquisition, elevation, relocation, structural retrofit, storm shutters, and shatter-resistant glass. 

• PUBLIC EDUCATION & AWARENESS: Actions to inform citizens and elected officials about hazards and ways to mitigate them. Includes outreach projects, real estate disclosure, hazard information centers, and school-age and adult education. 

• NATURAL RESOURCE PROTECTION: Actions that minimize hazard loss and preserve or restore functions of natural systems. Includes sediment and erosion control, stream corridor restoration, watershed management, forest and vegetation management, and wetland restoration and preservation. 

• EMERGENCY SERVICES: Actions that protect people and property during and immediately after a hazard event. Includes warning systems, emergency response services, and the protection of essential facilities. 

• STRUCTURAL PROJECTS: Actions that involve the construction of structures to reduce the impact of a hazard. Includes dams, setback levees, floodwalls, retaining walls, and safe rooms. 

Common Mitigation Actions: 

• Enforcement of building codes, floodplain management codes, and environmental regulations.
• Public Safety measures such as maintenance of roadways, culverts, and dams.
• Acquisition of relocation of structures, such as purchasing buildings located in a floodplain.
• Acquisition of undeveloped hazard prone lands to ensure no future construction occurs here.
• Retrofitting of structures and design of new construction, such as elevating a home or building.
• Protecting critical facilities and infrastructure from future hazard events.
• Planning for hazard mitigation, emergency operations, disaster recovery, and continuity of operations.
• Development and distribution of outreach materials related to hazard mitigation.
• Deployment of warning systems to alert and notify the public. 

The 2024-2029 Yolo County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan was approved by FEMA on October 10, 2024. 

REVIEW THE 2024-2029 Yolo County HMP Update Here: Yolo County 2024-2029 LHMP

Top Hazards Addressed in the LMHP: 

• Levee Failure 
• Wildfire
• Drought
• Extreme Heat
• Flooding 

Every five years, the local Hazard Mitigation Plan is updated and submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for review and approval.

An approved hazard mitigation plan is required under the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-390) to ensure continued eligibility for future disaster grant funding opportunities under the Robert T. Stafford Act., including FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA).

Hazard Mitigation plans must identify goals for reducing long-term vulnerabilities to identified hazards. Mitigation goals represent broad statements that are achieved through the implementation of more specific mitigation actions. The mitigation goals identified in this plan update include:

• Goal 1: Protect Life 
• Goal 2: Protect Property and Infrastructure
• Goal 3: Foster an economy that promotes mitigation and recovery
• Goal 4: Promote a healthy and equitable environment
• Goal 5: Promote public awareness of hazard risk and mitigation

There were several jurisdictions that participated in this update by submitting an separate Jurisdictional Annex for our 2023 HMP Update.  These jurisdictions included:

• City of West Sacramento
• Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation
• Reclamation Districts 108
• Sacramento River West Side Levee District
• Knights Landing Ridge Drainage District

The next step is for participating jurisdictions to formally adopt the 2024-2029 HMP update through their governing boards.

Hazard mitigation planning has six steps:

Step 1: Organize Resources & Build the Planning Team

Relevant studies, plans, and reports are collected along with public engagement resources. A planning team of municipal representatives, local and regional stakeholders is assembled.

Step 2: Develop the Plan's Risk Assessment 

The risk assessment identifies hazard locations, impacts, and probabilities using scientific, historical, and damage data to rank hazards from highest threat to lowest threat. 

Step 3: Assess Capabilities

The plan revision assesses local capabilities in emergency management, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), planning and regulations, as well as administrative, technical, financial, and political capacities.

Step 4: Develop the Mitigation Strategy

The planning team reviews and updates goals, objectives, past mitigation actions, defines new mitigation techniques, and prioritizes actions in the revised strategy.

Step 5: Determine Plan Maintenance Process

The Hazard Mitigation Plan requires regular review and updates. A schedule is created to designate responsible departments for monitoring, evaluating, and updating the plan during its five-year cycle. The plan outlines the integration process into existing plans and reports, and ensures ongoing public outreach.

Step 6: Obtain Mitigation Plan Approval & Adoption

The draft plan is made available for public comment then submitted to the State of California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for review and approval. Once the plan is determined to meet all state and federal requirements, it is officially approved and is adopted by the Local governing entity.