The US government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has appointed a joint venture of Atkins and Stantec to work on a $600m programme to identify potential disasters and prevent them from occurring.
From next year to 2019 the firms will help communities identify and understand the risks posed by natural and manmade disasters.
Response and recovery strategies will be developed.
FEMA will provide communities with reliable, accessible digital flood risk data that can be used to plan for floods.Â
Atkins has already helped FEMA to improve its flood maps.Â
Another aspect involves the delivery of professional services in response to natural events and disasters, including floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, ice storms, and tornadoes, as well as man-made events such as terrorist attacks and pandemics.Â
Atkins provides programme and disaster recovery centre support, temporary housing design and construction, and the hauling and installation of temporary housing units for future disasters under FEMA’s Individual Assistance Technical Assistance Contract.
A third element of the programme is to provide engineering services to assess the impacts of natural events and disasters on the built environment to develop and enhance guidance for practitioners to design more resilient structures.
Photograph: The New Orleans Superdrome after Hurricane Katrina (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
