Evaluating Benefits of Mitigation Strategies

In partnership with Nashville Metro Water Services (MWS), Dr. Camp and Dr. Katherine Nelson (graduate student at the time) performed a study of Nashville’s Home Buyout Program to remove homes from risk of flooding.  Homes that had repetitive losses and were bought out were demolished with the area converted to greenspace.  The project findings have been presented by members of both MWS and VECTOR at local and national conferences and have also been used in testimonials before Congress.

In the National Institute of Building Sciences report “Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves” (https://www.nibs.org/page/mitigationsaves), found that “mitigation funding can save the nation $6 in future disaster costs, for every $1 spent on hazard mitigation.” In the case study evaluation of Nashville, the research team found a return on investment from the Nashville buyout program to be 3:1 meaning that for every $1 spent in the home buyout program, $3 in benefits were obtained.  Note: this is overall investment, not accounting for the fact that each $1 of investment is frequently made up of $0.75 federal funding, $0.125 state funding, and $0.125 local funding.

A short overview of the study and findings can be found here: MWS Buyout Study Overview_2pager.