1323. IN-7.1: RESILIENCE AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

1323 IN-7.1: RESILIENCE AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE 1323.1 Washington, DC faces major infrastructure challenges, a growing population, and increasing risks posed by natural hazards and climate change in addition to human-made hazards and incidents. As the effects of climate change intensify and risks increase, it is critical for the District to plan for more frequent and severe impacts on infrastructure systems. This need is emphasized in the Resilient DC Strategy, which lays out Washington, DC’s approach to handling these challenges. 1323.2 This section addresses the protection and enhancement of critical infrastructure to address vulnerability to adverse effects of natural and human-made shocks, such as extreme weather events and security incidents, and to long-term stresses, such as sea level and temperature rise, which are driven by climate change. The District has adopted robust, multi-pronged strategies to address these issues. In addition to addressing sudden threats and hazards through DPS, Washington, DC is working to address chronic stressors, such as poverty, safety, and access to health care and healthy food, through a wide range of policies contained throughout the Comprehensive Plan, and these policies must be understood and implemented through an equity, particularly a racial equity, lens. While Washington, DC recognizes that many, if not most, of the Comprehensive Plan policies are connected to resilience, policies that explicitly identify resilience are contained in specific subsections of this element to provide a logical framework: this section and the CSF-2.2 Healthy Communities and Resilience section in the Community Services and Facilities Element. 1323.3 Washington, DC is investing billions of dollars in resilient and adaptive infrastructure, including the DC PLUG Program, updates to the District’s levee system, and the DC Clean Rivers Project. In addition to infrastructure hardening and other protective measures, infrastructure providers in Washington, DC should continue to focus their efforts on improving the robustness and reliability of critical systems to facilitate the continuous flow of goods, utility services, and information, particularly during times of crisis. 1323.4 This means developing adaptation plans that can include measures, such as relocation or retirement of existing infrastructure, and exploring the benefits of decentralized utility systems, which can offer greater system-wide reliability through redundancy. Adaptation plans should include consideration of projected impacts of climate change during the locational and design phases of infrastructure projects to ensure more deliberate review of proposed infrastructure investments in potentially hazardous locations and of the length of a given asset’s useful life. 1323.5 Policy IN-7.1.1: District Preparedness Prepare Washington, DC to prevent and protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from all hazards that threaten the District, including human-made and climate change hazards. Integrate preparedness goals into relevant efforts across relevant District agencies and utilities, including through coordination with DPS. Identify and integrate equity considerations into preparedness planning. 1323.6 Policy IN-7.1.2: Consider Vulnerabilities and Mitigations when Planning Critical Infrastructure Support efforts by utilities to consider and evaluate vulnerability and mitigations for planning and protecting critical assets and systems from human-made and natural incidents and events, as well as chronic stressors, including sea level rise and heat emergencies. Identify and prioritize major vulnerabilities and hazards, such as flooding. Incorporate risk and hazard mitigation into operational and investment planning. Mitigations can include elevating natural gas lines and hardening water systems. 1323.7 Policy IN-7.1.3: Integration of Climate Adaptability Promote integration of vulnerability assessments in resilience planning, including climate adaptability, into pertinent aspects of DPS using the best available data and in accordance with other District initiatives to adequately prepare for an evolving risk environment. 1323.8 Policy IN-7.1.4: Technology and Resilience Explore the use and impact of new and emerging technologies on resilience vulnerability assessment and mitigation planning. 1323.9 Policy IN-7.1.5: Energy-Resilient Infrastructure Encourage opportunities to make energy transmission and distribution systems more resilient. Opportunities include networking the transmission system, undergrounding power lines, and incorporating micro-grids where appropriate. 1323.10 Policy IN-7.1.6 Neighborhood-Scale Systems Explore and consider neighborhood-scale systems as a measure that can help protect infrastructure from the impacts of climate change. Neighborhood-scale systems include micro-grids, district energy, and district stormwater management. 1323.11 Action IN-7.1.A: Micro-grid-Ready Construction Explore tools to encourage new development projects to integrate micro-grid connectivity in their designs. Such incentives should be designed to expand decentralized power generation in the District, increasing the resilience of not only the energy distribution system but also those buildings or facilities that are dependent upon it. 1323.12 Action IN-7.1.B: Community Risk Assessments Update the Community Risk Assessment (CRA) of DPS on a recurring basis to reflect changes in the risk profiles of relevant natural and human-made systems in Washington, DC. Incorporate relevant infrastructure information in the CRA process. 1323.13 Action IN-7.1.C: Protecting Critical Infrastructure Protect critical facilities from a wide range of threats and hazards and develop fortified and redundant systems in order to deliver essential services at all times. 1323.14 Action IN-7.1.D: Training for Protecting Critical Infrastructure Develop a training program for protecting public utilities for law enforcement and private sector personnel. 1323.15 Action IN-7.1.E: Vulnerability of Critical Infrastructure Continue to support development of criteria and methodologies to assess the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to human-made and natural shocks, as well as chronic stressors. 1323.16 Action IN-7.1.F: Mitigating Vulnerability of Critical Infrastructure Explore approaches and tools to address identified vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure. Regional, District-wide, and site-specific factors should be taken into account, as well as near-term and long-range risks. 1323.17 Action IN-7.1.G: Emerging Technologies and Critical Infrastructure Review and evaluate the impacts of new and emerging technologies on the District’s resilience and their potential for helping District government and utility operators to advance near-term and long-range infrastructure resilience objectives. For other policies and actions related to resilience and critical infrastructure, see the Community Services and Facilities Element. SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR 1049 (March 9, 1984)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Element Amendment Act of 1984, effective March 16, 1985 (D.C. Law 5-187; 32 DCR 873 (February 15, 1985)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-129; 37 DCR 55 (January 5, 1990)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989 NCPC-Recommended Amendments, and Closing of Public Alleys in Square 669, S.O. 88-452, Act of 1990, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-132; 37 DCR 2213 (April 6, 1990)); as amended by District Government Land Use Temporary Amendment Act of 1994, effective October 1, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-190; 41 DCR 5360 (August 12, 1994)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1994, effective October 6, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-193; 41 DCR 5536 (August 19, 1994)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Amendment Act of 1994, effective March 21, 1995 (D.C. Law 10-235; 42 DCR 30 (January 6, 1995)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 18, 1996 (D.C. Law 11-110; 43 DCR 530 (February 9, 1996)); as amended by Second Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-255; 44 DCR 1271 (March 7, 1997)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 1998, effective April 27, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-275; 46 DCR 1441 (February 19, 1999)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1999, effective April 12, 2000 (D.C. Law 13-91; 47 DCR 520 (January 28, 2000)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2006, effective March 8, 2007 (D.C. Law 16-300; 54 DCR 924 (February 2, 2007)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 2008, effective March 25, 2009 (D.C. Law 17-353; 56 DCR 1117 (February 6, 2009)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010, effective April 8, 2011 (D.C. Law 18-361; 58 DCR 908 (February 4, 2011)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 006918 (July 16, 2021)). District of Columbia Municipal Regulations Comprehensive Plan 10-A DCMR § 1323