NVRC Awarded Second Military Installation Resilience Review (MIRR) Grant
Focus of MIRR 2.0 is Implementation
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) has been awarded a second Military Installation Resilience Review (MIRR) grant from the Department of Defense, Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (OLDCC). This grant is a follow on to the MIRR grant NVRC received in September 2021. The final study for that project was accepted by the Commission in May 2023.
NVRC has a more than decade long history of working with the military and has a dedicated Community, Military and Federal Facilities Partnership Committee. The Committee is currently co-chaired by Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross and Prince William County Supervisor Victor Angry.
Military resilience is defined as the capability of a military installation to avoid, prepare for, minimize the effect of, adapt to, and recover from extreme weather events, or from anticipated or unanticipated changes in environmental conditions, that do, or have the potential to, adversely affect the military installation or essential transportation, logistical, or other necessary resources outside of the military installation that are necessary in order to maintain, improve, or rapidly reestablish installation mission assurance and mission-essential functions.
MIRR Background
A MIRR provides the installations and the surrounding communities the opportunity to identify gaps in utility connections, transportation, housing, and other shared amenities that may exist. The MIRR process brings the installation personnel and the community together to discuss big picture, long-range planning issues that may not get discussed during regular planning sessions. By focusing on the resilience of the installation and community to future climate change scenarios it is easier to identify the gaps that exist between the installation and the community.
The first study followed six primary phases: project initiation; data collection; threats and vulnerability analysis; strategy development and refinement; implementation factors; and draft and final report. The process evaluated extreme heat, coastal flooding, inland flooding, energy demand, winter weather, wind, drought, and wildfire hazards.
The outcome is 129 strategies that go beyond climate hazards to address issues related to emergency management, regional connectivity, and access that emerged during the planning process. The strategies aim to break down silos and improve coordination and information sharing between the installations and counties so that future technical analyses and the development of infrastructure solutions to combat climate change are coordinated among federal and local partners and result in shared benefits.
Next Steps
Through the MIRR, NVRC identified 46 regional strategies. Many regional strategies are necessary first steps towards addressing or enabling other installation-specific strategies. Some regional strategies address asset-level vulnerabilities that are not unique to one location, such as implementing flood mitigation for water and wastewater pumps and lift stations and substation and transformer hardening.
NVRC will advance a subset of the regional strategies under the implementation grant (MIRR 2.0). Of the 46 regional strategies, 15 were identified as contributing to mission critical requirements and these strategies would be advanced under the implementation grant. These 15 strategies focus on inland flooding, coastal flooding, heat, emergency management, regional connectivity and access, and land use and development compatibility. The strategies that would be the focus of the implementation grant aim to break down silos and improve coordination and information sharing between the installations and localities so that future technical analyses and the development of infrastructure solutions to combat climate change are coordinated among federal and local partners and result in shared benefits. The strategies advanced under this effort will provide technical data and analysis needed before specific infrastructure solutions can be defined and before a project is ready to be classified as shovel-ready and eligible for a broader set of funding programs.
You can learn more about the MIRR project at: https://www.novaregion.org/1571/Military-Installation-Resilience-Review
About the Northern Virginia Regional Commission
NVRC is a consortium of thirteen local governments representing more than 2.5 million residents. The region has a GDP of $250 Billion which is 41.4% of the GDP of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Northern Virginia’s GDP is larger than 23 states and the District of Columbia and if a country would be the 51st largest economy in the world.