Navy delivers Mid-Atlantic Regional Resilience Workshop

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TheHamptonRoadsRegionalResilience

Workshop, sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations, and Environment (EI&E), convened more than 60 stakeholders from Navy and Marine Corps installations the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation,theU.S.DepartmentofEnergy,state andlocalgovernment,utilities,andfederally funded research and development centers Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, hosted the Department of Navy’s (DON) second regional resilience workshop from 28 - 29 June2023

The workshop convened a large number of attendees from a diverse group of organizations to develop infrastructure project concepts to strengthen resilience in the Hampton Roads region. Workshop participants were challenged to identify regional infrastructure interdependencies and develop solutions that would enhance energy resilience, reliability, and efficiency for Navy installations and surrounding communities

The objectives of the Hampton Roads RegionalResilienceWorkshopwereto:

Objective 1. Identify regional infrastructure vulnerabilities that could impact DoD installationmissioncontinuity

Objective 2. Address critical infrastructureinterdependenciesandidentifyfunding strategiesforpotentialsolutions.

Objective 3. Develop holistic project concepts that enhance energy resilience, reliability, and efficiency for Navy and Marine Corps installations and surroundingcommunities

“In the United States, Norfolk is second onlytoNewOrleanswhenitcomestoflood risk, rising sea levels, increased flooding and precipitation, more frequent and more intensestorms,”saidMeredithBerger,AssistantSecretaryoftheNavy(EI&E).“Weknow what’satstake,andifthereisasolution we are innovative enough to find it when we collaborate with this group of stakeholders and partners to identify the good ideas and determinehowtotakeaction.”

Workshop facilitators from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Converge Strategies, LLC (CSL) presented regional infrastructure modeling using INL’s All Hazards Analysis (AHA) framework INL analysts presented two infrastructure disruptionscenarios.

The first scenario focused on the immediatedownstreameffectsonthenaturalgas sectorandotherinfrastructuresystemsafter apolarvortex Thesecondwasalonger-term notional scenario that demonstrated how a confluenceofsealevelriseandstormsurge flooding in Hampton Roads could severely impactregionalaccesstoinfrastructureand multiplesystemsatthesametime

The INL AHA tool analysis provided workshop participants with tangible, realistic, and immersive infrastructure disruption scenarios solidifying the urgent need fortransformationalinvestments.

Workshop participants engaged with presentations by critical infrastructure owners Dominion Energy, Southern

Company Gas Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) who discussed their ongoing collaboration efforts with the communityandtheNavy,currentresilience posture, and ongoing and planned infrastructureprojects The AHA framework, disruption scenarios and critical infrastructure presentations provided workshop participants with asharedunderstandingoflikelyinfrastructure impacts on the region and DON installations in the near future. Participants then divided into several teams and developed project concepts to strengthen the resiliencepostureintheHamptonRoadsregion to anticipated impacts and disruptions, as well as supportive funding and implementationplans.

Workshops teams developed five project concepts, including regional transmission projects, advanced energy and water demonstration projects, and transformative infrastructure investments to meet the uniqueneedsofthecoastalcommunitiesand

DONintheHamptonRoadsregion.

Workshops participants were able to include in their project concepts ideas for funding pathways after receiving presentations from federal program managers from the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and the U.S. Department of Energy, who are responsible for executing billions of dollars focused on issue sets directly relevant to the objectives of the workshop Programhighlightsincludedthe GridResilienceandInnovationPartnerships (GRIP) Program and the Defense Critical InfrastructureProgram(DCIP).

Workshopteamspresentedtheirconcepts to other workshop participants, ensuring participants were aware of all the ideas developedandabletoprovidefeedbackand offers of support. Workshop teams will be reconvenedfollowingtheworkshoptomake further progress on their projects, culminating in funding requests from state and federalpartners