US Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2023
The Designing for Natural Hazards guides focus on new construction and major reconstruction after natural disasters especially reconstruction in areas where entire communities need to be rebuilt after catastrophic events. The guides do not focus on minor repairs or renovations that are common after typical natural disaster events and do not address commercial buildings, although many of the construction practices identified are also applicable to multifamily mixed-use buildings with wood framing. To make the guides as practical and have as much input and buy-in as possible, Home Innovation employed many of the same approaches used to assemble the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) when helping develop the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards. Specifically, Home Innovation recruited a balanced number of stakeholders to reach consensus on the approach to developing content. In addition, all Task Group meetings were open to the public, and input was solicited beyond the members of the TAG and its Task Groups. Although these guides were not developed in accordance with the requirements of an ANSI standard, the approach to these guides mirrored that spirit and intent of creating a voluntary, consensus document.