Giving Compass' Take:

• This Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) post describes a partnership with the city of Fayetteville, NC, to improve stormwater management systems so that the city would be better prepared for natural disasters.

• Data and metrics were keys to this effort, and a good lesson for other cities in flood-prone areas on how to build a better infrastructure that can withstand catastrophic weather events.

• One year after Hurricane Harvey, here's what we've learned and how donors can make a difference.

For the City of Fayetteville, NC, stormwater management is a critically important issue. Our ability to manage the flow of stormwater and the quality of our water is not just a question of infrastructure, but is key to preserving our waterways and becoming a more resilient city in the face of flooding and other natural disasters.

When the City of Fayetteville first began working with the Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) through the What Works Cities (WWC) initiative, we set out to analyze and refine the performance measures we use to track and manage this issue. In the past, we were focused on measures of capacity and workload, but too often what we measured was not tied to outcomes.  At a time when we were undertaking a major review of our stormwater projects, and of public interest in our program, we had no existing method to measure the progress and effectiveness of our ongoing stormwater projects.

To begin to change our trajectory, we partnered with GovEx to bring together city staff from both the Storm Water Division and the Strategy and Performance Analytics office. As we reviewed the objectives of the Storm Water Division’s programs for clarity and accuracy, we began to identify the measures that were specific, measurable, actionable, results-oriented, and timely (SMART), and worked with the members of the team to ensure that the things we measure are relevant to the outcomes we are all working to achieve for our city.

Read the full article about improving storm resilience by Rebecca Jackson at govex.jhu.edu