A recovery plan evaluates and communicates current risk and synthesizes data and scientific analysis to explore recovery alternatives and develop project concepts and overall recovery guidelines that reflect the values, goals, and objectives of the watershed community. Planning may initially feel out of sync with the prevailing sense of urgency after a disaster, but ultimately it is the most valuable tool in understanding residual risk, coalescing a vision for recovery, developing community support, and identifying needs for long-term recovery funding. Done well, a comprehensive flood-recovery plan expresses a community’s overarching vision, goals, objectives, and policies while integrating hazard mitigation and risk reduction strategies as it sets the course for implementation of construction and reconstruction efforts across the disaster-affected watershed. 

Flood recovery plans are most useful when they identify mitigation projects, both large and small, that address inundation and fluvial hazards associated with floods, and seek to maximize the health and function of the stream corridor. To maximize usefulness for local sponsors, projects identified in the plan should: be prioritized, have approximate costs, clarify permitting requirements, and explain how improvements work together to achieve watershed-wide goals and objectives. Projects should also be classified as early action (flood recovery) or long-term (multi-benefit projects that require other sources of funding outside of flood recovery). Project cost estimates should be provided along with possible funding sources.