Science Services - Project Report – November 2009

Submitted By: Alan Lulloff & Jeff Stone

On-Going Projects

Coastal No Adverse Impact Workshops (CNAI) – ASFPM has developed a Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook (funded by NOAA) and materials for one-day Coastal No Adverse Impact work shops. In addition to requests from ASFPM Chapters, these workshops have been well received by NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserves. NERRs have funded five of the work shops and developed a mapping exercise that has become a core component of the work shops. The Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook has also provided opportunities to partner with organizations with similar interests. ASFPM worked with the Southeast Watershed Forum to put on the workshop in Apalachicola, Florida and The Nature Conservancy participated in the CNAI work shops in Pensacola, FL and Long Island, NY. Since the CNAI Handbook was completed in 2006, ASFPM has conducted 10 one-day workshops.

FY10CNAI Workshops scheduled:

DateLocation

2010Delaware

2010Mississippi

Web Mapping Outreach – Disaster Recovery: ASFPMworked with the University of Wisconsin to develop a web mapping application to support recovery efforts on the gulf coast. The initial roll-out focused on Hurricane Katrina and included: levee boundaries and breaches after Katrina, Advisory Base Flood Elevations and boundaries, existing BFEs and boundaries, extent of inundation and Katrina high water marks. The application was recently modified to include the area impacted by Hurricane Ike. The URL is:

Active Projects

NOAA Digital Coast Pilot Project – ASFPM willuse NOAA’s Digital Coast website to access data and tools as part of ASFPM CNAI workshops. ASFPM is part of a 5 NGO partnership that includes TNC, CSO, NACo, and NSGIC.

FEMA / ASFPM CAP Strategic Planning Project – ASFPM will develop a standard process for incorporating self-assessment, strategic planning and gap analyses to support State floodplain management programs in long-range strategic planning and annual work plan development. ASFPM will develop a collaborative strategic planning process between FEMA and States to match flood risk and State capacity with performance and funding.

FEMA Appeals Evaluation - Develop a strategy to reduce appeals and disputes arising from the study and mapping process. The strategy would include improving the quality and effectiveness of FEMA’s communications with State and local officials prior to and during the flood plain study and mapping process. A significant portion of this effort will be for the ASFPM to evaluate the appeals process and provide viable options for addressing contentious appeals. These options may include a “board of appeals” that would serve as an independent credible body that would review difficult cases.

Floodplain Management 2010: State and Local Programs - Assess the status of state and local level floodplain management in the United States. Compare with past assessments and develop a supporting database for long-term use in documenting States and local governments that have implemented higher standards and No Adverse Impact (NAI) principles.

HAZUS Comparative Analysis – ASFPM is comparing HAZUS flood damage estimates with NFIPclaims from the June 2008 Flood Damages in Dane County.This is a pilot project to compare HAZUS estimates with NFIP flood damage claims at the building/structure level. Comparisons are also being made between the assessed property values and the HAZUS and NFIP values in an effort to understand the relationship between replacement costs, depreciated values and assessed values.

Projects – Proposal Submitted – planned for FY 2010 / 2011

Wisconsin Great Lakes Shoreline Oblique Photography and Analysis of Changes – WI Coastal Management Program may fund ASFPM to provide GIS and web-mapping assistance to Prof. Dave Mickelson in his efforts to organize and analyze oblique photography of Lake Superior’s shoreline. Start Date – January 2010.

FEMA EMI HAZUS/GIS Course for Floodplain Managers

ASFPM would collaborate in the development of an EMI approved course with FEMA and Kevin Mickey/POLIS Center. This course would be based around HAZUS and GIS applications for Floodplain Managers and made available at EMI, the POLIS Center and other locations including developing a partnership with a computer lab at UW-Madison.

Projects – Proposal Development – potential funds identified

Coastal Resilience – The Nature Conservancy

Continuation of the project on Long Island, NY with TNC – to perform socio-economic analysis as it relates to coastal resilience and sea level rise for the coastline of Long Island Sound. Using HAZUS to estimate direct economic loss to buildings based on future SLR conditions and storm events. SLOSH model outputs combined with SLR are used to generate flood depth grids as the inputs to HAZUS.

Flood Model Validation proposal (FY10)

Comparison of flood damage estimates with NFIP claims, Individual Assistances claims and assessed values for user-defined structures (building centroids)

  • Recommendations from NIBS/ABS from HAZUS FY08 Flood Model validation report
  • Partner with Kevin Mickey/POLIS Center
  • Links with TNC Coastal Resilience project and Suffolk Co., Long Island, NY
  • Links with WI (Roxanne Gray) and Dane Co. (Dave Janda) Emergency Management

Print-On-Demand Service Provider – FIRM Paper Maps

Work to establish ASFPM as a provider of paper FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps. Utilizing the established printing capacity and Print-on-Demand experience of Mapping Specialists, Madison, WI – ASFPM could become a gateway for FIRM paper map requests providing a revenue stream to the Association.

Flood Hazard and Risk Data Management - A web application would be developed to improve the public’s understanding of flood risk. The site would contain some basic data sets for floodplain managers and information on accessing other data useful for flood loss reduction and the protection of the natural and beneficial functions of the floodplain as well as to researchers and the media.

Completed Projects

FY09 CNAI Workshops Completed:

DateLocation

May 2009Big Bend, Florida

June 2009Orlando, Florida

Coastal Erosion Hazard Project – Phase II – Conduct an evaluation of State coastal erosion regulations and recommend actions needed to limit infrastructure and development exposure to this hazard. Completed Date – September 2009

Map Mod Technical Support 2009 – Digital Transition –Digital Only - ASFPM surveyed selected members to assess State and local capabilities to adopt and utilize digital FIRMs. Project will summarize impacts of FEMA’s reducing its distribution of paper maps. In addition, ASFPM is proposing mechanisms for enhancing FEMA’s partnerships with States and local Water Management Authorities (WMAs). Completed Date – September 2009

HAZUS Comparative Analysis – ASFPM compared HAZUS flood damage estimates with NFIP post disaster claims data in several pilot project areas around the country. Additionally, damage estimates were compared for the 1% and 0.2% annual chance flood hazard boundaries generated by HAZUS based on varying input parameters (e.g. recurrence interval, specific discharge and digital elevation data) Completed Date – September 2009

Flood Manager Game – Provide support for ASFPM Foundation in the RFP development and Review. Status: RFP has been issued and contractor selected. Completed Date – September 2009

HAZUS Validation FY09 – ASFPM isevaluating HAZUS results using various levels of topographic data to generate depth grids and compare HAZUS methodology with traditional floodplain engineering methodology. Completed Date – August 2009

Coastal Resiliency and Sea Level Rise – The Nature Conservancy(TNC) is evaluating the socio-economic impacts of sea level rise and inundation on Long Island’s Atlantic coast. ASFPM is running HAZUS to estimate the flood damages to buildings based on future SLR and storm events. Completed Date – May2009

Wisconsin Great Lakes Shoreline Oblique Photography and Analysis of Changes – WI Coastal Management Program has funded ASFPM to provide GIS assistance to Dave Mickelson in his efforts to organize and analyze oblique photography of Wisconsin’s Great Lakes Shoreline. Completed Date – May 2009

Map Mod Technical Support 2008 – Digital is Official - ASFPM canvassed States and members to determine if there are State regulations that would need to be modified to enable “digital to be official” and how the digital FIRMs can best meet State and local government needs.Completed Date – April 2009

Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook Project - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center provided funding for an ASFPM project to develop a Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook for the U.S. and a Spanish language Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook for Latin America. ASFPM entered into an agreement with the Organization of American States (OAS) to develop the Spanish language Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook for Latin America. ASFPM has developed a webpage to make the Coastal No Adverse Impact Handbook and Coastal No Adverse Impact Case Studies for the U.S. available at: Completed – October 2007

Flood Map Maintenance Best Practices Project – Phase I - ASFPM was funded by Wisconsin DNR to assist with a FEMA Region V Best Practices project. ASFPM reviewed ongoing flood map maintenance pilot projects being funded by FEMA (Denver Urban Drainage & Flood Control District – since 2001 and the State of North Carolina – since 2006) and compiled a description of flood map maintenance procedures. Available at:

Completed – December 2007

Coastal Erosion Hazard Project – Phase I – The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program contracted with ASFPM to conduct an evaluation of State regulations related to coastal erosion and recommend actions needed for WI to effectively address buildings at risk due to coastal erosion.Summary of State regulations available at: Completed – December 2007

Kansas Higher Floodplain Standards – The State of Kansas contracted with ASFPM to develop model ordinance language for modifications to the Kansas model floodplain ordinance for regulations that would exceed the federal minimum. Completed – September 2007

Community Rating System – CRS funded an ASFPM project to interview States that are conducting Flood Insurance Study engineering reviews to obtain documentation for CRS credits. Completed – April 2008

Projects – funding not yet available

CNAI Workshops – This project would involve enhancing the training materials and provide some core funding for deployment of Coastal No Adverse Impact work shops. In addition, we are working to involve other non-profits (e.g. TNC, NACo, NWF, ASWM) in our work shops.

Climate Change – This project would compile information on State and local adaptive management strategies related to climate change and provide a suite of strategies for State and local government.

Coastal Atlas – A web application would be developed for the display of oblique coastal photographs and inventories of shore protection structures and critically eroding shorelines.

Storm Track, Observation, Report and Mapping Strategies (STORMS) – Through NSF ITEST project funding, young people from across the nation will make authentic contributions to information-gathering and communication (ICT) for severe storm emergency response and management for: social networking, media editing, mobile computing platforms, and information management to capitalize on and extend place-based education models for learning geospatial (GIS, GPS, and remote sensing) information and analysis developed by NSF ITEST projects.

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