Floodplain Management Programs Research Articles

Equitable buyouts? Learning from state, county, and local floodplain management programs

Climate change-exacerbated flooding has renewed interest in property buyouts as a pillar of managed retreat from coastal zones and floodplains in the United States. However, federal buyout programs are widely critiqued for being inaccessible and inequitable. To learn whether and how subnational buyout programs overcome these limitations, we examined five leading US state, county, and local buyout programs to see what they teach us about redesigning future federal policies. Our mixed-methods research used interviews and document analysis to develop case studies, juxtaposed subnational strategies against a review of critiques of federal buyouts, and focus group discussions with subnational buyout managers and experts to identify limitations of their programs. We find that subnational programs can be more inclusive and better respond to resident needs as compared to existing federal programs due to their access to dedicated, non-federal funding and their standing institutional status, which allows them to learn and evolve over time. Nevertheless, these programs lack coordination with and control over agencies that permit development and produce affordable housing. This gives buyout programs limited power in shaping the overall equity of who lives in floodplains and who has access to affordable, resilient housing after a buyout. Their experiences suggest federal programs can support managed retreat nationwide by increasing support for institutional and staff capacity at state and county levels, encouraging efforts to bridge institutional silos at subnational levels, and holistically mainstream climate considerations into regional floodplain development, affordable housing production, and flood risk mitigation.

The determinants of vulnerability and adaptive capacity at the municipal level: Evidence from floodplain management programs in the United States

This article provides a quantitative test of the relationship between adaptive capacity and socio-economic status (SES) at the municipal level. Local participation in a U.S. floodplain management program, the Community Rating System (CRS), is used as an indicator of adaptive capacity. The relationship between aggregated measures of SES and CRS participation is tested using probit, OLS and tobit models. The analysis indicates that socio-economic characteristics of a municipality's population are associated with the capacity of municipal leaders to effect collective action in response to environmental challenges. More theoretical work and case studies are needed to fully explain the reasons for this association.

Creating effective flood mitigation policies

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 increased awareness of the vulnerability of people and property in flood‐prone areas of the United States, particularly repetitively flooded properties. Prior to Katrina, repetitive loss properties cost the United States over $200 million annually [General Accounting Office (GAO), 2004].The U.S. Congress passed the Bunning‐Bereuter‐Blumenauer Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004 (FIRA) to maintain the fiscal soundness of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and ease the burden of repetitive loss properties on NFIP Federal calculations indicate that every dollar spent on mitigation activities creates a $3.65 savings in future disaster recovery costs, and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that over $1 billion are spared annually through flood mitigation and floodplain management programs [GAO, 2005a].

Floods of the Brahmaputra River in India

ABSTRACT Floods in the Brahmaputra basin of India are characterized by their extremely large magnitude, high frequency, and extensive devastation. During the last forty years of flood record at Pandu, the highest flood [72,748 cubic meters per second (m3s1)] occurred in 1962. But, more recently, the 1988 flood, characterized by the maximum flood height so far observed at Pandu, appears to be the most devastating one, causing inundation of 62 per cent of Assam's Brahmaputra valley. The mean annual flood discharge of the river at Pandu is 47,608 m3s' with a recurrence interval of 2.56 years. Floods on the Brahmaputra have been a recurring feature from early times. They may be attributed to the involvement of a host of related causes of a natural, hydrometeorological, and anthropogenic nature. But, in recent years floods of the river have become more severe, due to a variety of newly-emerged manmade causes, in addition to those generally recognized The flood control measures adopted in the basin since the early fifties are all of a short-term and ad-hoc nature and in fact, no proper floodplain management program is being implemented. Consequently, there have been regular flood onslaughts, adversely affecting the agrarian economy of the Brahmaputra valley.

Flood Management—The TVA Experience

ABSTRACT In recent years, increasing attention has been focused on the need for a more comprehensive approach to flood management that combines traditional structural approaches with elements of nonstructural floodplain management. For the past 50 years, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has met its responsibilities for flood control in the Tennessee River Basin through such a dual approach, combining a system of multipurpose dams and reservoirs with a floodplain management program to encourage appropriate shoreline development. This article provides an overview of TVA's flood management program, including a description of the hydrologic conditions in the region, an overview of the reservoir system and its flood control capabilities, and a description of forecasting procedures and flood control operating strategy The development and implementation of TVA's floodplain management program, and its role in reducing flood damages in the Tennessee Valley are also presented. The article closes with a discussi...

Public Policy and Land Conversion: Lessening Urban Growth Pressure in River Corridors

ABSTRACTYear in and year out, flooding causes greater dollar losses than any other natural hazard. To cope with that problem, more than 17,000 communities across the US have adopted riverine floodplain management programs to reduce the amount of urban development at risk from flooding and flood‐related damage. This article examines the extent to which floodplain management programs influence the investment and predevelopment decisions of owners of vacant floodplain land in ten selected cities. Such public programs are found to alleviate investment and development pressure in flood hazard areas. Community‐wide factors such as the availability of non‐floodplain buildable land, however, can magnify or depress this effect of public policy on investment activity. Further, landowner perceptions of the flood hazard itself have an important influence on anticipated property appreciation and investment activity.

Private Profit and Public Safety as Outcomes of Local Land-Use Regulation

Consistent with requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), over 17000 local governments in the USA have enacted local floodplain-management programs. This paper is an analysis of whether and to what extent these local riverine regulatory policies decrease riverbank development and increase the use of protective site-design and construction measures. To address these questions, 106 developers and builders were surveyed in ten cities having floodplain policies of varying strengths. It is found that floodplain policy has a negligible effect on whether development does or does not occur in a floodplain. Such programs, however, do have significant effects on the extent to which structures built in the floodplain are protected from future flood damage.

Evaluating the effects of local floodplain management policies on property owner behavior

Floodplain management programs have been adopted by more than 85% of local governments in the nation with designated flood hazard areas. Yet, there has been little evaluation of the influence of floodplain policies on private sector decisions. This article examines the degree to which riverine floodplain management affects purchase and mitigation decisions made by owners of developed floodplain property in ten selected cities in the United States. We find that the stringency of such policies does not lessen floodplain property buying because of the overriding importance of site amenity factors. Indeed, flood protection measures incorporated into development projects appear to add to the attractiveness of floodplain location by increasing the perceived safety from the hazard. Property owner responses to the flood hazard after occupancy involve political action more often than individual on-site mitigation. Floodplain programs only minimally encourage on-site mitigation by the owner because most owners have not experienced a flood and many are unaware of the flood threat. It is suggested that floodplain programs will be more effective in meeting their objectives if they are directed at intervention points earlier in the land conversion process.

Flood-plain management program in Rapid City, South Dakota

Research Article| July 01, 1984 Flood-plain management program in Rapid City, South Dakota PERRY H. RAHN PERRY H. RAHN 1Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701 Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information PERRY H. RAHN 1Department of Geology and Geological Engineering, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701 Publisher: Geological Society of America First Online: 01 Jun 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2674 Print ISSN: 0016-7606 Geological Society of America GSA Bulletin (1984) 95 (7): 838–843. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1984)95<838:FMPIRC>2.0.CO;2 Article history First Online: 01 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation PERRY H. RAHN; Flood-plain management program in Rapid City, South Dakota. GSA Bulletin 1984;; 95 (7): 838–843. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1984)95<838:FMPIRC>2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Following the devastating flood of June 9, 1972, Rapid City, South Dakota, embarked on a flood-plain management program. A “flood-way” was delineated and all homes and motels, as well as most commercial establishments, were removed from the floodway. Almost the entire area inundated by the 1972 flood is now a beautiful park, illustrating that man can live in harmony with natural processes without spending vast sums of money for hard engineering structures such as dams or levees.From a national perspective, it is desirable to reserve flood plains for agricultural use. Unfortunately, many flood plains are being urbanized, which not only takes agricultural land out of production, but also gives impetus to dam construction that results in the inundation of more land. This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access. First Page Preview Close Modal You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Drought: Engineering end‐product?

Man's development has contributed to increased stormwater runoff volume and velocity, which in turn contribute to floods and reduce opportunities for water to recharge groundwater supplies and prevent droughts. Problems caused by vast areas of asphalt and other impermeable materials and loss of topsoil could be alleviated by inclusion of onsite stormwater drainage controls in land developments, preservation of natural swale systems, and implementation of stormwater and flood plain management programs.

FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT NEEDS PECULIAR TO ARID CLIMATES1

ABSTRACT: Many practices followed uniformly nationwide in the federal flood control and floodplain management programs are inappropriate or even counter productive in the arid Utah climate. An analysis of the 130‐year Utah flood history, the structural and nonstructural flood programs in the state, and local perceptions obtained by field visits and interviews in 35 Utah communities revealed a number of such inefficiencies. Since flood flows dissipate quickly when they emerge from mountain watersheds onto desert lowlands, risks are concentrated near the apex of alluvial fans, include hazard from mud as well as water flow, and are compounded by canal interception of flood waters. Because of variation in the area flooded from one event to the next, floodplain mapping has tended to show risks too high in mapped areas and too low outside. Traditional channelization carries floods downstream past where they would dissipate naturally. The federal government needs to become more active in developing better flood hazard delineation and structural and nonstructural designs for arid areas. State government can help by providing a forum where communities can exchange experiences, reviewing structural designs prepared by local government, and providing local communities with technical expertise for dealing with federal agencies.

Dealing with Variable Flood Hazard

The National Flood Insurance Program administered by the Federal Insurance Administration, HUD-FHA Minimum Property Standards, and most local flood plain management programs define flood hazard areas as lands inundated by the 100-yr flood. Curves are developed that can be used to manage flood plain load on an equal damage exposure basis given the stage-frequency relationship for the flood plain and the stage-damage relationship for each property. The issue of accentable damage exposure is considered through comparisons with fire insurance rates, property taxes, and rates of return on property investments. An examination of the difference between the two indices shows that the equity advantage of management on the basis of damage exposure can be balanced with the administrative advantage of regulation on a frequency basis by continuing to use frequency but varying the return period used according to the damage exposure. /Author/

Nebraska Flood-Plain Management Program—Part I

Preliminary work resulted in the special recommendation that legislative steps be taken to create a program of flood plain delineation and land use regulation in the State of Nebraska. Legislative Bill 893, the Nebraska Flood Plain Regulation Act enacted in 1967, provided the statutory authority. The Nebraska program utilizes the most recently developed techniques in the field of flood discharges and water surface profile computation. The statute provides for the legal establishment of floodway encroachment lines by order of the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission folowing a public hearing. It directs initial responsibility for the administration of regulation over the delineated and established floodways to the local governmental entity. Backup authority for regulatory control is vested in the state only on failure of the local government to adopt or enforce the necessary controls within 2 yr of establishment. The regulatory program is compatible with both structural and other nonstructural flood damages abatement programs.

Legal Problems in Regulating Flood Hazard Areas

Effective flood plain management programs must appropriately combine structural and nonstructural measures. An effective nonstructural technique involves the placement of restrictions by legislative bodies upon private and public uses in flood hazard areas. Such restrictions prohibit obstructions in floodways and guide and restrict development in floodway fringe areas. The likelihood that flood hazard regulations will be more widely adopted has increased with the publication by the Water Resources Council of model statutes and ordinances for flood hazard reduction, the implementation of the federal flood insurance program, and the possibility of federal grants for land use planning. Even if such regulations are adopted, they must not conflict with legal and constitutional requirements of equal protection and due process of law. Courts have been reluctant to uphold severe restrictions on the use of a person's land when other economic uses are not possible or where the degree of hazard is small related to the severity of the restrictions imposed.

Effect of Transportation Planning on Flood Plain Management

The interrelationships of transportation systems and flood plain management require that these programs be based on common goals and methodology. Historically, man has built on the flood plain as he pleased without regard to any consequences, a practice which led to high public expenditures for flood damage and flood control projects. To rectify this situation, the federal government and many state and local governments have begun to develop flood plain management standards which are amplified in the paper. Transportation systems, as one of the major facilities affecting and affected by flood plain management programs, are analyzed, with methods presented to provide for a coordinated transportation–flood plain manaagement approach.

THE LOCAL‐STATE‐FEDERAL TEAM APPROACH TO FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT1

ABSTRACTResults of the establishment of a Local Flood Relations program in 1953 by TVA are discussed. In 16 years TVA has produced local floodplain information reports for 126 communities. As of September 1, 1969, 66 valley communities had adopted floodplain provisions in their zoning ordinances or subdivision regulations, or both. The local‐state‐Federal team approach to floodplain management is viable and any other appears to be doomed to failure.A floodplain management program can be expected to succeed as a collaborative effort at all levels of government, each playing the part and assuming the responsibilities best fitted to it. Most of us now accept that our flood problems will not be solved by engineering works alone or even in combination with upstream land management. The solution requires a linking of broad community planning with traditional engineering works. This means that the local, state, and Federal objectives and policies must be effectively coordinated. This method has been developed and satisfactorily applied in the Tennessee Valley during the past decade.The need for more effective means for coping with mounting local flood losses was recognized by the Tennessee Valley Authority and led to the establishment of its Local Flood Relations program in 1953. Since a working relationship with the people of the Valley and their state and local institutions had been carefully nurtured by TVA for over twenty years, it was only natural that the new program would also be a cooperative one.

How the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Works

The Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) makes flood insurance available in areas where the appropriate public body has adopted adequate floodplain management regulations for its flood-prone areas. Community participation is voluntary, although some states require NFIP participation as part of their floodplain management program. Communities who wish to participate in the NFIP must fulfill two phases: phase 1, Emergency Program of the NFIP and phase 2, Regular Program of the NFIP. This document, IFAS publication DH0436, was published June 1998, revised May 2003. It is part of The Disaster Handbook, a component of the Comprehensive Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Education Module.&#x0D; DH204/DH204: How the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Works (ufl.edu)