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This was originally sent by email.
April 19, 2002
Office of Surface Water Memorandum
TO: District Chiefs, Regional Program Officers
FROM: J. Michael Norris, Chief (Acting), Office of Surface Water
SUBJECT: Potential opportunities in FEMA flood insurance mapping program
As many of you already know, in its fiscal year 2003 budget the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested $300 million of new funding for flood map modernization. This represents an approximately seven-fold expansion of the flood-plain mapping program, which recently has been funded at about $50 million per year from proceeds of flood insurance premiums. Much of this new money will go to the States, and you may be approached or may solicit opportunities to assist FEMA and the State in the new flood mapping activities. It is expected that much of the new funds will go to support ongoing Lidar elevation data acquisition. To provide you with more information, a FEMA news release, FEMA budget pages, and a FEMA briefing document are attached to the bottom of this memorandum.
These new funds raise several points of opportunity, as well as concern, for the operational program. The opportunity is for program development in the flood-plain mapping arena; the concerns center on competition with the private sector, and the kind of science activities the Districts would undertake with new resources related to flood mapping.
The FEMA flood-insurance mapping program (see http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/fhm/mm_main.shtm) has been in existence for many years and is fully mature. Detailed study guidelines and specifications have been prepared and FEMA offers software tools, documentation, and training on all aspects of flood-insurance mapping. The process of creating FEMA floodplain maps for the National Flood Insurance Program involves deriving flood-flow frequency information (from streamgage data, regional equations, or hydrologic modeling), computing water-surface profiles (by step-backwater or other hydraulic models), and determining inundated areas (from water-surface and topographic elevation data). This is the kind of work that is within the reach of many consulting companies, and we need to take extreme care not to propose work that could be perceived as competing with the private sector.
The detailed operation of the flood-mapping program is largely directed by the FEMA regional offices. (See web page http://www.fema.gov/about/contact/regions.shtm). USGS participation in the program in the past normally has been developed by field-level contacts and negotiation between USGS Districts and the corresponding FEMA regional offices. State and local emergency management agencies also provide points of contact and access to flood-mapping work through grants and partnerships that they have with FEMA. The attached FEMA briefing document indicates that FEMA puts a high value on such partnerships.
The FEMA briefing document also indicates a focus on integrating state-of-the-art technology into the flood-mapping program. It is in this area, particularly hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and GIS, that the USGS may be able to provide unique capabilities without entering into competition with private-sector sources. Opportunities may lie in updating regional flood frequency relationships, developing techniques for mapping under future land-use conditions, applying non-conventional analyses to flood frequency analysis such as mixed population studies, rapid methods to update maps that would require less resources, and perhaps even real-time inundation mapping using 1D or 2D models. This list is not intended to be exhaustive, but to suggest that whatever is proposed should be related to the science behind the maps, not the production of flood-plain maps.
Meetings are being planned with FEMA and other interested parties to better define the USGS role in these activities should FEMA receive the additional funding in FY03. We will provide summaries and outcomes of these meetings to all Districts shortly after they occur. If you have any questions about USGS participation in the FEMA flood-insurance program, please feel free to contact Office of Surface Water staff John Costa (503 251-3290), Bill Kirby (703 648-5315), or Mike Norris (703 648-5304).
Attachments
FEMA $6_4 Billion 2003 FEMA Budget Is Sought.htm
bud 26 PDF
Final FY03 Map Budget Brief