Elevation Data for Floodplain Mapping
Elevation Data for Floodplain Mapping

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-08-16

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 0309185556

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Floodplain maps serve as the basis for determining whether homes or buildings require flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Approximately $650 billion in insured assets are now covered under the program. FEMA is modernizing floodplain maps to better serve the program. However, concerns have been raised as to the adequacy of the base map information available to support floodplain map modernization. Elevation Data for Floodplain Mapping shows that there is sufficient two-dimensional base map imagery to meet FEMA's flood map modernization goals, but that the three-dimensional base elevation data that are needed to determine whether a building should have flood insurance are not adequate. This book makes recommendations for a new national digital elevation data collection program to redress the inadequacy. Policy makers; property insurance professionals; federal, local, and state governments; and others concerned with natural disaster prevention and preparedness will find this book of interest.

Mapping the Zone
Mapping the Zone

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-06-15

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 0309130573

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Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps portray the height and extent to which flooding is expected to occur, and they form the basis for setting flood insurance premiums and regulating development in the floodplain. As such, they are an important tool for individuals, businesses, communities, and government agencies to understand and deal with flood hazard and flood risk. Improving map accuracy is therefore not an academic question-better maps help everyone. Making and maintaining an accurate flood map is neither simple nor inexpensive. Even after an investment of more than $1 billion to take flood maps into the digital world, only 21 percent of the population has maps that meet or exceed national flood hazard data quality thresholds. Even when floodplains are mapped with high accuracy, land development and natural changes to the landscape or hydrologic systems create the need for continuous map maintenance and updates. Mapping the Zone examines the factors that affect flood map accuracy, assesses the benefits and costs of more accurate flood maps, and recommends ways to improve flood mapping, communication, and management of flood-related data.

Resilient Urban Futures
Resilient Urban Futures

Author: Zoé A. Hamstead

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-06

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 3030631311

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This open access book addresses the way in which urban and urbanizing regions profoundly impact and are impacted by climate change. The editors and authors show why cities must wage simultaneous battles to curb global climate change trends while adapting and transforming to address local climate impacts. This book addresses how cities develop anticipatory and long-range planning capacities for more resilient futures, earnest collaboration across disciplines, and radical reconfigurations of the power regimes that have institutionalized the disenfranchisement of minority groups. Although planning processes consider visions for the future, the editors highlight a more ambitious long-term positive visioning approach that accounts for unpredictability, system dynamics and equity in decision-making. This volume brings the science of urban transformation together with practices of professionals who govern and manage our social, ecological and technological systems to design processes by which cities may achieve resilient urban futures in the face of climate change.

Alluvial Fan Flooding
Alluvial Fan Flooding

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1996-10-07

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 0309185491

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Alluvial fans are gently sloping, fan-shaped landforms common at the base of mountain ranges in arid and semiarid regions such as the American West. Floods on alluvial fans, although characterized by relatively shallow depths, strike with little if any warning, can travel at extremely high velocities, and can carry a tremendous amount of sediment and debris. Such flooding presents unique problems to federal and state planners in terms of quantifying flood hazards, predicting the magnitude at which those hazards can be expected at a particular location, and devising reliable mitigation strategies. Alluvial Fan Flooding attempts to improve our capability to determine whether areas are subject to alluvial fan flooding and provides a practical perspective on how to make such a determination. The book presents criteria for determining whether an area is subject to flooding and provides examples of applying the definition and criteria to real situations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, and elsewhere. The volume also contains recommendations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is primarily responsible for floodplain mapping, and for state and local decisionmakers involved in flood hazard reduction.

Rivers and Floodplains
Rivers and Floodplains

Author: John S. Bridge

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2009-04-01

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 1444311263

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Rivers and Floodplains is concerned with the origin, geometry, water flow, sediment transport, erosion and deposition associated with modern alluvial rivers and floodplains, how they vary in time and space, and how this information is used to interpret deposits of ancient rivers and floodplains. There is specific reference to the types and lifestyles of organisms associated with fluvial environments, human interactions with rivers and floodplains, associated environmental and engineering concerns, as well as the economic aspects of fluvial deposits, particularly the modeling of fluvial hydrocarbon reservoirs and aquifers. Methods of studying rivers and floodplains and their deposits are also discussed. Although basic principles are emphasized, many examples are detailed. Particular emphasis is placed on how an understanding of the nature of modern rivers and floodplains is required before any problems concerning rivers and floodplains, past or present, can be addressed rationally. Rivers and Floodplains is designed as a core text for senior undergraduate and graduate students studying modern or ancient fluvial environments, particularly in earth sciences, environmental sciences and physical geography, but also in civil and agricultural engineering. College teachers, researchers, and practising professionals will also find the book an invaluable reference. Presents a process-based approach, which is relevant to modern curricula. Discusses methods of studying rivers and floodplains and their deposits. Provides many detailed examples throughout the text. Emphasises the basic principles of this subject. As the first synthesis of this entire field, it will be a must-have for all students studying modern or ancient fluvial environments. Teachers, researchers and practising professionals will find this an invaluable reference tool. Rivers and Floodplains will also be of interest to geologists, geographers and engineers.

Repairing Your Flooded Home
Repairing Your Flooded Home

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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When in doubt, throw it out. Don't risk injury or infection. 2: Ask for help. Many people can do a lot of the cleanup and repairs discussed in this book. But if you have technical questions or do not feel comfortable doing something, get professional help. If there is a federal disaster declaration, a telephone "hotline" will often be publicized to provide information about public, private, and voluntary agency programs to help you recover from the flood. Government disaster programs are there to help you, the taxpayer. You're paying for them; check them out. 3: Floodproof. It is very likely that your home will be flooded again someday. Floodproofing means using materials and practices that will prevent or minimize flood damage in the future. Many floodproofing techniques are inexpensive or can be easily incorporated into your rebuilding program. You can save a lot of money by floodproofing as you repair and rebuild (see Step 8).