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ASFPM Members made an IMPACT in March

The American Water Resources Association’s March “Water Resources IMPACT”magazine is all about floodplain management, and features four articles written by members of the ASFPM family.

ASFPM Chair Bill Nechamen wrote, “The National Flood Insurance Program: History and Future,” which discusses how our approach to flood insurance, like our approach to floodplain management, is changing to reflect a more risk- based approach and a more appropriate set of management practices to reduce financial and loss of life impacts of flooding.

Region 4 Director Terri Turner wrote, “The Positive Impacts of ‘No Adverse Impact’ Floodplain Management.” She writes about the philosophy of ‘No Adverse Impact’ floodplain management, which was developed and adopted by ASFPM.

Member Kevin Coulton wrote, “Using Soils Data to Map ‘Natural’ Floodplains.” In a comparison of FEMA mapped floodplains and NRCS soils maps described in this article, a high level of agreement was found, suggesting that floodplain soil maps could be used to facilitate and validate floodplain mapping.

Member John McShane wrote, “Shifting the Paradigm for the 21st Century: Protecting and Restoring the Natural Resources and Functions of Floodplains.” The reality that floodplains are much more than a flood hazard delineation is a critical consideration that needs to be given more emphasis if society is to capitalize on the green infrastructure opportunities provided by our floodplain landforms and their rich resource base.

Also from AWRA, just in case you missed it, was its recently released report on Proactive Flood and Drought Management. Flood and drought issues transcend every part of our nation. The case studies in the “Proactive Flood and Drought Management: A Selection of Applied Strategies & Lessons Learned from around the United States,” report are unusual and outstanding in their success at integrating flood control or drought mitigation with other water resources objectives, and provide usable examples of multiple agencies and public policy objectives being combined to devise a proactive flood or drought management program. Case studies include:

Flood Management:

The Chehalis River Basin in Washington
The Miami Conservancy District in Ohio
Easton, Pennsylvania
Nashville, Tennessee
Drought Management
The San Antonio Water System (SAWS)
The State of Oregon
The State of Hawaii’s Drought Plan
Lone Chimney Water Association, OK

Based on these case studies, the AWRA Policy Committee makes several specific strategy recommendations on how to enable, design, and implement proactive flood and drought management efforts.

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