ASFPM Foundation’s Gilbert White Forum Explores Impact of AI on Flood Risk Management
The ASFPM Foundation hosted a dynamic, two-day forum at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data and the potential to revolutionize floodplain and flood risk management.
The March 5-6 event was the Foundation’s seventh Gilbert F. White National Flood Policy Forum; the forum was initiated to periodically convene experts in floodplain management to explore pressing issues in the field and set out ideas for resolving them.
Gilbert White was known as the “father of floodplain management” for his seminal research and writing on human adjustments to floods and as founder and director of the University of Colorado’s Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center (now known as the Natural Hazards Center).
Dale Lehman, President of the ASFPM Foundation Board of Trustees, said the event was particularly consequential because of the dramatic emergence of AI as a means of simulating human intelligence and shaping floodplain management and national flood risk policy.
“AI is the most impactful technological advancement in our field in our lifetime,” Lehman said in praising the event and explaining why it was a strategic topic for the 2025 forum.
The forum also delved into big data and machine learning, which focuses on developing algorithms that allow systems to learn from data and improve their performance over time without explicit programming. Machine learning can perform tasks like predictive modeling, maintenance, and optimization, freeing up engineers for other, creative problem-solving.
Day one of the forum featured three panels of policy experts, engineers, scientists, and academicians who discussed and answered audience questions on understanding big data and AI (Panel 1); the role of big data and AI in floodplain management (Panel 2); and big data and AI policy landscapes (Panel 3).
Smaller, breakout sessions on day one and day two were organized around five major facets of AI:
Hazard and Risk Identification; Standards, Regulation and Compliance; Communication; and Mitigation & Resilience and Risk Transfer. Under each of those umbrella areas, participants debated and discussed ethical considerations and policy guardrails to ensure the trustworthy and responsible use of AI as well as protect against potential downsides of AI, including privacy and security issues. The outcomes of those breakout discussions were reported back to all attendees.
Forum Program Chair Maria Honeycutt, an engineer with AtkinsRéalis, said the panels and small group discussions “showed just how pervasive AI and related technologies have become, not only in most aspects of our flood resilience work, but in our daily lives.”
The panel discussions were informative and thought provoking, noted Foundation’s Events Committee Co-Chair organizer Jerry Sparks, but he believes the smaller group discussions will be a catalyst in influencing national AI policies with respect to flood risk and floodplain management.
“The breakout groups were a real highlight of the Gilbert White Forum – people were engaged, the conversations were thoughtful, and you could feel ideas taking shape in real time. This felt like an important first step for leaders in our field to come together and start shaping how AI will influence national policy around risk and resilience,” said Sparks, a senior vice president at Dewberry.
The topic of AI will also take center stage at the ASFPM Annual Conference in New Orleans in May, according to Jo Anna Wagschal, a member of the ASFPM Foundation’s Board of Trustees and a training and business development manager at Bloomsburie. She shared that a video capturing the highlights of the forum will be shown at the Foundation luncheon. There also will be a short discussion with AI users and leaders to get different perspectives on the use of AI in flood risk management.
The Foundation is grateful to the generous corporate sponsors that made the 2025 Gilbert F. White Forum possible.
Sponsors of the forum include: AtkinsRéalis, CDM Smith, Consor, Dewberry, Forerunner, Halff, HDR, Jacobs, Michael Baker, Moffatt & Nichol, Molly O’Toole, TetraTech, and Stantec.
Reception sponsors were AECOM and OST.
