Four Reasons for Optimism on the Flood Risk Management Front

ByChad Berginnis, CFM

Spoiler Alert! If you are planning to attend the 2024 ASFPM Annual National Conference, this column previews the focus of the opening plenary session. Also, just a friendly reminder, conference registration opens February 20.

In the 30+ years I have been involved in floodplain management, I am not sure I have ever been more excited than I am right now about the potential of four initiatives that, when combined, might fundamentally shift how we manage flood risk and could finally be the antidote we need to help reverse the trend of escalating flood losses. And not a moment too soon. According to reports from Pew Charitable Trusts, the nation experienced more than $200 billion in flood losses in 2021 and 2022. That’s an astounding number, and other than Hurricane Ian, there weren’t any terribly significant named storms during that time. No Katrina or Sandy or Harvey.

Here are the four initiatives:

  1. The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) has the potential to ensure that federal investments (and this is literally hundreds of billions of dollars per year) are held to a higher level of flood resilience. Federal agencies are currently updating their policies and programs to implement the FFRMS.
  2. Updates to the NFIP Minimum Land Use and Development Standards are sorely needed and could be powerful. Think about it, more than 22,000 communities participate in the NFIP and nearly all of them are required to adopt regulations at least as strong as the NFIP Minimum Land Use and Development Standards. This formal rulemaking process, initiated by a 2021 petition brought forward by ASFPM and the NRDC, is underway. It will still take a while and is not guaranteed, but the possibilities are exciting.
  3. Updates to ASCE-7 and ASCE-24. Both of these bulletins concern building designs for architects, engineers, and building officials. ASCE-7 was updated last year to include updated standards for flood loads, and ASCE-24 is in the process of being updated to consider new flood resistant design standards. The interesting thing about ASCE-7 is that the starting protection level for most buildings is the 500-year flood event, and it even requires design to the 750- or 1000-event — for the first time tying the flood hazard mitigation design to the building’s risk category. Both ASCE-7 and ASCE-24 are reference standards in the International Construction Codes.
  4. Updates to FEMA’s definition of Special Flood Hazard Areas.  In an interim report released last fall, FEMA’s Technical Mapping Advisory Council (TMAC), a FEMA advisory group established by Congress, examined the definition of the Special Flood Hazard Area and made four transformational recommendations that will position FEMA’s flood mapping program to face the flooding threats of the future.  

The common thread to all of these initiatives is a connection to codes or standards. Some focus on construction, others on design, and others on flood mapping. But there is an increasing recognition that we simply cannot do things the way we have been doing them, not with average annual flood damages in the nation roughly doubling each decade since the 1980s. Still the path forward is not guaranteed and it will take some time and continued effort. There will be rulemaking in some instances, in others, new standards will need to go through a consensus process to be adopted. Changes in the Administration or agency leadership could inject further uncertainty. However, when I think of the potential of these four efforts combined, I am encouraged that we can make meaningful progress. Of course, a community or state always has the option to take the initiative and implement actions on their own to achieve a similar outcome.

As these initiatives progress, ASFPM will continue to participate in the discussion and provide input; knowing their adoption is integral to achieving our mission of reducing flood losses in the nation. In the meantime, I extend a warm invitation for you to join us in Salt Lake City at the end of June to not only hear more about these efforts during the opening plenary session but to see hundreds of technical sessions and the latest in flood mapping and flood mitigation technology.

Your partner in loss reduction,

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