THE HIGH
WATER MARK
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION 2021 - Volume 31, Issue 4
THE HIGH
WATER MARK The Newsletter of the Floodplain Management Association November 2021 - Volume 31, Issue 4 Mission: To promote the common interest in reducing flood losses and to encourage the protection and enhancement of natural floodplain values.
Chair Mike Nowlan Wood Rodgers, Inc. 916.326.5277
Director Darren Suen Central Valley Flood Protection Board 916.574.0609
Advisor Jeremy Lancaster California Geological Survey 916.445.1825
Vice Chair Brent Siemer City of Simi Valley 805.583.6805
Director Millicent Cowley-Crawford Woodard & Curran 415.321.3421
Advisor Salomon Miranda California DWR 818.549.2347
Secretary Vince Geronimo Mead & Hunt 916.993.4606
Director Kyle Gallup Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District 951.955.1265
Advisor Cindy Matthews NOAA 916.979.3041
Treasurer Connie Perkins-Gutowsky California DWR 916.973.3008 Past Chair Alex Yescas HDR, Inc. 858-712-8283 Director Abigail Mayrena Clark County RFCD 702-685-0000 Director John Moynier David Evans and Associates 916-660-6683 Director Ann Bechtel CDM Smith 760.710.4663 Director Brian Brown City of West Sacramento 916.617-4559
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Director Pat Wood Los Angeles County DPW 626.458-6131 Director Roger Leventhal Marin County DPW 415.473.3249 Director Megan LeRoy Kjeldsen, Sinnock and Neudeck, Inc. 916.403.5900 Director David Smith WEST Consultants, Inc. 858.487.9378 Advisor Kelly Soule California DWR 916.574.1205 Advisor Jose Lara California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services 916.845.8883
Advisor Eric Simmons FEMA Region IX 510.627.7029 Advisor Erin Warnock Nevada DWR 775.684.2890 Advisor Jeanne Ruefer HWC, Inc. 775.722.7395 Advisor Carol Tyau-Beam Hawaii DLNR 808.587.0267 Executive Director Mary Seits FMA 760.936.3676
CONTENT
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A Note From The Chair Federal/National News State News Meet The Board - Megan LeRoy Call For Articles Incipient Flow From Reacting to Preparing High Water Mark Photo Contest From the ASFPM Foundation FEMA's Retrofit Program Riparian Urbanism A New Lens on Disaster Prevention California's Next Big One
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A NOTE FROM THE CHAIR Mike Nowlan This year is shaping up to be a great one, full of forging new relationships and rekindling ones that have gone “on hold” for a while! Many of our membership seem genuinely excited to get back to some version of unquarantined life! I do want to thank you all for making our 2021 conference a wonderful success. Thanks to everyone who helped plan and facilitate all the great panels and technical sessions, and a special thank you to everyone who attended the conference and helped support FMA. I must admit it seems a little strange for me for this issue of the newsletter. I have become so accustomed to “reminding” the chairperson to provide the introductory article for each newsletter that I felt like something was missing. Then I realized, I’m the one I need to be reminding! I am very thankful and excited to have been voted in as your current chair. Hopefully I can live up to the responsibility you’ve entrusted to me. Fortunately, I do not have to do it alone, as you’ve also voted in a great board of directors to keep me in line! Onward!
SAVE THE DATE IRWM Roundtable of Regions Virtual Summit – November 15 – 17 Venue - Online - See Flyer this issue for more details Floodplain Management Association Annual Conference September 6-9, 2022 Venue – Sacramento Hyatt Regency California Extreme Precipitation Symposium (CEPSYM) June 21, 2022 Virtual/Hybrid Options Are Under Review FMA NEWS
As your new chair, I would like to share some of the exciting happenings. As I am coming to realize, everyone wants to share their greats ideas with you when you’re chair, and people have been busy. It’s almost like people have had some time to think, over the last year and a half. I would like to announce that we are ramping up to reboot the Sacramento luncheons, with in-person speaking and in-person eating, as early as in January! Carl Walker has been heading up that effort and the pieces seem to be coming together. Of course, we cannot supersede any requirements from your employers if there are any prohibitions to in-person meetings. You already know that the 2022 FMA conference is slated as in-person in Sacramento, so that’s not really news to you, right? Keep your eyes open for the invites coming your way. We are also working collaboratively with the IRWM Roundtable of Regions, and supporting them with their Virtual Summit on November 15-17. They are an organization of representatives for Integrated Regional Water Management areas throughout the state of California, promoting IRWM to increase self-reliance and resilience. I will be speaking briefly at their summit to discuss ways that FMA and their organization can share ideas and happenings. In fact, there is an announcement for their summit in this newsletter, so check it out!
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One of our members facilitated the California Department of Insurance to attend our 2021 conference and they are very interested in FMA. Their office is recognizing the importance of accounting for climate change and how it affects risk moving forward, and looking to FMA to help keep them informed on the floodplain front. We are in early discussions, exploring the possibility of someone from their department becoming an advisor to the FMA board. We need to all get our arms around the issue of how the National Flood Insurance Program and private flood insurance can work for the benefit of the people living in our FMA territory. “Last”, for this newsletter at least, FMA has partnered with the folks at the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) to share newsletter articles. Lisa Beutler attends both FMA and AWRA, and she works on their magazine called “Impact”, and they just focused on flooding issues after attending our 2021 conference. She successfully encouraged folks to write some fantastic articles, which we will share with you with this issue and the next. Too much good stuff happening! Keep up the good work everyone, because none of this would happen without your contributions!
FMA NEWS
FEDERAL/NATIONAL NEWS For an Update of the latest disaster declarations visit: CLICK HERE
For information on Flood Insurance Reform – Rates and Refunds CLICK HERE
Advisor Update FEMA Updates for FMA Board: October 2021
• FEMA seeks feedback on the National Flood Insurance Program floodplain management criteria. A Federal Register notice was published on October 12, 2021, seeking public comment on opportunities to amend the NFIP’s minimum standards to help communities become more resilient. The notice also requests comments that will better promote conservation of threatened and endangered species and their habitats. The comment period is open through December 13, 2021. • Nearly $5 billion in mitigation grants is being made available with more possible this year from infrastructure legislation. This unprecedented funding for FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP-$3.46B nationwide including $484 million for California), Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program (BRIC-$1B), and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA-$0.2B) is a great opportunity for communities across the nation to reduce disaster suffering.
FMA NEWS
• Updated National Flood Insurance Program rates took effect October 1st for new policyholders. Risk Rating 2.0 is moving forward and modernizing flood insurance rating. Updates are online and included in the October 2021 Flood Insurance Manual. The last day to purchase a Preferred Risk Policy was August 31st. New premiums better account for flood risk and home value, with more expensive buildings costing more to insure. The mandatory purchase requirement nor floodplain management aspects are not impacted by insurance rating changes. FEMA recognized affordability continues to be a challenge and the President’s Budget includes a legislative proposal establishing a targeted means-tested assistance program. • GAO’s most recent report on flood maps is online and recommends that FEMA develop an updated multiyear plan for the Risk MAP program and assess the usefulness of nonregulatory products.
STATE NEWS California Wildfire and Impacts to Water The impacts of California’s ongoing dry and warm years were seen this year with a historic wildfire season. Correspondingly, the risk of wildfire damage to water infrastructure is increasing, including risks of secondary impacts from burned area sediment entering waterbodies and affecting water treatment plant operations. https://water.ca.gov/News/ Blog/2021/November/Wildfire-andImpacts-to-Water DWR Nationally Recognized for Innovative Partnership to Teach Educators the Effects of Climate Change DWR received its fifth Climate Leadership Award for its work teaching educators about the effects of climate change. https://water.ca.gov/News/ Blog/2021/October/DWR-NationallyRecognized-for-Partnership-EducatorsClimate-Change
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Q/A: Building the Tunnel, Part 1: Nothing Boring About Boring Technology For the first episode in a special two-part Delta Conveyance Deep Dive series on tunnel construction, we invited two of the Delta Conveyance Project design team's leading consultants on tunnel design and engineering to talk about the state‑of‑the‑art technology that would be used to build the Delta Conveyance Project.
https://water.ca.gov/News/ Blog/2021/October/QA-Building-theTunnel 45-Day public comment period opens for the Regional Flood Management Program Draft Guidelines The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is pleased to announce a 45-day public comment period for the Regional Flood Management Program (RFMP) Draft Guidelines (PDF). https://water.ca.gov/News/PublicNotices/2021/October-2021/45-Daypublic-comment-period-opens-for-theRegional-Flood-Management-ProgramDraft-Guidelines
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STATE NEWS Hawaii See the latest news stories for Hawaii, including recent postings for Hurricane Preparedness, Tsunami Awareness Month, Risk 2.0 and dam owner guidance at their blog. For the transformed flood information platform from Hawaii visit their exciting weekly blog at HTTPS://WAIHALANA.HAWAII.GOV/
For archived Wai Halana Newsletters (prior to 2018) – HTTPS://DLNRENG.HAWAII.GOV/ NFIP/WAI-HALANA/
Nevada Nevada Outreach: The Nevada Floodplain Management Program has been able to get back out in the community for some in person outreach. During this past quarter we have been able to attend several events in Northern Nevada from a Storey County Community Meeting to Flood Awareness events in Carson River Watershed. The flood model came along to many of these events, and we were able to hand out pamphlets, booklets, and other informational swag. We are looking forward to increasing in person outreach events. School curriculum that was created to go along with the Flood Fighter Nevada computer game
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is currently undergoing piloted lessons in some Washoe County schools classrooms. We are also working with Sierra Nevada Journeys to create more school curriculum with that will go along with all Nevada major river Story Maps. We have ordered flood awareness educational picture books that we plan to distribute to schools so that some second and third grade classrooms can add it to classroom bookshelf and teachers can utilize it for story time. These projects are important to us since we have not been able to do outreach in the schools during the pandemic, and this way grades second through high school are exposed to flood awareness material. Our website NEVADAFLOODS.ORG is getting ready for its big, updated reveal. We can’t wait to share the new, improved, and easy to navigate website with the public. We are starting to work toward getting some highwater mark signs in our NFIP communities by working directly with the community in a partnership to achieve this. We are starting with one community and then hoping to continue to do this with others throughout the state over the years to come. Our 8th annual Nevada Flood Awareness Week (FAW) is November 14 – 20, 2021. The goal of FAW is to create flood resilient communities in Nevada and increase flood awareness throughout the state. This year we will be doing this by airing public service announcements via Radio, a billboard ad, social media posts and we have some partners sponsoring print ads and additional social media content. Governor Sisolak will also recognize Nevada Flood Awareness week through proclamation and Twitter.
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FMA NEWS
MEET THE BOARD - Megan LeRoy Megan LeRoy has participated in FMA luncheon activities since 2012 when she helped then Sacramento luncheon chair, Pal Hegedus, with setting up the laptop and projector at the luncheons. Megan attended her first FMA conference in 2017. At that conference, the FMA Emerging Professionals Committee started, and has gained momentum since then. Megan was elected to the FMA Board as a Director at Large at the last annual conference. Megan also transitioned to the past chair role for the FMA Emerging Professionals Committee. She is excited to see where the FMA Emerging Professionals Committee goes. Megan has also participated in the FMA Conference planning and awards committees, moderated panels and technical sessions. Megan grew up in Santa Rosa, California, where she recalls how flooding along the Russian River could impact her grandparents who lived in the county at that time. She enjoyed precipitation events and puddle hopping as a child. Megan obtained a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 2012 and started her first position shorty thereafter in surface water engineering and modeling where her exposure to floodplain management grew.
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Currently, Megan is employed at Kjeldsen, Sinnock and Neudeck Inc. (KSN) as a Civil Engineer working on projects in the Delta, Central Valley, and beyond. Megan is a licensed civil engineer who specializes in hydraulic design, flood modeling, dam safety, and stormwater quality. Her experience includes analysis of large and small watersheds, including those with many subbasins with routing and junction elements. She has designed drainage and stormwater quality solutions to meet local jurisdiction requirements in California. Megan is also the Past President for the American Society of Civil Engineers Sacramento Section. She was recently recognized by Floodplain Management Association with the 2020 Emerging Professional Award and was named one of Engineering News Record (ENR) California’s 2019 Top Young Professionals. Megan is a past president for Engineers Without Borders, Sacramento Valley Professionals Chapter. Megan hopes to continue working in developing communities to provide engineering solutions to address basis needs. In her spare time, Megan enjoys spending time outdoors, cooking and baking, and socializing with friends and family. When international travel resumes in earnest, Megan is looking forward to visiting her friends who live abroad and experiencing cultures around the world. Megan also enjoys volunteering with Girl Scouts, specifically through STEM workshops to encourage girls to pursue careers in STEM fields.
CALL FOR ARTICLES!
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The FMA Newsletter welcomes the input of its members and now our extended family of readership to contribute to the conversation! Keep the great articles coming! We need to hear from all of you. There’s always room for more to join the ranks of published authors. Showcase your programs, projects, tools, policies, regulations or ideas to hundreds of floodplain management professionals throughout the U.S.! Articles must be submitted in Word format to Mary.Seits@Floodplain.org and may contain 2-3 small pictures. Preferred length is less than 850 words.
For more details call (760) 936-3676.
THERE IS A RIGHT WAY TO DO THINGS. AND THERE IS A NEW WAY TO DO THINGS.
AND SOMETIMES THEY’RE EXACTLY THE
SAME THING.
WWW.WOODRODGERS.COM FMA NEWS
AT THE CONFLUENCE OF EMERGING AND PROFESSIONAL
INCIPIENT FLOW Morgan O’Brien Emerging Professionals- whether you are one, you work with one, or you mentor one, Emerging Professionals are everywhere. But what defines us? For the committee, our objective is to engage and support Emerging Floodplain Management Professionals, as well as students and academia in related fields of study, through mentorship, networking, and training. We have made it our mission to share resources with emerging floodplain management professionals on skills to support growth and learning in the floodplain management community. So, how have we advanced this? The Emerging Professionals Committee came from a conversation with the FMA Board Chair George Booth and Megan LeRoy at the 2017 FMA Conference. Under the leadership of Megan LeRoy and Wendy Wang, who cofounded the committee in 2017, the group has grown exponentially over the last 4 years. Going from nothing to monthly committee meetings, twice monthly leadership lunch and learns, guest speakers, and the Emerging Professional Panel Discussion at the 2020 FMA conference, the team has developed all kinds of valuable content to share with emerging professionals (and all FMA members!) to help hone skills in the workplace and in life.
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The greatest challenge facing emerging professionals, indeed anyone in a new industry, is learning how we fit into the existing structure – to better understand how to influence decision making, or project direction, without formal authority. It can be argued that this is the most valuable skill for anyone at any point in their career. However, as young technical-focused engineers, scientists, planners, and citizens, the Emerging Professionals Committee is focusing their efforts on developing, sharing, and practicing these skills, along with enhancing the resources and development of the newer folks in this industry. This includes leadership topics including Self Awareness, Compassion in Leadership, Crucial Conversations, how to host virtual meetings, how to manage time and tasks, and much more! Interested? All are welcome! E-mail Mina Ziaei at Mina.Ziaei@water.ca.gov to be added to the email distribution list for more information about events and resources, and/or email Madeline Baker at madeline@larsenwurzel. com if you are interested in giving a talk on a leadership topic.
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FROM REACTING TO PREPARING: the History of Emergency Action Plans for Dams Amanda J. Hess, P.E., CFM | James E. Demby, Jr., P.E. | Preston Wilson, Sr. | Frank Calcagno, RG | Jose' Lara, CPP
Abstract Early actions taken as a dam incident develops are critical to reducing and preventing life, economic, and environmental loss. Being prepared to act in an emergency improves the outcome of the response. According to State Performance Data compiled by ASDSO, as of 2019, 82% of high hazard dams have an Emergency Action Plan, or EAP. The primary purpose of an EAP is to identify potential emergency conditions at a dam, document areas that can be affected by loss of the dam, and specify preplanned actions to be followed to minimize loss of life and damage to property or the environment.
Today, the FEMA National Dam Safety Program encourages the implementation of effective EAPs for high and significant hazard dams in the United States. This was not always the case. It has only been in the last 20 to 30 years that EAPs have become a standard risk reduction tool for dam owners, regulators and emergency responders. During this time, the purpose, contents and maintenance needs for emergency action plans have advanced and become more comprehensive and uniform. Owners with large portfolios of dams and key regulatory agencies have developed guidelines for these important documents. Lessons learned from other industries such as emergency management (as well as those from the Dams sector) that rely on emergency action plans have been applied. This paper provides a historical perspective and follows the evolution of emergency action plans for dams from their origins to the current state of the practice. Trends are identified, and the future of emergency action planning is discussed. Please Click Here To Read The Full Article
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FREE WEBINAR SERIES
15
Climate Resilience and Integrated Regional Water Management: Building Successful Partnerships
VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
NOV. 15, 16 & 17, 2021 8:30 – 11:00 A.M.
Sponsored By:
Nov. 15: Climate Science and Resilience: Programs, Plans and Partners Nov. 16: How Regions are Addressing Climate Resilience; Tools and Resources Nov. 17: Working Together for Regional Resilience
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Join us to:
Gain a greater understanding of climate resilience, adaption, and mitigation efforts and mandated Plans.
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Share practical ideas, tools, and action steps for immediate implementation.
Learn more about the Identification of and alignment with funding opportunities.
Strengthen commitment to implementing Human Right to Water and other initiatives particularly to address the needs of Tribes and underserved communities.
Who Should Attend: IRWM region managers and practitioners • Water and environmental resource managers • NGOs • State agencies and other resource management groups • Tribes • Under‐represented communities • Climate researchers and experts • Academics • Floodplain managers • Coastal and sea level rise interests • Groundwater resource managers • Anyone interested in water management •
More information at: www.RoundtableofRegions.org
FMA NEWS
HIGH WATER MARK PHOTO CONTEST Eric Simmons This year’s FMA conference included a novel contest. The call for entries went out, photos were submitted, four impartial judges debated, and the winner is … Lea Adams with USACE’s Hydrologic Engineering Center. The high water mark sign (photographed in September 2015 as seen to the right) is a stainless-steel plate with a blue line. It’s found on a wall in a residential area in Hoa An, Vietnam. This sign shows the need to recognize flood risk is international as well as local. Second and third places went to Alex Tardy, Senior Meteorologist with NOAA/National Weather Service, and Steve Bier, Anza Borrego State Park Ranger. The second photograph shows the flood of record along Fish Creek in eastern San Diego County. This extreme event deposited rock debris as high as 8 feet. Eyewitness reports indicated a wall of water along the creek during the flood of record on July 30, 2012. The third image is of a rock debris field as high as 8 feet in Split Mountain also along Fish Creek. Thanks for sharing your high water mark pictures. They all support floodplain management. Fun prizes to the winners include: first place – a generic tape measure to identify high water marks, second place – a pair of factory fresh sand bags to assist with the next flood fight, and third place – a 12 pack of color-coded water absorbent sponges to soak up excess floodwater. Discussion at the “High Water Marks as a Public Information Tool” panel at this year’s conference revealed how many communities embrace their flood marks as a point of public interest. Knowledge is power and high water signs are effective at conveying flood hazard information. Keep up the good work communicating risk and options to lessen future losses!
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FROM THE ASFPM FOUNDATION
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George Riedel The Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) Foundation (Foundation) was established in 1996 as the charitable arm of ASFPM. Importantly, the Foundation acts as a forward-looking catalyst for ASFPM, its Chapters, and members to advance projects, education, and policy initiatives that promote actions leading to reduced flood risk and resilient communities. The Foundation is a premiere advocate for the floodplain management profession and serves as a voice for floodplain management practitioners, suppliers, and service providers nationwide, and in some cases globally. The Foundation has played a key role in the development of the Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) certification program, which is foundational to establishing and maintaining the credibility of floodplain managers across the country. The Foundation continues to support the profession in many ways that bolster the CFM program. The following describes but a few of these important initiatives: • In February 2020, the ASFPM Foundation released a report titled “Urban Flooding: Moving Towards Resilience,” to document important discussions by world class experts who attended the Foundation’s 6th assembly of the Gilbert F. White National Policy Forum. The report showcases the in-depth engagement on urban flooding issues by more than 100 experts from local, state, and federal agencies; professional associations; environmental groups; and private organizations. The report can be downloaded from the ASFPM Foundation website.
Engineering Honors Program at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. She is the second student of what we hope are many more to come to receive this $20,000 per year scholarship with the goal of developing future leaders in the floodplain management field. Elizabeth’s acceptance message can be found on the ASFPM Foundation Website. • The ASFPM Foundation provided funding for, and partnered with ASFPM Flood Science Center to develop ”Flood Mapping for the Nation Report” and “Understanding and Managing Flood Risk: A Guide for Elected Officials.” Both of these documents provide valuable information to floodplain management practitioners and can be found on the ASFPM Flood Science Center website. • The ASFPM Foundation again partnered with FEMA Region VIII and Earth Force to sponsor the 2020 Rocky Mountain Environmental Hazards Challenge, now referred to as the Rise Challenge. This is an annual competition that combines project-based learning with the latest research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic (STEM) education.
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• The ASFPM Foundation announced the award of its 2020-2022 Future Leaders Scholarship to Elizabeth Lacey at the ASFPM Virtual Conference in June 2020. Elizabeth is entering her third year in the Civil FMA NEWS
FROM THE ASFPM FOUNDATION fi CONTINUED George Riedel Donations are the primary source of funding for the ASFPM Foundation. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of your contributions in helping us to sustain our current initiatives and develop new ones. The goal of reducing suffering and losses and improving a community’s ability to become safer and stronger in the aftermath of increasingly catastrophic flooding events is at the forefront of everything we do. Importantly, we also promote sustainable management of the nation’s floodplains and watersheds. For more information regarding the ASFPM Foundation and how you can donate, please contact George Riedel, Foundation Donor Coordinator, at George@aspfmfoundation.org.
Elizabeth Lacey, ASFPM Foundation Future Leaders Scholarship Recipient, shares her experiences as a 2021 Summer Intern with Michael Baker International This summer I had the opportunity for an in-person internship with Michael Baker International that came through my professional networking with members of the ASFPM Foundation. This was only financially possible because the Foundation invited me to stay in its DC-based corporate apartment for the months I was there. Travelling to and living in the historic Washington, D.C. area this summer was one of the most positive and fascinating experiences that I have had. That, coupled with the tremendous team I worked with at Michael Baker and my mentor, Allison Andrews, reinforced my desire to pursue Civil Engineering. I am profoundly grateful to the ASFPM Foundation for the opportunity to expand my knowledge and learn how my degree can be applied in a realworld setting.
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The two main projects that I worked on were determining the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) for a 100-year flood in different areas and working on the hydraulics and hydrology of a bridge project. I learned much about the different types of programs and analysis methods that can be used to determine the BFE, and how to determine whether a structure or property was above or below that BFE. I also learned how to use HECRAS and the process of determining the impact of a bridge on water surface elevations and pier scour. Learning hydraulics and hydrology in a practical setting this summer has helped prepare me for my senior classes at Colorado State University. My on-the-job understanding of hydraulics and hydrology has transformed the theoretical knowledge of the textbook. Equally exciting was the opportunity to travel to downtown Washington to see firsthand FEMA Headquarters (see photo).
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Throughout this summer, I was able to go in person to my internship and explore the Washington area, paying close attention to the COVID requirements that kept me safe. One of the most meaningful places to me was the National Mall, with the profound writings of those who walked before me and are honored in all the memorials and monuments. Experiencing the view at the top of the Washington Monument was one of my favorite things in that it showed me the bird’s-eye view of our Nation’s beginnings in the form of the beautiful City of Washington, and how it still thrives today. It was especially interesting to learn about the different ways that flooding has affected the monuments and memorials and how floodplain management has helped prevent some catastrophic events. As I toured Washington and floated on the Potomac River on the ferry, the bridges and water management projects were a site to behold. Touring around Alexandria, VA and going to the Wharf to look out over the Potomac River was a fulfilling experience as I contemplated the older technology and methods that have been displaced by the current civil engineering methods.
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I am looking forward to continuing to work with Michael Baker for the depth of projects they manage for their clients, and count it a privilege to be a part of the ASFPM Foundation. My partnering with both these organizations has allowed me to learn more about floodplain management than I would have merely in a college textbook! I am grateful to the ASFPM Foundation for the tremendous opportunity and the scholarship, which allowed me to take my desire to help others, which sprang from my family’s challenges with Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, and see it come to fruition.
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FEMA’S RETROFIT PROGRAM When natural disasters strike, communities want to ensure that their buildings and homes can withstand these events. To help governments create more disaster-resilient communities, FEMA Region 9 created the Natural Hazard Retrofit Program Toolkit, a new resource for state, local, tribal and territorial jurisdictions across the country to create a natural hazards retrofit program that meets their specific needs. Informed by conversations with local government officials from Florida to Washington that have implemented retrofit programs for a variety of hazards, the toolkit contains step-by-step guidance and advice from practitioners that can help jurisdictions create successful programs. The document has guidance and resources related to: • Assessing vulnerabilities and hazards. • Funding. • Designing a program. • Community outreach. • Monitoring and evaluation. • Retrofit program best practices.
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The toolkit also contains insights from behavioral science to help design and implement programs that overcome common barriers and capitalize on predictable human behaviors. Other recommendations will help design and apply an equitable program that better serves the whole community. So, whether your community wants to create a program for seismic events, hurricanes, flooding, or other hazards, the Natural Hazard Retrofit Program Toolkit can help you every step of the way. You can access the toolkit on FEMA.gov.
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RIPARIAN URBANISM: NEW WAYS FOR CITIES TO RESPOND TO CLIMATE CHANGE
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Josiah Raison Cain
Do you remember the time a National Hockey League game was rained out? Even if you’re a hockey fan, you may not. It’s only happened once, in March 1995. As parts of downtown San Jose, California, sat underwater, a San Jose Sharks game had to be canceled. That winter, undersized bridges created bottlenecks as debris and storm flows pulsed through overstressed channels. Water flowed onto city streets. It wasn’t the first time San Jose had been under water, nor would it be the last, and San Jose is just one of many cities that have struggled with flooding from their creeks and rivers. The world’s major cities often sprang up alongside rivers and waterways. These vital waterfronts supplied transportation, commerce, and sometimes energy. Less romantically, the same rivers were convenient dumping grounds for sewage and waste. As city dwellers moved to the suburbs, they altered the landscape, removing vegetation and soil, grading land surfaces, and constructing large-scale drainage networks. Because these alterations changed the way water moved, they led to increased water volumes and peak flows and more frequent floods. In many urban zones, rivers were barricaded to prevent flooding. With the waterways out of sight, proliferating industrialization and development brought unmitigated pollution and degraded urban river ecosystems. For many in power, the resulting decline was just the price of “progress.”
Then, something changed. On June 22, 1969, a massive fire on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River captured the attention of Time magazine and eventually the nation. Time’s shocking photos were accompanied by headlines describing a river that “oozes rather than flows” and in which a person “does not drown but decays.” The searing images brought home the consequences of abandoning the waterfront. Although it was not the first river fire, the polluted state of the Cuyahoga River mobilized new public concern that helped spur the Clean Water Act and more. Since then, many cities have reclaimed their waterfronts. With industrial activities moving out of the urban core, cities have leveraged marginal and underutilized public spaces along rivers and waterfronts to create public amenities. Celebrated projects in places as diverse as Brooklyn, San Antonio, Providence, Greenville, Reno, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Denver, and Chicago are breathing new life into their communities. Urban waterway projects bring their own complications, however. Cities must still manage floods, public access, water quality, and environmental regulation compliance. Climate change presents additional challenges, especially regarding flood management. On the West Coast, dry season flows often degrade water quality and habitat value. Community support for new projects is needed, but it can be notoriously difficult to engage stakeholders, and agencies often have competing responsibilities along rivers. The pressures on urban river corridors to provide open space, habitat, flood protection, and other benefits can overwhelm the people involved, resulting in compromises that produce undesirable outcomes. continues on next page
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RIPARIAN URBANISM: NEW WAYS FOR CITIES TO RESPOND TO CLIMATE CHANGE fi CONTINUED Josiah Raison Cain Today, in the face of climate change, San Jose, like other cities, is rethinking its love-hate relationship with its waterways. Although most such cities have already undertaken waterway projects offering multiple benefits, a paradigm shift is underway that puts water management in the context of a full river system. The new paradigm—riparian urbanism—considers rivers complex and dynamic systems, not limited to just the visible channels. Cities as Part of River Systems Rivers are the result of design and management decisions within an entire drainage area, including the city itself. In natural systems, rivers typically expand and contract as flows fluctuate in response to upstream precipitation and corresponding groundwater dynamics. It is easy to see the associated changes in the landscape through the unique vegetation patterns on either side of a river, along the riparian corridor. In contrast, most urban rivers are limited to the space within a constricted channel. When problems arise, they are generally addressed within the channel. Although advances in green infrastructure, engineering strategy, and corresponding policy have helped improve water quality and flood management regimes, they are rarely implemented at a scale large enough to address watershed problems. Furthermore, pressures from climate change demand a full rethinking of the constrained urban channels that flood control agencies
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struggle to maintain safely. As rainfall grows more frequent and intense, it exacerbates the problems associated with impervious surfaces, piped stormwater, and other characteristics of urban systems. Riparian urbanism proposes an expanded approach to urban rivers and tributaries that leverages the many benefits offered by urban floodplains and river systems. Contextualizing the urban fabric as riparian suggests a relationship to water and ecology that intrinsically connects a stream or river corridor to the city. A corridor of perhaps 1,000 feet adjacent to an urban stream or river can conceivably be reimagined to maximize ecosystem services and green infrastructure performance to attenuate groundwater and surface water interactions, while providing a host of additional benefits. When the urban fabric is seen as part of the broader watershed, comprehensive green and blue infrastructure—such as parks, open spaces, ponds, wetlands, and much more—can operate as an extension of the riparian corridor in a way that promotes community and ecological wellness across a range of scales. Beyond flood management, a whole range of benefits can arise from implementing highperformance green and blue infrastructure outside of the immediate river channel. These can include improved air quality and water quality, shading and cooling, open space access, public health, habitat, pedestrian and bicycle circulation, traffic calming, social equity, and increased real estate value. Focusing approaches to complex urban challenges on river systems, which often lie at the nexus of redevelopment and disparate stakeholder agendas, can offer a framework to galvanize civic efforts around a singular vision.
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This schematic of a proposed riparian urbanism approach to San Jose’s Guadalupe River shows the wide range of functions and amenities the river and its environs can provide. Source: Sherwood Design Engineers.
Helping Rivers, Helping Cities The goal of riparian urbanism is to understand, quantify, and implement a framework for an urban environment that performs several functions at once: 1. Accommodates changes in flood dynamics for adaptability and resilience 2. Slows, absorbs, retains, and reuses stormwater for non-potable uses 3. Improves water quality through a combination of pre-filtration and infiltration to groundwater 4. Expands habitat and other ecological functions and processes associated with stream corridors 5. Attenuates climate impacts, including reducing urban heat island effects and improving air quality 6. Provides connectivity and access to open space as a component of the public realm
The benefits offered by riparian urbanism can also be modeled to compare scenarios and outcomes, combining results from hydrologic and terrestrial climate software and including public health, equity, and other elements. Such an approach to managing infrastructure in the public realm generates stacked benefits for both ecology and human experience. In short, this approach helps both the river and the city. continues on next page
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RIPARIAN URBANISM: NEW WAYS FOR CITIES TO RESPOND TO CLIMATE CHANGE fi CONTINUED Josiah Raison Cain Case Study: San Jose’s Guadalupe River Park A recent planning study on the expansion of Guadalupe River Park in San Jose offers an example of the potential of riparian urbanism. The goals of the expansion include supporting ecology, improving user experience and public access, and increasing the sustainability and resilience of the downtown district. A “bluegreen San Jose” would leverage proposed redevelopment to incorporate riparian urbanism strategies that mimic natural hydrology while benefiting the city through integrated water management and green infrastructure. When it opened in 2005, Guadalupe River Park was a model for community-friendly flood protection infrastructure and public space design. An innovative design made its flood control features both environmentally sensitive and inviting. With trails for public access, it is San Jose’s largest urban park, running along the west side of downtown for 2.6 linear miles. Sadly, even though it still provides flood protection benefits, the park has fallen on hard times. In a region with exceptionally high housing costs, homeless residents have claimed the riverbanks as shelter. The park also suffers from a lack of consistent maintenance and amenities such as vegetation management and sufficient lighting. As a result, a survey of 1,000 San Jose residents (some of whom are regular park goers) reported being less likely to visit Guadalupe River Park than other city parks.
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During the past few years, the park has gotten a second look. Plans to bring improved mass transit to a station flanking the park have rekindled interest in the area. Notable corporate entities like Google are planning investments in jobs and housing. And with growing support for urban parks, it may be possible to leverage state funding to improve the park. I was part of the team that completed preliminary evaluations of underutilized public land, unbuildable lots, and municipal rights-of-way. Our task was to suggest new opportunities to minimize flooding, manage stormwater and hydrology in the context of ecology, support public access, and improve the continuity of open space. In aggregate, these parcels amount to a substantial opportunity to address the runoff that currently discharges directly into the Guadalupe River. Using the spatial framework we developed, we evaluated additional factors, including albedo, shading, evapotranspiration, air flow, and air quality. Our results suggest that stacking functions can significantly improve the likelihood of success for investing in public space in urban settings. We have found similar results evaluating sections of Atlanta and Los Angeles.
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Applying a riparian urbanism approach to the areas adjacent to the Guadalupe River can also potentially boost dry season streamflows to support native plants and animals while enhancing the city’s long-term resilience. The most consistent source of water available for this purpose is recycled water. Treatment of wastewater, considered a progressive and somewhat novel method, has proven to be an effective strategy for combating seasonal dry flows that can harm local aquatic habitats. Wetlands can be used to treat stormwater, wastewater, or both along the periphery of the river, repurposing marginal areas such as underpasses. These wetland areas can also provide habitats and open space; California already has more than 100 active wetland treatment systems, many of which are open for public recreation. Future work will be needed, but riparian urbanism offers great promise in building San Jose’s resilience and responding to the stressors of climate change.
Josiah Cain (jcain@sherwoodengineers. com) serves as Sherwood Design Engineers’ director of innovation. His deep sustainable design experience and multidisciplinary approach provide insight and opportunities for optimization of the urban fabric through the integration of ecological systems with site and structure.
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A NEW LENS ON DISASTER PREVENTION, RESPONSE, AND RECOVERY Kevin Rowell In March 2008, Daniel Goleman, author of the bestseller Emotional Intelligence, deconstructed the emotional impacts of Hurricane Katrina in an article in the magazine Greater Good. He was highlighting a phenomenon that he, and many of us, witnessed in the wake of the hurricane: “Leaders at the highest levels were weirdly detached, despite the abundant evidence on our TV screens that they needed to snap to action.” Were leaders trying to remain “cool in a crisis,” as emphasized by traditional models of disaster response? That stance, Goleman noted, can come across as detachment and apathy. In the case of Katrina, he wrote, “The victims’ pain was exacerbated by such indifference to their suffering.” As we prepare for future floods and other disasters, research on social intelligence— especially empathy—has lessons for policy makers and first responders about the best way to handle themselves during such a crisis. But disaster professionals then need to go further to build a new way of interacting with communities. Understanding Trauma and Empathy The American Psychological Association explains that trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. In the longer term, reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. Disaster is a special, collective kind of trauma, and floods are a special kind of disaster. Hurricanes and floods like Katrina, Sandy, and Maria are now part of the collective American memory. In the time that follows a catastrophe, individual survivors experience trauma that can last a lifetime, and collective trauma ripples through the communities directly affected. As these ripples spread outward, they have physical, social, cultural, environmental, economic, and other kinds of impacts. FMA NEWS
After more than two decades of international work as a shelter and building materials specialist, I have my own emotional memories that stick with me. The smell of burning tires and concrete dust takes me back to the streets of Haiti in the days after the 2010 earthquake. Wiping sweat from my brow in searing heat reminds me of being inside the plastic tarp shelters that house the more than 1.2 million Rohingya refugees who fled genocide in Myanmar for refuge in Bangladesh. While we all respond differently to disaster, these kinds of emotional triggers keep me connected to my own experiences and help arouse the empathy needed to serve others in response to a disaster. It makes me think of the ways our collective human experience requires appreciation for our interdependence. Not all empathy, however, is created equal. In his article, Goleman cites psychologist Paul Ekman, an expert on the ability to read and respond to others’ emotions. Ekman defines three main forms of empathy: Cognitive empathy is knowing how other people feel and what they might be thinking, but because it does not involve internalizing others’ emotions, it can leave people so detached that they do nothing to help sufferers. Emotional empathy is feeling what other people feel. This form of empathy also has a downside: if first responders, for instance, become overwhelmed with distressing emotions, they may find themselves paralyzed or emotionally exhausted. In situations of disaster, like floods and hurricanes, a third kind of empathy is more useful: compassionate empathy, which gives us an understanding of a person’s predicament, allows us to feel with them, and moves us to help if needed. Compassionate empathy is not innate, says Ekman, but rather a skill, the acquired knowledge “that we’re all connected.”
27 Recalibrating Flood Response The institutions that oversee flood management prefer to prevent disasters before they happen rather than rely on response and recovery. This rational approach acknowledges that prevention is a less expensive choice. However, the resources necessary to create complete safety from flood events do not exist. So investments in prevention rely on risk assessments and cost-benefit calculations that privilege assets with higher perceived values. As a result, disadvantaged communities, cultural values, and nature itself often take a back seat in the decision-making process. In fact, some flood survivors have experienced well-meaning disaster prevention, response, and prevention approaches as re-traumatizing. We need to recalibrate traditional responses to flood disasters. Of course, immediate assistance, such as emergency relief and search and rescue, is critical. Even though responders are directed to tailor activities to a community’s characteristics, their primary goal is to meet people’s basic needs until recovery begins. Then, recovery actions aim to bridge the gap between emergency and normalcy. But what exactly is normal in the context of climate change? Is normal appropriate when the pre-disaster state was already adverse? What gap is being bridged when the trauma is not temporary? As we try to answer these questions, another principle beyond empathy may serve as a foundation for future action. We know that humans thrive when they exercise their ability— that is, when they have agency—to make decisions about their lives. Disaster planning must therefore incorporate the voices and decisionmaking capacity of all at-risk communities. It must be grounded in a genuine relationship that recognizes and engages the knowledge and abilities of a community. This strength-based
approach, as described by researchers John P. Kretzmann, John L. McKnight, and others, is built on four pillars: 1. It focuses on community assets and strengths rather than problems and needs. 2. It identifies and mobilizes individual and community assets, skills, and passions. 3. It is community driven and builds communities “from the inside out.” 4. It is relationship driven. Disaster professionals face a host of complex issues, especially in a world of climate change, but compassionate empathy and a new kind of relationship with those we serve are the beginning of this unfolding journey. https://resources.depaul.edu/abcdinstitute/publications/Documents/ GreenBookIntro%202018.pdf https://participedia.net/method/161 Kevin Rowell (kevin@wickedops.com) has spent more than 20 years focused on the intersection of people and planet. In 2004 he founded the Natural Builders (www.naturalbuilding.com), whose work in environmental construction has supported and inspired communities around the world to build with nature. The company has worked with dozens of nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies, formulated building codes, and developed cutting-edge commercial and residential properties around the world.
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CALIFORNIA’S NEXT BIG ONE Keith Porter, PE, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder and SPA Risk LLC Stories of California on fire seem to fill the headlines and longtime residents can readily share one or more dramatic earthquake stories. But strangely, outside of the emergency management community, few Californians know of the state’s deadliest and most destructive disaster. Over the final days of 1861and into 1862, an almost-biblical 25-day storm pounded the state and its neighbors to the north and east. Unrelenting rain and snow eventually overwhelmed the rivers and, as UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain explains, a “significant portion of the state’s Central Valley filled with flood water, creating an inland sea, supposedly 40 miles wide and 150 miles long." Flood waters destroyed a quarter of the homes and one-third of California’s taxable land. Losses bankrupted the state, and some researchers estimate that up to 1% of the state’s population perished in the floods. Undeterred, over the next few decades, Californians responded to flood threats with levees facilitated by newly formed reclamation districts and eventually state measures. Floods are an ongoing reality in California, but few understand that disasters like that of 1862 will occur again. Hurricane Katrina of 2005 renewed focus on the nation’s levees. The catastrophic failures of poorly maintained levees led to catastrophic destruction in the north part of the New Orleans metropolitan area. Ray Seed, a renowned geotechnical earthquake engineer investigating the New Orleans levee failures, set off more alarms when he warned that Californians faced similar threats. The Delta Risk Management Strategy (DRMS) prepared for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in 2008 and 2009 supported Seed’s prediction. A complex system of over 1,330 miles of levees in the Delta Region protects property, infrastructure, and people. Levees, some over a century old, also protect the FMA NEWS
region’s water supply and ecosystem functions. The 1,500-page study, representing the work of more than 50 authors and 50 reviewers, concluded that “levees in the Delta and Suisun Marsh are at risk of failing due to a variety of factors, including earthquakes and winter storms. Levee failures and the flooding that follow can cause fatalities, destruction of property and infrastructure, interruption of a large portion of California’s water supply, environmental damage and statewide economic impacts.” A few years later, the US Geological Survey (USGS) produced the HayWired Scenario, a granular, highly realistic depiction of the possible outcomes of a particular magnitude-7.0 earthquake on the Hayward Fault in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay area. I led the engineering aspects of that study, and recalling Seed’s warning, wondered what could happen to the Delta in the HayWired Scenario. Seed had used the word “Armageddon” in his warning, which seemed somewhere between alarmist and hyperbolic to me at the time. I don’t think so now. As described in the DRMS report, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and Suisun Marsh, is the largest estuary in the western United States. Home to numerous plant and animal species, and a crucial environment for Bay and Pacific Northwest fisheries, it’s the hub of California’s water supply system. Diversions provide water for about 25 million people and about 3 million acres of farmland. Key transportation, transmission, and communication lines cross the region. The region also hosts recreation and tourism (12% of the state’s hunting and 8% of the state’s fishing licenses are sold in the region) and rich soils support a highly productive farming industry.
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Figure 1. A. Simulated levee damage in the scenario earthquake. Red dots are locations with levee failure. Blue outline is mean higher high water
We estimated the failure probabilities of each levee segment, then used a technique called Monte Carlo simulation to combine those individual levee failure probabilities into an estimate of the behavior of the entire system. To understand Monte Carlo simulation, picture a roll of 20 coins, all flipped once, and you get to keep all the ones that come up heads. On average, you will walk away with half the coins. If they are dollar coins, that means you walk away with $10 on average. One way to estimate the chance of different outcomes— walking away with $5 or $15 for example, is to flip all the coins over and over again and create a histogram of the results. One can do the same thing on a computer, with levee failure probabilities. Delta islands are home to over a half-million people, about 4 times more than the New Orleans neighborhoods affected by levee failures during Katrina. It also exceeds the population of California in the early 1860s. Economic studies estimate the region supports 25,000 jobs and $5.3 billion in annual economic activity statewide, including jobs and activity outside the Delta that directly rely on it. The stakes of earthquake-induced levee damage are high in whatever terms one cares to measure: lives, livelihoods, or the environment. As part of the HayWired study, my USGS colleague Jamie Jones and I estimated the damage that a Hayward fault earthquake would cause to the nearby levees. Table 1, Scenario Technical Quick Facts provides an overview of the study.
Our simulation estimated that thousands of levee failures could realistically occur. An average of 53 islands would experience at least one levee failure in the mainshock. Figure 1A illustrates one of our Monte Carlo simulations. Figure 1A shows failed levee segments as red dots and the boundary of mean higher high water as a blue line. Figure 1B shows the resulting flooding. The map subdivides 1,330 miles of levees into 68,000 segments, 24,000 of which are too weak to resist the peak ground accelerations of the scenario earthquake. In this simulation, 54 of 71 islands are estimated to have at least one levee failure in the scenario earthquake. Of these, 53 are below the average higher high water mark.
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CALIFORNIA’S NEXT BIG ONE fi CONTINUED Keith Porter, PE, PhD, University of Colorado Boulder and SPA Risk LLC Figure 1 B. Resulting flooding.
While some failures might not lead to flooding, they would need repairs. Repairing and dewatering the system could cost over $5 billion, take 6 years to complete, and interrupt water conveyance for a quarter million people and the state’s prime agricultural areas. Far more grave would be the threat to life safety and the broader economic impact. The earthquakeinduced failure and flooding of 75% of the 71 islands could threaten lives, damage or destroy 400,000 homes, and wipe out tens of billions of dollars of economic activity.
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Unless the levees remediated before the Big One, a catastrophe like the one we estimated and that Seed warned about will happen. It is a when, not an if. A significant earthquake will almost certainly occur in the 21st century. The USGS estimates a 1 in 40 chance of a magnitude 7 or larger earthquake on the Hayward fault every year. This adds up to better-than-even odds of such an earthquake within 30 years, and about 90% chance by 2100. And the Hayward fault is not alone. Several other active faults near the Delta could wreak similar havoc. All of which means predicted losses are less like scary possibilities, and more like appalling likelihoods. The warnings of earthquake-induced levee failures and of the inevitable earthquakes resemble the sound of a freight train barreling toward a car idling on the tracks. Even if policymakers take the warnings seriously, their debate of whether and how to remediate the levees could (and have) taken years. Environmental assessments would add more time, then years of litigation, years to marshal levee remediation resources, and years to perform the actual work. Like the climate crisis that is already upon us, this train is coming fast. Will the state— can the state—move in time?
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THE HIGH
WATER MARK The Newsletter of the Floodplain Management Association
