FMA NEWS November 2018 - Volume 28, Issue 4

FMA NEWS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

November 2018 - Volume 28, Issue 4

FMA NEWS The Newsletter of the Floodplain Management Association November 2018 - Volume 28, Issue 4

Mission: To promote the common interest in reducing flood losses and to encourage the protection and enhancement of natural floodplain values.

Darren Suen – Director California DWR Darren.Suen@water.ca.gov 916-574-0653

George Booth- Chair Sacramento County Boothg@saccounty.net 916-874-6484

John Powderly - Director powderly@yahoo.com

Alex Yescas – Vice Chair HDR Engineering, Inc. Alex.yescas@hdrinc.com 858-712-8283 Maria Lorenzo-Lee – Secretary California DWR Maria.Lorenzo-Lee@water.ca.gov 916-574-0625 Mike Nowlan - Treasurer Wood Rodgers, Inc. MNowlan@woodrodgers.com 916-326-5277 Abigayle Mayrena - Director Clark County RFCD AMayrena@regionalflood.org 702-685-0000 Connie Perkins - Director City of Sacramento CPerkins@cityofsacramento.org 916-808-1914

Mark Seits – Past Chair HDR Engineering, Inc. Mark.Seits@hdrinc.com 858-712-8312 David Pesavento - Advisor California DWR David.Pesavento@water.ca.gov 916-574-0625 Salomon Miranda - Advisor California DWR Salomon.Miranda@water.ca.gov 818-549-2347 Alan Haynes - Advisor NOAA Alan.haynes@noaa.gov 916-979-3056 Eric Simmons - Advisor FEMA Region IX Eric.Simmons@fema.dhs.gov 510-627-7029

Brent Siemer – Director City of Simi Valley, DPW BSiemer@simivalley.org 805-583-6805

Carol Tyau-Beam - Advisor Hawaii DLNR Carol.L.Tyau@hawaii.gov 808-587-0267

John Moynier – Director Michael Baker International John.moynier@mbakerintl.com 949-855-5759

Bunny Bishop – Advisor Nevada DWR 775-684-2834 bbishop@water.nv.gov

Vince Geronimo - Director Mead & Hunt geronimope@gmail.com (510) 893 3600

Dianna Woods - Advisor ASFPM Dianna.Woods@co.yakima.wa.us 509-574-2328

Brian Brown - Director MBK Engineers brown@mbkengineers.com 916-456-4400

Mary Seits - Executive Director Floodplain Management Association (760) 936-3676 mary.seits@floodplain.org

FMA NEWS

CONTENT

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A Note From The Chair

4

Federal/ National News

5

State News

6-9

Meet the Board

10

Call for Articles

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Water Resource Developement Act

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Highlights from the 2018 FMA Conference

15-16

FMA News Gets a New Name

18-19

US Safety Levee Coalition Webinar Series

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FMA NEWS FMA NEWS

A NOTE FROM THE CHAIR

By George Booth We had a great conference in Reno. To tell you the truth, the Board was a little nervous about this one. We wondered if employers wouldn’t send people to the Atlantis.

Well, it turned out great. We had over 500 attendees. As I had promised, there was no gambling, we kept everyone so busy it would have been hard to fit the casino into your schedule. The workshops were plentiful and diverse, the panels were very interesting, and the plenary speakers made some very thought-provoking points. Most importantly, we made new friends, we had fun associating with each other, and we made contacts that will help us navigate the challenging waters ahead.

The Board is already planning for next year, San Diego!

Last time we were in San Diego, at the same hotel, as we prepared to start the final session Thursday September 8, 2011, the lights went out! It was a very memorable conference. In the dim lighting provided by backup generators, we had more time to associate. It turned out to be a very widespread power outage affecting five utilities. The hotel gave us glow sticks so we could find our bed and bathroom when we got back to our room. While that was indeed a memorable conference, we’re all hoping the lights stay on for FMA 2019.

We are so proud of our committees; they are really helping us to grow the association and its effectiveness in helping floodplain managers. Floodplain managers do real work, solving real problems, that affect real people.

Ultimately, members come to FMA functions to learn and to teach, to seek friends, to seek advice, to seek jobs, or simply to commiserate with like-minded people. I love my wife, but she couldn’t care less about floodplain management. I need people like y’all with whom I can whine, wonder, and spitball ideas.

Enjoy the newsletter, check out the advertisers, and just think - this newsletter reaches out to about 5000 people who have associated with FMA. We are glad that so many people find value in the Association.

Cheers!

George Booth, Chair

FMA NEWS

SAVE THE DATE Floodplain Management Association Annual Conference September 3-6, 2019 Sheraton Hotel & Marina – San Diego, CA California Extreme Precipitation Symposium The Impacts of Global Warming on California – A 30-Year Retrospective and Future Predictions June 25, 2019 ARC Conference Center, University of California, Davis MORE INFORMATION

Southwest Extreme Precipitation Symposium Complexities of Flood and Water Resource Predictability in Southwest U.S. March 27, 2019 Scripps Seaside Forum – Scripps Institute of Oceanography MORE INFORMATION

FEDERAL/NATIONAL NEWS Winter Outlook Conditions Weak El Niño conditions expected to develop this winter. Generally, El Niño conditions favor wetter than normal winters for Southern CA and drier than normal winters for the Pacific NW. However, this signal is more apparent when the El Niño signal is moderate to strong. Historically there is much variability in seasonal precipitation even within each of the ENSO phases (neutral, El Niño, La Niña).

NWS Climate Prediction Center forecasts call for warm and dry conditions to continue through November for CA. For the Dec-Feb period, which is typically the wettest time of the year, CPC is predicting above normal temperatures to continue to be favored while assigning “equal chances” to precipitation, meaning precipitation could be below normal, near normal, or above normal. The exception is far Southern CA where there is a slight tendency to favor above normal precipitation. This signal in Southern CA goes away by spring, but above normal temperatures for CA are favored through the spring and summer.

California Nevada River Forecast Center There are flood/debris flow concerns this rainy season associated with the recent numerous large burn scars. One big concern is along Highway 140 in/near Yosemite NP. A plot of burn scar boundaries since 2016 is available on the CNRFC front webpage as a toggled overlay.

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The CA DWR will be converting datums (from 1929 to 1988) for DWR-maintained river gages in the Upper Sacramento and Feather basins for the 2019-2020 water year effective next fall. Some flood and monitor stages will be changing and there will be a campaign to publicize this effort.

National Water Center and National Water Model The National Water Center continues to staff up a Water Prediction Operations Division to support NWS field offices. There are currently three employees in place with a goal of filling 12 positions over the next 6-12 months. The National Water Model is currently being evaluated by a team that includes representatives from the thirteen River Forecast Centers (RFCs). The team holds monthly collaboration calls and feedback from the RFCs is being used to determine where to focus additional calibration and model improvement efforts. The second generation of the National Water Model will be released in the spring of 2019 as “version 2.0”.

For an update of the latest disaster declarations CLICK HERE

For information on Flood Insurance Reform – Rates and Refunds CLICK HERE

Added new official forecast points (official forecast points have defined impacts) at the following locations: East Fork of the Carson River near Gardnerville, Truckee River near Wadsworth, Merced River at Happy Isles in Yosemite NP, Coyote Creek near Madrone, Guadalupe River in San Jose at Almaden Expressway. Also added were other forecast points (without defined impacts) at: Coyote Creek near Edenvale, Guadalupe River in San Jose at Highway 101, Coyote Creek near Milpitas at Highway 237, South Fork of the Tule River at Reservation Boundary, and the San Joaquin River at Crow’s Landing.

FMA NEWS

STATE NEWS California Attention: Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) 2018 Notice of Intent/ Interest Form.

FEMA released the NOFO for the PDM and FMA 2018 grant cycle in August 2018. The NOFOs are attached for your information. Please note the attached NOI form for the PDM and FMA 2018 grant cycle. NOI forms are due back to the Nevada Division of Emergency Management (DEM) by September 30, 2018. This simply allows us to know your intention/interest in applying for a PDM/FMA 2018 grant. Mitigation eGrants will open the system for applications on October 1, 2018.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions at jwoodward@dps.state.nv.us or at 775-687-0314.

1. State Plan to Improve Delta Conditions Further Refined to Reduce Impacts: Public Invited to Comment on Changes DWR released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) for California WaterFix. MORE INFORMATION

2. DWR Convenes Inaugural CommunityLed Meeting for Oroville Dam Safety Comprehensive Needs Assessment The Department of Water Resources (DWR) convened the inaugural meeting of a communityled group of local elected officials and stakeholder organizations – known as the Ad Hoc Group – as part of the recently initiated Oroville Dam Safety Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA).

MORE INFORMATION

3. California Department of Water Resources Division of Safety of Dams Updates Information on California Dams The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) released updated information on the 1,246 dams under the state’s jurisdiction, listing each dam’s downstream hazard classification, condition assessment, and reservoir restriction status.

MORE INFORMATION FMA NEWS

4. Oroville Spillways Construction and Cost Estimate Update The Department of Water Resources (DWR) provided an update on construction activities and estimated costs for the Oroville Spillways Emergency Recovery Project.

MORE INFORMATION

5. DWR Commits to Greater Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions With the Global Climate Action Summit underway in San Francisco, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced its commitment to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 60 percent or more below 1990 levels.

MORE INFORMATION

6. Economic Analysis Shows Value of Investing in WaterFix: California Water Users Will See Benefits Far Exceeding Costs DWR released a Benefit-Cost Analysis for California WaterFix by Dr. David Sunding, a professor of natural resource economics at UC Berkeley, that finds WaterFix could bring billions of dollars in benefits to Californians who obtain their water from participating State Water Project (SWP) contractors.

MORE INFORMATION

7. Oroville Spillways Construction Update September 26, 2018 DWR provided an update on construction activities for the Oroville Spillways Emergency Recovery Project.

MORE INFORMATION

8. Report of the Activities of DWR to the Central Valley Flood Protection Board: JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER

California Flood Preparedness Week was October 20 to October 26. Next issue will have more information, please visit http://FloodPrepareCA.com/ for the latest information!

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FMA NEWS

STATE NEWS (CONTINUED)

FMA NEWS

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Hawaii WAI HALANA NEWSLETTER

Nevada Outreach: Nevada’s fifth Flood Awareness Week (FAW) was held November 4 – 10, 2018. This year’s FAW started with a kick-off event held in the center court of Meadowood Mall in Reno, Nevada. The goal of FAW is to create flood resilient communities in Nevada and increase flood awareness throughout the state. Flood awareness and preparedness is raised through the coordination of local outreach events, a media campaign, and the NevadaFloods.org website.

Many thanks to our Nevada flood program partner agencies who make FAW possible.

Training: A Community Rating System (CRS) Training Workshop was held in Carson City on Oct. 30th and 31st, 2018. This two-day workshop was a pilot for the nation and was a condensed version of the regular four-day CRS workshop offered at the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg, MD. The workshop was well attended by Nevada and California floodplain managers and received many positive comments and feedback.

Resilience/Mitigation/Emergency Management: The Nevada State Floodplain Manager was appointed to and attended the first meeting of the new Nevada Division of Emergency Management (NDEM) Resilience Commission. The purpose of the new Resilience Commission is to support the Resilience Strategy Recommendations outlined in the 2018 Statewide Resilience Strategy and Legislative Recommendations to the Nevada Commission on Homeland Security. The Resilience Commission will replace and combine many committees that previously existed in an effort to define roles and responsibilities and to streamline efforts in support of statewide resilience.

FMA NEWS

MEET THE BOARD Vince Geronimo, PE, CFM has worked in consulting for 23 years and is currently a water resources Market Leader for Mead & Hunt in Oakland, CA. Vince spent four years as a logistician in the US Marine Corps, then went on to earned a BS Civil Engineering with a focus in Environmental Engineering from Southern Illinois University and a MS Civil Engineering with a focus in Hydraulics from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Vince has a diverse work history in civil, environmental, coastal, and water resources engineering, primarily focused on flood management. Vince’s diverse flood risk management experience throughout CA and NV brings broad-perspective on riverine, floodplain, and stormwater management issues. For the past eight years, Vince served as project manager for a coastal flood hazard study of the entire California open Pacific coast. This experience adds unique focus on current and future coastal floodplain issues to the Board.

Although married for 14 years, his wife Elizabeth would remind him that they’ve been together for more than two decades. With two kids (7 and 13 y-o) much of Vince’s free time is spent supporting his kids’ interests. When he finds time for himself, Vince can be found running, biking or kayaking in the SF Bay Area or hiking, camping, and skiing in the high country.

FMA NEWS

Vince has been active in professional organizations for several decades, including ASCE, SAME, & ASFPM. He has been a Certified Floodplain Manager since 2001 and an active member of FMA for 13 years.

During that time Vince has participated in the FMA conference committee, the social media committee, and chaired the Coastal Issues Committee. He’s presented on more than a dozen topics, setup 5 panel sessions, and facilitated 4 Committee forums. Vince is grateful for the nomination to represent private industry as the 2018-2019 FMA Board Northern Director and looks forward to contributing creative ideas, at the Board level, to improve our Association. He’s looking to pass the reigns of the FMA Coastal Issues Committee Chair at our 2019 conference in San Diego.

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FMA NEWS

FMA NEWS

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CALL FOR ARTICLES! The FMA Newsletter welcomes the input of its members and now our extended family of readership to contribute to the conversation! 2018 is almost over but 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 MARYSEITS@FLOODPLAIN.ORG and may contain 2-3 small pictures.

Preferred length is less than 850 words.

For more details call (760) 936-3676.

Ideas transform communities At HDR, we’re helping our clients push open the doors to what’s possible, every day.

hdrinc.com

FMA NEWS

PRESIDENT SIGNS WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT – THE THIRD IN SIX YEARS Andrea P. Clark The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2018 was signed into law on October 23. Notably, this is the third WRDA bill since 2014, after only two WRDA bills were passed in the previous fourteen years. The new law provides needed authorization for investment in harbor, waterway, flood protection, and other water infrastructure improvements throughout the country.

WRDA is the main vehicle for authorizing projects to be studied and developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for navigation, flood control, hydropower, recreation, water supply, and emergency management purposes. Once a project is authorized through WRDA, the appropriation of funds must occur through subsequent legislation.

WRDA 2018 reauthorizes the National Levee Safety Program and the National Dam Safety Program, both of which are designed to improve dam and levee safety. It also furthers various funding mechanisms, including (1) the Securing Required Funds for Water Infrastructure Now Act, a financing vehicle for critical drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects; (2) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (WIFIA); and (3) reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for three years at increasing funding levels, ending with $1.95 billion in Fiscal Year 2021.

FMA NEWS

According to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the importance of WRDA for carrying out Congress’s duties to maintain the country’s water resources infrastructure cannot be overstated: • “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates and maintains approximately 700 dams in the United States, and over 14,000 miles of levees are in the Corps’ Levee Safety Program. Millions of Americans and over a trillion dollars’ worth of property and goods are protected by these flood protection systems. In general, every $1.00 invested in flood protection provides $8.00 in economic benefit.

• Through the regular consideration of WRDA legislation and by providing direction and reforms to the Corps of Engineers, Congress enables locally driven, but nationally important, federal investments in water resources infrastructure.

• Prior to 2014, Congress had not passed a WRDA in seven years. As a result, many improvements languished while project costs rose and regulatory burdens remained unaddressed. With WRDA 2018, following the successful passage of the 2014 and 2016 laws, Congress is now back on track.”

• It appears that Congress is making real efforts to pass a WRDA bill every two years. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue, but local project proponents are reaping the benefits of more consistent federal investment in water infrastructure.

PROVIDING DWR’S FOUNDING HISTORY WITH CA/NV/HI FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2018 FMA CONFERENCE DWR participated in September’s Floodplain Management Association (FMA) conference, where many federal, state, local, tribal representative and other flood management colleagues attended. This annual event is this largest annual gathering of FMA members from California, Nevada and Hawaii.

FMA was founded in 1990 by local communities and DWR, to promote proactive floodplain management activities and to support local communities in their effort to reduce flood risk. It has grown in membership from 45 people in 1991 – consisting mainly of local, state and federal agencies -- to include a wide range of flood management professionals numbering 400 in 2018. The 2018 conference included 515 attendees from throughout CA, NV, HI, tribes, private sector, NGOs, and other states and countries, which help foster greater collaboration in the floodplain management (FPM) field.

The main benefit of conference attendance is networking and knowledge sharing at the conference, but the other advantage is the follow-up and collaboration that happens afterwards. Federal and state agencies open houses where conference attendees can interact with agencies and put faces to names on the first day of the conference were a highlight of this year’s conference.

It was noted that attendees were multi-generations, so transfer of knowledge is another major benefit of the conference. Also, FMA is starting an Emerging Professionals/Mentor Committee to help with that knowledge sharing.

The Association’s primary goal is to: Encourage the use of effective floodplain management principles and practices through education, outreach and training. Aside from the annual conferences, FMA conducts training such as the Flood After Fire workshop that occurred Oct 2-3 in Southern California and HEC courses statewide. FMA also hosts regional luncheons, such as where the Sacramento’s October 18th speaker, USACE, presented “Billions in Federal Funding for Flood Risk Reduction Projects in the Sacramento Region.”

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The 2018 Theme was Sustainability in the Face of Change, which is a continuation of the overall theme of R.I.S.K. In 2016, FMA started to delve deeper into Resiliency, in 2017, Integration, this year, Sustainability and next year, the theme will focus on K for Knowledge.

2018 FMA Conference Topics • Improved Forecasting • Flood after Fire • Flood – Dam Nexus • Flood Risk Communications • Mapping and Modeling • Sustainability • Grants and Funding • Agricultural Floodplains • National Flood Insurance Program/ Community Rating System • Ecosystem Restoration • Tribal Concerns in Floodplains • Legal and Legislation • Performance Tracking, CVFPP, & more

In 1991, the conference focus was National Flood Insurance Program and Community Rating System (proactive activities), but the topics have expanded, to reflect additional FPM issues. Overall, the 2018 FMA Conference had 25 panels and over 100 abstracts at the conference, and NFIP/CRS only represented about 20% of the topics. The topics have expanded to forecasting, risk communication, grants and more, largely due to the growing issue in the floodplains and affecting floodplains.

Two topics to that were fairly new and emphasized this year, were Flood After Fire (which included the representatives from Santa Barbara who were at ground zero – Montecito), and also Flood/Dam Nexus (which had key dam safety representatives from all three states, CA/NV/HI), talking about coordination and how it differs in other states. An emergent topic request is Land Use Planning in relation to FPM. FMA NEWS

PROVIDING DWR’S FOUNDING HISTORY WITH CA/NV/HI FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION AND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2018 FMA CONFERENCE (CONTINUED)

The 2018 Opening Plenary speaker was the National ASCE President, Kristina Swallow, with her talk on ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card. She pointed out that while Levees, and Dams were on the report card, there was not a specific one for Flood. And in conversations with her, she challenged FMA to find a national metric, that each state uses, to measure flood so that it can be considered for the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card. If so, the flood profession can gain acknowledgement for flood, as a whole. For more information, please e-mail: reportcard@asce.org

The 2018 Opening Plenary speaker was the National ASCE President, Kristina Swallow, with her talk on ASCE’s Infrastructure Report Card. She pointed out that while Levees, and Dams were on the report card, there was not a specific one for Flood. And in conversations with her, she challenged FMA to find a national metric, that each state uses, to measure flood so that it can be considered for the ASCE Infrastructure Report Card. If so, the flood profession can gain acknowledgement for flood, as a whole. For more information, please e-mail: reportcard@asce.org

FMA also recognizes Outstanding Examples Promoting Flood Risk Reduction. At the 2018 conference, 13 awards were presented including SAFCA’s Tim Washburn as the Floodplain Manager of the Year, DWR’s Dave Mraz and Dave Lawson for the Andy Lee Extraordinary Public Service for State Activities, and to Santa Barbara County’s Deputy Director for Public Works, Tom Fayrum for the response to the 2018 Montecito mudflows.

FMA also recognizes Outstanding Examples Promoting Flood Risk Reduction. At the 2018 conference, 13 awards were presented including SAFCA’s Tim Washburn as the Floodplain Manager of the Year, DWR’s Dave Mraz and Dave Lawson for the Andy Lee Extraordinary Public Service for State Activities, and to Santa Barbara County’s Deputy Director for Public Works, Tom Fayrum for the response to the 2018 Montecito mudflows.

FMA NEWS

FMA NEWS

THE NEW NAME IS JUST A BEGINNING Michael Nowlan First and foremost, I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the newsletter renaming process. There were many great name ideas that were submitted, some before the vote, and some during the vote. I just can’t stop your creative juices, which was what I was hoping for!

137 votes were cast during the conference, which is approximately 25% of the total attendance of the conference. My “get out the vote” campaign could have been stronger, but I believe we generated a reasonably large sample of the overall FMA population (this is the electoral season).

I will be honest and up front with you all, early in this article. I like to go for big dramatic reveals so, as you may have noticed, the new newsletter name is not on our cover (yet) for this edition. This isn’t meant to be torturous, well, maybe a little. There is a purpose. I want you to read this installment of our newsletter thoroughly. Don’t worry, you will find the clue within this article which will lead you to the link that will reveal our new name and newsletter cover!

Now that I have you as a “captive” audience, I would like to enhance my position slightly with respect to renaming the newsletter, and in essence release you from captivity (keep reading). In the first article written regarding this issue I wanted to make it clear that the main purpose of renaming our longstanding newsletter was to generate meaningful discussion amongst our membership regarding the purpose and future direction of FMA. This will ultimately enhance your involvement, and hopefully grow involvement overall. While having a catchy name is, well, “catchy”, your ideas are what we are really after.

We don’t just want to catch your attention, and we don’t just want to keep your attention, we want you to know that you also have our attention. This leads to a new modified perspective.

Recently, our wonderful Hawaii advisor (Carol TyauBeam) shared with me her perspective on enhancing the exchange of information with her Hawaii floodplain managers, and the challenges she has in generating regular content. Usually in our newsletter FMA NEWS

we share with you what is happening in Hawaii by pointing you to the Wai Halana newsletter published by the Engineering Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. If you have been following our newsletter you may have noticed that Hawaii’s floodplain newsletter has not been published since December 2017. There certainly has been a lot going on in Hawaii from a flood perspective, including record rainfall in April and a hurricane in August. However, in my communications with Carol I discovered that natural disasters have not been the main reasons for the hiatus. Hawaii is looking for a better, more responsive (and responsible) way of communicating floodplain news.

She is convinced, and now I am becoming convinced, that the whole newsletter idea needs to be updated, and hopefully improved. Of course, change for change’s sake is not the empty gesture we are going for. No, this is about recognizing how communication is changing in today’s world, and growing with it. The digital world we now live in allows people not only to view information, but also to share it, and most importantly, to add to it, almost instantly. It’s not just a presentation of ideas, but a conversation of ideas. It now occurs to me that this aspect of communication is what makes our conference so successful. For me at least, the most energizing sessions are when people get to ask questions and exchange ideas, with the seeds of the discussion beginning with a great presentation of some sort. Since the dawn of time, community thrives when honest communication thrives.

To calm any fears that may be mounting, and recognizing the wide array of readers that we currently have, we do not want to lose readers through any knee-jerk changes. As professionals we need to think things through before making major renovations. This idea will certainly require some refinement, but I am essentially looking for ways to make our newsletter more interactive. I will be bringing this issue before our board at our next meeting and share my research.

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If you’ve researched this issue, there a plethora of selfproclaimed gurus on the subject of communication. As communication is their livelihood they are occasionally predisposed to sensationalizing the content to make it as attractive as possible, in order to generate readership (and revenue), so we should always be cautious before following their lead. I must admit It can be a little weird reading someone else communicating their ideas about communicating ideas. Sometimes it can turn into a nasty ear-piercing feedback loop if you’re not careful.

Hopefully this article is not in that category!

As we do not want to alienate our readers, we do not wish to alienate our sponsors and advertisers either. That being said, while our FMA newsletter has been structured with advertisements in the past, the advertisements have always been ancillary to the content and purpose of our associating in the first place. No disrespect intended, but I’m sure our advertisers are savvy enough to know this truth. They should also agree that a better newsletter is a better platform for them to advertise.

As a first step in this renovation I have requested our publishing staff to add a new feature to our articles and announcements. This new feature allows the digital reader to comment back on a particular topic, and start/join a conversation about that topic. This will, in effect, link our newsletter with social media and allow us to read what you are all thinking. You’ve always had a voice, but this give you a metaphorical stage and microphone. Don’t be shy. So, if you want to give feedback on this article or the newsletter in general, CLICK HERE

In case you think I’ve forgotten, click on the happy face next to my name at the beginning of this article and turn that frown upside down!

in design, nature is our best teacher.

www.trwengineering.com

Tory r. Walker engineering

r e l i a b l e s o l u T i o n s i n WaT e r r e s o u r c e s

before

760-414-9212 FMA NEWS

US LEVEE SAFETY COALITION 2018-2019 WEBINAR SERIES

The US Levee Safety Coalition in cooperation with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is pleased to present a series of webinars on levee safety in the United States. Following the successful rollout of the International Levee Handbook, we are excited to announce our next series of bi-monthly webinars designed to share best practices, disseminate information and to facilitate a dialogue between federal partners and levee stakeholders, consultants, contractors and others in the levee safety industry. You are invited to join us for the first webinar September 24, 2018 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm EDT: “US Army Corps of Engineers, Levee Portfolio Report” presented by Eric Halpin and Noah Vroman, USACE. The USACE Levee Portfolio Report was recently released for public review. While the data is specific to USACE portfolio, information presented in the report and covered on the webinar is applicable to anyone designing, constructing, operating or managing levees. The webinar is intended to highlight facts gathered from risk assessments of approximately 2,200 levee systems totaling 14,150 miles in length and provide a starting point for conversations at all levels of governance. We will discuss flood risks associated with levees in the USACE portfolio, relative importance of factors driving the risks, and the roles of USACE, other federal agencies, states, tribes, regional districts, and local communities in assessing, managing, and communicating levee-related flood risk. As a Nation, we know little about the condition or risks associated with levees outside the USACE portfolio and it is important to gain a better understanding from a national perspective of the risks and benefits levees provide to the Nation. USACE is currently coordinating with states, tribes, local, regional and private levee owner-operators to conduct a onetime inspection and risk assessment for all levees in the United States. The webinar will provide an overview of the ongoing efforts and discuss how inspection and risk assessment findings will be included in the NATIONAL LEVEE DATABASE. FMA NEWS

Managing risks associated with levees in the United States will require diligence and cooperation among all levels of government, the private sector and the public. As progress toward the establishment of a National Levee Safety Program continues, the US Levee Safety Coalition webinars and the presentation of the USACE Levee Portfolio Report provide an opportunity to start this conversation. To learn more about the coalition and national levee safety objectives CLICK HERE. The webinars are brought to you by ASDSO on behalf of the Levee Coalition. To register for these FREE live webinars please visit COALITION WEBINARS About US Levee Safety Coalition: The US Levee Safety Coalition is a group of national professional organizations that have joined together to support and advance levee safety in the United States of America. Coalition members include the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO), the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI), the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA), and the United States Society on Dams (USSD). The coalition is committed to the common cause of preserving and protecting public safety, life and property through the responsible engineering design, construction, operation, maintenance, including as-needed removal, and management of the United States levee infrastructure.

The coalition strongly supports the establishment of a National Levee Safety Program and works with other professional organizations, local, state and federal government flood management agencies such as USACE and FEMA on promoting good engineering practices, sound public policy and increased awareness and education within communities of practice and the public.

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FMA NEWS

FMA NEWS THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

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