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The Federal Emergency Management Agency has issued a final rule that aims to improve the nation’s resilience to persistent flooding by requiring communities receiving funds to consider current and future flood risk in time to rebuild infrastructure such as roads, hospitals and waste water treatment plants.
The new standard “will allow us to improve resilience in flood-prone communities by considering future flood risk when rebuilding structures after a disaster,” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said in a statement. “This is a huge win that will allow us to end the repeated cycles of loss that result from flooding and increase safety for families and save taxpayer dollars.”
The updated Federal Flood Risk Management Standard, published July 11 Federal Register, requires that all infrastructure in flood-prone communities be designed and built to protect against future flood risks caused by climate change, as well as current ones.
According to agency officials, one of three approaches must be used for projects receiving FEMA funding: design and build projects at sites and elevations using the “best available climate science,” which includes considering solutions based on in nature; add an additional two feet to the base flood elevation for projects deemed “non-critical” and three feet for critical structures; or build to the 500-year flood level in locations where the 500-year floodplain is mapped.
Previously, non-critical projects only had to be built to be protective to withstand a 100-year flood.
That change alone nearly doubles the number of residents who will be affected by FEMA’s requirements, from about 15 million to 30 to 40 million, says Dan Cox, a professor of coastal and ocean engineering at the University of Oregon and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ‘ Chapter 7-22 on flood loads.
FEMA says the rule allows the agency to consider the best available science for rebuilding communities after a disaster. Applies to FEMA-funded actions involving new construction, substantial improvements, or repair of substantial damage, as well as hazard mitigation assistance projects involving structural elevation, dry flood protection, and mitigation reconstruction.
Cox notes that the FEMA standard and updated ASCE Chapters 7-22 on hazard resilience are moving in the same direction, although communities must choose to adopt the latter and incorporate it into their codes. construction Under FEMA’s rule, communities receiving FEMA funding must comply.
Edgar Westerhof, North American solutions leader for climate adaptation at Arcadis, says the rule is a step in the right direction for an increasingly pressing need. The firm is one of many consultants working on a major resiliency program for the New York City Department of Design and Construction that will, among other things, raise several feet of long stretches of the waterfront in lower Manhattan to reduce the risk of flooding.
But he says more regional coordination is needed to assess flood risks holistically. Also, the standard doesn’t fully address the increased risks of extreme weather flooding made worse by other issues, such as daily high tide events in some coastal areas, Westerhof says. “Understanding the most common occurrences of compound risk is where we need to stretch and do more research, and that’s not well explained in this rule.”
Michael Mittelholzer, assistant vice president of the environmental policy staff at the National Association of Home Builders told ENR that his group believes the standard will only create more complexity and confusion for local municipalities that must now look to determine which FEMA grant programs apply when planning new. projects
Additionally, while single-family homes likely do not fall under the requirements of the FEMA standard, infrastructure considered “critical,” such as wastewater and drinking water plants, and infrastructure energy and transport in the new planned communities. That could put housing construction in those communities on hold until compliance requirements for critical projects are met, he says.
The builders group submitted comments expressing reservations about the proposed rule in December, noting that it would increase costs for builders.
FEMA acknowledges that incorporating design resilience features into projects could increase costs “marginally,” but says that this small increase is far below the savings associated with avoided flood damage costs.
The FEMA rule will go into effect on September 9.
