Thursday, October 24 

 

8:30am-9:45 pm | Breakfast Keynote

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Breakfast provided. 

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Commonwealth of Virginia Updates

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Matthew Wells

Director, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation ​

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9:50-10:35 am | Concurrent Sessions​

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• Changing Rainfall Patterns and Bonded CIP Financing: Risks and Opportunities

 

Combating shifting rainfall patterns and sea-level rise, with its associated subsidence components, is an evolving challenge for communities to plan for and counter. To execute these valuable projects, communities need increasing funding, including capital improvement program (CIP) options. Yet they risk rising expenses to support this funding through debt offerings if they are not proactive and properly prioritizing these invaluable adaptation and resilience projects to address the impacts of increasing rainfall. Observed climate change in the mid-Atlantic continues to lead to precipitation-based impacts. With rising temperatures, the atmosphere’s increased water vapor capacity has led, at least in part, to noticeable changes in Virginia’s rainfall patterns. Many of those changes have manifested as extreme—but localized—rainfall events. These occurrences have led the engineering and policy community to revisit the local approach to mitigating these flooding incidents, along with other floodplain management and flood mitigation priorities. As these planning efforts progress, a common theme has emerged: communities will need significant funding to implement those capital investments. Localities in Virginia and the greater region often turn to bond funding for financial support to address these capital priorities. However, as the bond market adjusts to new climate-based realities, the need for proactive, local flood resilience programming continues to grow. Indeed, major rating agencies, such as Moody’s and Standard & Poors (S&P), have noted the impact that climate risks are likely to have moving forward. In Moody’s 2024 outlook, the firm stated, “Rising physical climate risks will cause mounting economic and financial losses for governments and businesses and make insurance more expensive or unavailable in some markets, highlighting the need for investment in adaptation and resilience.” S&P noted a similar sentiment, “Larger and more frequent natural disasters increase the physical risks public and private entities face…” As rating agencies recognize the need to invest in greater adaptation and resilience, communities must also acknowledge the ratings' impact on CIP finance options. Lowered credit ratings based, at least in part, on a lack of proactively implemented resilience measures can increase municipal borrowing costs through the bond market, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Capital needed to address resilience becomes more expensive because the community or entity in question has not implemented flood resilience programming. This session will outline the financial risks communities may encounter by delaying or deprioritizing climate-based resilience programming and provide examples of those risks. We will also discuss potential activities and policies for communities to consider that can temper the resilience-based criteria more commonly used in the credit rating formula and help position communities to continue receiving favorable ratings, making financing proactive programming more affordable.

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Doug Moseley, AICP, CFM, ENV SP

Mead & Hunt

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• Using OpenFEMA Data to Analyze Flood Insurance Policy Trends in Hampton Roads

 

Hampton Roads is a coastal area in Southeastern Virginia that is highly susceptible to flooding due to its low-lying geography and proximity to flooding sources. Accelerated regional rates of sea level rise and more frequent intense storms have resulted in increased risk for property owners. As a result, flood insurance is an increasingly critical way for stakeholders to mitigate their risk. At the same time, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) transition to a new rating method, Risk Rating 2.0, has significantly impacted how flood insurance policies are priced for many policy holders. Despite increasing flood risk, the number of effective Single-Family Home (SFH) flood insurance policies has decreased by 30% since 2009 while the average cost of a policy has increased by roughly 37% during that time. This presentation will explore historical flood insurance policy trends for NFIP communities within Hampton Roads using redacted policy data from OpenFEMA. The HRPDC assessed trends in Hampton Roads NFIP communities, including the number of policies in force and average policy costs. Several factors, such as the implementation of Risk Rating 2.0, Community Rating System (CRS) discounts, and the rated flood zone of insured properties were considered to better understand observed historical flood insurance trends in the region. This analysis provides valuable insights into how flood insurance in Hampton Roads has evolved over time and the impact on property owners, aiding stakeholders in better flood risk management and outreach to affected communities.
 

Emma Corbitt

HRPDC

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• Blending Risk Based Analysis with Traditional Dam Breach Hazard Analysis for Highly Urban Dams

 

Dam Breach Analysis has for many years focused on determining the Hazard Classification which is not conducive to the actual risk of the dam. Henrico County has multiple highly urbanized dams which have a high hazard classification. The county wanted a risk-informed decision analysis performed since the economic impacts to the County as a result of dam failure would be catastrophic. The Cox Road Dam was selected for a planning level pilot study to identify likely dam deficiencies and will identify potential dam rehabilitation measures to lower the dam's risks of failure to a level acceptable to the County. The Cox Road Dam is the middle dam of 3 high hazard dams. While the study focuses on the Cox Road Dam, the other two dams were incorporated into the analysis. As a planning study, the use of traditional hydrologic and hydraulic modeling methods were used along with the addition of the draft FEMA Project Prioritization Tool to estimate the likelihood of failure for static, hydrologic, and seismic failure modes. The use of traditional dam hydrologic and hydraulic modeling methods (a HEC-HMS model for hydrology & HEC-RAS 2D hydraulic model) were needed as they are still accepted by VADCR and used for the risk analysis. For this evaluation, we analyzed all three dams in series because the failure of one dam may have a cascading effect resulting in the failure of downstream dams and identify risk reduction measures.
 

Marie Hauser, PE

AtkinsRealis

 

Travis Linville, CFM

Henrico County

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10:35am-11:00 am | Networking Break​

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Light snacks provided. 

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11:05am-11:50 am | Concurrent Sessions​

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• Introduction to Benefit Cost Analysis

 

Many grants require applicants to have a positive benefit cost analysis (BCA) in order to be eligible for funding. These are not always straightforward and there are gotchas that can occur during the process if you aren’t ready for them. During this presentation I hope to be able to show what kind of analysis types work and what kind of data and modeling could be needed. I will be showing examples using FEMA’s excel based BCA Toolkit and will focus on flooding BCA examples. I have worked with BCA modeling for over 20 years in the public and private sectors and hope to be able to pass along some of my experiences.

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Brad Winters, PE, CFM

CDM Smith

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• Two States, Two Strategies: State Flood Planning Lessons from Texas and Virginia​

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States are devising innovative strategies to enhance their flood resilience in the face of increasingly frequent and severe flooding events. This presentation will examine and contrast Texas and Virginia's state flood planning approaches, highlighting their unique opportunities and challenges. Texas employs a bottom-up approach where regional flood planning groups, demarcated by watersheds, bring together representatives from various interest groups to identify and recommend flood resiliency strategies and projects collaboratively. This bottom-up model promotes localized decision-making and engagement but can face challenges in achieving statewide coherence and addressing cross-regional flood risks. Virginia's Coastal Resilience Master Plan utilizes a top-down strategy, creating Master Planning Regions to assess and address coastal flooding and storm surges. The state's collaboration with a technical advisory committee facilitates the development of statewide resiliency strategies and projects, promoting a unified approach to flood risk management. However, this model can sometimes lack the granularity needed to address localized issues effectively.Drawing on my experience as a former regional flood planner with the State of Texas, I will review these differing approaches. By analyzing both states, this presentation will highlight the advantages and limitations of each approach. The discussion will offer actionable insights into how each state can enhance its flood resilience planning by learning from the other's experiences and integrating best practices. This comparative analysis aims to contribute to the broader discourse on state-level flood management and resilience, offering valuable lessons for other states facing similar challenges. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of bottom-up and top-down approaches, policymakers, engineers, and planners can develop more robust and adaptive strategies to mitigate flood risks and enhance community resilience.

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Ian T Blair, CFM, AICP Candidate

Wetlands Watch

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• ​2D Watershed Modeling in HEC-RAS

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The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in Region 3 is testing a transition from 1D cross-sectional stream modeling to 2D watershed-scale modeling for FEMA flood hazard maps. Adams County, PA is the first area we have developed such a model for. For its entire 346-square-mile watershed, we’ve developed a comprehensive 2D model that includes 441 miles of streams. Additionally, we’re creating a similar model for the Levisa Fork and Russell Fork watershed in Southwestern Virginia, spanning Dickenson and Buchanan Counties—the first 2D model in Virginia under Region 3 NFIP. Adams County will be used as the example of what is to come in Virginia because the Adams County model will be completed whereas the Upper Levisa model will still be in progress at the time of the presentation. In our presentation, we will explore the differences, advantages, and drawbacks of 2D models for floodplain mapping, planning, and risk assessment. Adams County provides a practical example, showcasing the process of developing a large-scale 2D model at the watershed level. While some aspects resemble traditional 1D modeling, the nuances and benefits of 2D modeling drive the shift toward this approach within the NFIP. In addition to demonstrating how a 2D model for a watershed like the Upper Levisa Fork watershed in Southwestern Virgina is created, we will discuss how a 2D model can be leveraged and used for more application than just developing a floodplain map. These models can be leveraged in the future to model the effects of new hydraulic structure designs, model historic storm events, model predictive future storm events, and effects of changing land use across the whole watershed. This presentation serves as an introduction to the benefits, methods, and versatile applications of watershed-scale 2D modeling using HEC-RAS.

 

Sean Foley, EIT, WSP

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12:00-1:30 pm | Lunch Plenary 

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Lunch provided. 

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Virginia Beach Updates

CJ Bodnar, City of Virginia Beach 

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1:30pm-2:15 pm | Concurrent Sessions​

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• A Collaborative Approach to Flood Mitigation Design for Buildings: The Importance of Coordination Between Stakeholders and the Engineers

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Flood hazards and climate change threaten the longevity of buildings in floodplains and challenge building owners and stakeholders to adapt both forthcoming and existing buildings to withstand the ever-changing landscape around flood risks. Understanding and applying available flood hazard data (e.g., probabilistic data, historical information) from the conception of a project is an integral component in assessing hazards for flood mitigation design for buildings. It is critical that stakeholders and designers collaborate early and often to best understand the specific flood risks. Through a series of case studies from projects in the Mid-Atlantic region, we will discuss lessons learned about the iterative design approach to meet the goals of building owners, managers, and other stakeholders in protecting buildings and their communities from flood hazards. We will also walk through key considerations in developing and implementing successful Flood Emergency Response Plans (FERPs).
 

Isabelle Stern

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

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• Floodplain Management and the Law: Helping Local Government Attorneys Help their Floodplain Managers

 

A consistent issue at the local government for floodplain managers and their local governments is fear of potential legal liability for floodplain management activities. Often, understandably risk-averse local government attorneys worry about the potential property rights claims that may accompany floodplain management regulations that are stricter than the minimums required by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). However, local governments are often more likely to experience long-term costs and liabilities for development they permit than for developments that they do not permit. The “No Adverse Impact” (NAI) concept promoted by the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) addresses this by promoting standards that protect people and property from increasing flooding threats by ensuring development that will not increase hazards. To assist floodplain managers in getting NAI standards approved at the local level, ASFPM developed the NAI Legal Guide. While a valuable resource, the NAI Legal Guide was national in scope, providing specific guidance on federal and U.S. Constitution-based issues, but discussion of tort law and state-specific takings law was limited. To address this and create a resource specifically for Virginia local government attorneys to have a resource they can turn to in supporting their floodplain managers, one of the legal authors of this guide is working with students to develop a Virginia-specific version of the NAI Legal Guide. This presentation will summarize lessons and take aways from the draft “Virginia NAI Legal Guide.”
 

Thomas Ruppert, Esq.

William & Mary, Virginia Coastal Resilience Collaborative

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• Modeling Pluvial Flood Hazards in Coastal Virginia

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Over the past decade, hazards posed by pluvial—or rainfall-driven—flood events have increasingly become a priority as communities seek to understand the risk posed by severe storms. Pluvial flooding occurs when intense rainfall overwhelms local drainage systems. During severe storms, the volume of rainwater can exceed the capacity of both natural and built drainage infrastructure, resulting in pluvial flooding. Furthermore, coastal and fluvial (riverine) flood events can exacerbate pluvial flooding by increasing the water levels and reducing the drainage capacity, compounding the risk and impact on affected communities. Identified by stakeholders as a key data need during the first phase of the Coastal Resilience Master Plan, pluvial modeling was performed in the second phase, leading to the development of pluvial flood hazards data for portions of 57 coastal counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Spanning 439 HUC 12’s, this analysis included the development of 1,830 2D HEC-RAS models, resulting in over 275,000 simulations spanning 2, 6, and 24 hour durations, with rainfall amounts ranging from the 2-year to the 500-year event. In anticipation of the volume frequency changes expected in Atlas 15, and to incorporate future changes in frequency assignment, an incremental approach was used for developing the rainfall volumes used in the suite of simulations. This talk will present an overview of the technical approaches used in the development of the data and models used in the pluvial analysis. An overview of the study area, data, and computational methods will be discussed, including a description of the semi-automated processes and cloud based tools used in the development of the models and output datasets. Results of the project including model data, depth grids, and the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) designed to improve community access to data created for this analysis will be presented.
 

Seth Lawler, PhD

Dewberry

 

Darius Edwards

Dewberry

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2:20pm-3:05 pm | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Floodproofing Measures for Commercial Buildings Located in a FEMA Floodplain

 

This course identifies the effects of hydrostatic pressure on building sustainability and explains dry and wet floodproofing techniques are utilized to mitigate against flood damage. A review of the liability associated with each floodproofing option is provided. Relevant FEMA regulations including the 2021 revised TB-3, ICC building codes, and ASCE 24 are reviewed. The course provides an in-depth analysis of active and passive floodproofing options and the effect each of these options have on a design. Case studies will demonstrate how to effectively incorporate floodproofing techniques in projects.
 

Kurt Luecke, CFM

Floodproofing.com

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• The Practice of Hazard Mitigation Planning in Virginia: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

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This is a presentation of common strengths and weaknesses that shape the dynamics of mitigation planning practices within Virginia. These insights are derived from structed, guided conversations with practitioners who have hands-on knowledge of the practical mechanics, politics, and constraints involved with producing or updating hazard mitigation plans locally, regionally, and at the State level. While there are common elements found across many hazard mitigation planning processes, in practice there is much variation in process participation, definitions, alignment with other planning goals, mitigative solutions, and overall effectiveness of the plans. We explore identified strengths in terms of shared vision, leadership, and innovation. We also explore weaknesses in terms of engagement of commercial stakeholders, identification of critical infrastructure, measuring dependencies and interdependencies, and measuring the economic and social consequences of degraded infrastructure. In particular, we explore the emerging dynamic of cyber as critical infrastructure. We conclude by offering three key recommendations and looking ahead at the future of hazard mitigation planning.
 

Joshua G. Behr

ODU

 

Dr. Wie Yusuf

ODU

 

Leigh Chapman

Salter’s Creek Consulting, Inc;

 

Kaleen Lawsure

ODU

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• Navigating rising seas with data: A simplified approach for understanding the impacts of sea level rise

 

Coastal communities face increasing risks from erosion and sea level rise. Our Virginia cities and counties must prepare and respond to these challenges. Flood scenarios have been traditionally assessed using complex hydrodynamic models that are usually time and resource intensive to develop. However, new variables like sea level rise and climate projections, changes to terrain, and community development can accumulate faster than we can create and run these types of models. One alternative is passive flood mapping. This data-driven approach allows communities to assess their future flood risk in an efficient manner. Using simple GIS tools and leveraging publicly available data, we can build a database of public infrastructure and property that allows us to easily evaluate a community’s resilience to future flood risk. We can then develop a strategy for potential action. Anne Arundel County, Maryland has a number of coastal communities along the Chesapeake Bay. The county recently used this passive approach to update their sea level rise strategic plan—identifying vulnerable areas, infrastructure, cultural and natural resources. By replicating this example in Virginia communities, we will explore how studies done by other agencies were leveraged to identify areas of shoreline erosion, rate of retreat, and the potential for living shoreline mitigation. Anne Arundel also used the results of its analysis to recommend mitigation measures for ecologically significant areas, existing and future developments, and infrastructure. The results also support risk awareness communications with the public, which are critical for building resilience. Through an online story map, residents can visualize their risk by seeing the extent of expected flooding. This clear view of risk can help communities see what lies ahead.

 

Jeane Camelo, PhD

Michael Baker International

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3:05pm-3:20 pm | Networking Break​

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3:20pm-4:05 pm | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Designing for the Future: Resilient Design Guidelines for Hampton Roads 

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Southeastern Virginia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the United States to coastal flooding and sea level rise. For more than a decade, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) has focused on developing policy recommendations, vulnerability analyses, GIS data, and mapping products to aid its member jurisdictions and other local, regional, and state entities in Virginia in addressing these challenges. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has been working with its Coastal Resiliency Committee and with other governmental, non-governmental, and academic partners at the local, regional, state, and federal levels to develop climate-informed policies for stormwater and floodplain management that account for future conditions. This effort has included developing products and datasets including trends and observations for sea level rise, rainfall, temperature, and other climate conditions, projections of future sea level rise, future flood extents and elevations, probabilistic water levels, and rainfall intensity-duration-frequency values, and design storms scenarios that account for both tides and rainfall. These projections and recommended standards are accompanied by policy strategies for how to consider project lifespan and criticality, recommendations for amending local floodplain, zoning, and subdivision ordinances, and GIS and data products for use by locality staff, consultants, and others. These standards are scheduled to be adopted by the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission in mid-2024.
 

Benjamin McFarlane, AICP, CFM

HRPDC

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• The True Cost of Natural and Beneficial Functions 

 

Blossom Consulting and Engineering Inc. will explore multiple case studies for projects where the natural and beneficial functions of floodplains are involved. Project case studies will include the following: - Stream restoration for nutrient crediting in an active floodplain downstream of a flood control dam. This section will explore key design parameters for success stories after 3 years of monitoring. - The challenge of preserving beneficial functions while meeting the increasing demands for energy in Virginia. This component will address the intricacies of floodplain studies for linear utilities under pressure and in a dynamic FEMA environment. - The importance of floodplain analysis in conjunction with dam removal - a case study from the Shenandoah River Valley. This case study will explore the cost benefit analysis associated with dam removal (with downstream structures in the floodplain) associated with a BRIC application. Learning objectives include: - develop an understanding of hydraulic analysis associated with multi- stage channel design and how it is used to improve floodplain connectivity and ultimately beneficial functions of the floodplain, - provide insight into the complexities of energy demand as it relates to transmission lines in floodplains in the interest of improving resiliency and sustainability - share data for cost benefit analysis associated with dam removal and stream/floodplain restoration.

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Scott Blossom, CFM, P.E.

Blossom Consulting

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• Raising Resilience for Washington, DC with an Integrated Flood Model

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Washington, DC is uniquely situated at the confluence of two tidal rivers and is vulnerable to flooding from three different sources: riverine, tidal/coastal storm surge, and interior. As emphasized in the DC Department of Energy & Environment’s (DOEE) 2015 Climate Projections & Scenario Development report, all three types of flooding in the District are intensifying as the climate changes. Over recent years, the District has experienced more frequent short intense storms that produce greater rainfall than the city’s stormwater pipe system can handle, causing significant interior flooding. In 2022, the DC Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE) with the AECOM Team started work on designing, building, and providing an Integrated Flood Model (IFM) for the District to better understand interior flooding risk throughout the city, and better predict where this flooding will occur in the future. Over the past year, the IFM has been built and validated, and displays the depth and extent of flooding from the three sources of flooding as a result of various scenarios. The IFM is helping DOEE prioritize where flood mitigation efforts should be directed. The IFM will soon be used to design and test solutions to reduce flood risk throughout the city and will provide District residents a better picture of their flood risk. DOEE is looking for greener, more equitable, and economically sound flood risk reduction solutions. This presentation will review the goals and objectives of the IFM, discuss technical approach and challenges encountered while building the model and identified solutions, share initial results for select model scenarios, describe the system architecture document and designed user interface, and address stakeholder engagement. Finally, we will discuss next steps for the IFM.

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Sherwin Zahirieh, PE, ENV SP

AECOM

 

Christine Estes, PE, CFM, PMP

AECOM

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4:10pm-4:55 pm | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Advancing rural community adaptation in to rising sea levels through partnering and community  engagement – a case example in Oyster, Virginia

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Many rural and underserved communities in Virginia lack capacity and resources to plan and implement strategies for climate adaptation. Such communities need partnership to crease administrative and technical capacity. Oyster, Virginia located in Northampton County on Virginia’s eastern shore, is such a community. The unincorporated village has rich working waterfront heritage and culture but is highly vulnerable to rising sea levels and chronic flooding. The Nature Conservancy, a community stakeholder, recognized the planning needs for the community and was successful in grant applications to both the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to secure funding for a community adaptation plan. An initial vision to produce an adaption planning process that produced grant-ready actions to facilitate implementation. On grant award, TNC partnered with the community and consultant to facilitate creation of a community sea level rise adaptation plan, guided by a steering committee of with whole-of-community representation. The adaptation planning process was facilitated by Dewberry and included an emphasis on community engagement. Four public meetings were developed using an interactive open-house format. This provided one-on-one opportunities to connect and gather input from the community residents and stakeholders. Examples include up-front elicitation of community flood history and impacts to focus the study hazard impact assessment, socializing the broad resilience strategy toolkit to narrow alternative development to community preferences, presenting adaptation alternatives to elicit feedback and preferences for strategy refinement, and to gather input on draft strategy products. Our presentation will provide an overview of the planning effort, highlight challenges for underserved communities, and how partnership and processes can be combined to advance climate adaptation outcomes.

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Brian Batten, Ph.D, CFM

Dewberry

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• How wet must a wetland be to have federal protections? Estimating a range of potential impacts from Sackett v. EPA using wetland flooding frequency

 

In 2023, the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Sackett v. EPA created an unclear requirement that federally protected wetlands must have a "continuous surface connection" to federally protected waters. This study estimates the potential impact of interpretations of the ruling on federal wetlands protections, using wetland flooding frequency as a proxy for the new requirement. An estimated 17 million acres (19%) to nearly all 90 million acres of non-tidal wetlands in the conterminous US could be without federal protections, and variability in state protections creates hotspots of risk. The high-level estimates provided here represent a first step towards understanding the potential extent of the impact of Sackett v. EPA on federal wetlands protections and highlight the uncertainty introduced by the ruling.
 

Adam Gold, Ph.D.

Environmental Defense Fund

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• Bringing Fairfax County, VA Flood Maps To The 21st Century

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 Current effective FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) were initially developed for Fairfax County, VA in the 1970s. FEMA is currently updating the County’s FIRMs. Fairfax County intends to regulate the floodplains of all stream channels within the county that have drainage areas 70 acres and greater. AtkinsRéalis is currently working with Fairfax County to develop a regulatory floodplain layer for all 70-acre streams by leveraging the terrain and cross sections from the most recent FEMA study and developing flows using the Anderson Method, the County’s preferred hydrologic method. The final regulatory floodplain layer would be assembled from the more conservative results between the County and FEMA. Fairfax County plans to fully remap the entire county, which includes 27 watersheds, 800 stream miles, and 1200 stream crossings. This is a large-scale project with many moving parts, including hydrology development, hydraulic model development, survey collection and implementation, and mapping. Thus, a key component is to plan in phases to handle all data and tasks. The watersheds have been split into two phases and three stages. Each phase has three stages: base HEC-RAS model development, field surveys of hydraulic structures, and detailed model development and mapping. The hydrologic and hydraulic analyses are being performed in parallel. Production is being done by watershed basis with the hydraulics for a given basin lagging the hydrology for that basin. The project team has completed the hydrology calculations for all both phases and hydraulics for all Phase 1 watersheds. Phase 2 hydraulics is still ongoing. Subsequent stages of the work will include field surveys of hydraulic structures, detailed HEC-RAS model development and floodplain mapping. This presentation will focus on the technical components and final products from the project. 

 

Rebecca Purvis, PhD, PE

AtkinsRealis

 

Ken Hunu, D.Eng., PE, DWRE, PMP, CFM

AtkinsRealis

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5:00pm-6:30pm | Awards Ceremony & Reception

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Details coming soon!

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Friday, October 25 

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8:30am-9:15am | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Streamlining Community Rating System (CRS) activities: How the City of Newport News Integrated CRS activities into Master Planning Efforts

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The City of Newport News, located in the coastal Hampton Roads region of Virginia, experiences flooding impacts caused by heavy rainfall, storm surge, and tidal flooding. These flooding challenges will continue to worsen with ongoing climate change impacts of sea level rise and more frequent and intense rainfall. The City is actively working to address these challenges through a master planning effort to develop three individual but interdependent plans: a Stormwater Master Plan, Floodplain Management Plan, and Climate Change and Resilience Master Plan. The City is coordinating with a consultant team led by GKY to develop these master plans with funding through the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund. Through this planning effort, Dewberry has been supporting the City in working towards improving their ranking from a Class 7 in the Community Rating System (CRS). This presentation will focus on analysis and planning activities the City has undertaken throughout the master planning effort that aligns with the CRS. This includes developing a Floodplain Management Plan and Program for Public Information through a joint committee process and creating a Repetitive Loss Plan and Substantial Damage Plan to support parcel-level flood mitigation strategies. Spatial analysis to map areas with high rates of coastal erosion and projected floodplains with future sea level rise have been further leveraged to evaluate higher regulatory standards in floodplain management policies. While these planning processes may seem onerous for CRS communities, undertaking these efforts in tandem helped create efficiencies, ensure alignment across multiple plans, and coordinate stakeholder engagement. Highlights from these efforts and the broader master plans will be shared along with lessons learned.
 

Ashley Gordon, CFM

Dewberry

 

Christopher Williams, CFM

City of Newport News

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• Non-Coastal Flood Resilience Planning

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Creating successful municipal flood resilience plans requires integrated strategies to incorporate knowledge of municipal staff, citizens, and past planning efforts within the municipality. This is best exemplified by the recent planning effort undertaken several municipalities in Southwest Virginia to creating their first flood resilience plan. Multiple strategies were combined to create an all-encompassing analysis of current and future flood-resilient project recommendations. The plans utilized public outreach methods, and research of various watersheds/sewershed plans to conduct a gap analysis for prospective project recommendations. A customized ranking matrix was developed using multiple state and federal agency-based criteria to prioritize projects to maximize grant funding.

 

Ginny Snead, PE, CFM

AMT

 

Mary Simmons, CFM

AMT

 

• Use Cases for DCR's Pluvial Flood Models

 

DCR's Office of Resilience Planning will present on the recently released a Pluvial Model Use Case Guide that presents use cases for DCR's pluvial models and depth grid data. The 2D, sub-HUC12, pluvial HEC-RAS models and 10-ft resolution depth grids were developed as part of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan and are available to the public to download and utilize. The models include 2-hr, 6-hr, and 24-hr duration events with a range of equal interval precipitation values.
 

Matt Dalon

DCR

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9:20am-10:05am | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• ​Cumulative Substantial Improvement Tracking: Addressing the Challenge of Day-to-Day Enforcement

 

Local development standards serve as important levers for encouraging community-wide adaptation and flood mitigation. When properly enforced, regulatory requirements can encourage residents in coastal communities to make more informed decisions that consider flood risk when investing in properties. This is especially true in the case of Cumulative Substantial Improvement and Substantial Damage (SI/SD). Communities that adopt ordinances with cumulative SI/SD track improvements over time, so that minimum flood standards can be enforced over a greater number of structures in regulatory floodplains. These ordinances have multiple benefits – in addition to ensuring up-to-date compliance, cumulative SI/SD also helps to reduce severe repetitive loss and lower insurance premium through CRS credits. While the notion of higher regulatory standards is simple in concept and popular among communities with high flood risk and significant resources, not all municipalities are equally equipped to accommodate finer grain or more stringent enforcement. In the case of Cumulative SI/SD, under-resourced communities face compounding challenges: gaining political buy-in, educating residents on stricter standards, and developing systems for adequately tracking/enforcing new standards. The obstacle of keeping track of floodplain development can be prohibitive for communities wanting to adopt stricter regulations. In this session, we will discuss best practices and available resources for tracking substantial improvement over time. Topics covered will include the importance of data continuity and existing local level innovations employed by floodplain managers to address gaps in tooling.
 

Melanie Harris

Forerunner

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• Engaging with Your Community’s Hazard Mitigation Planning Process

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Floodplain Managers are leading the way to help our communities become more resilient to flood hazards. They understand current flooding challenges faced by their region and can provide invaluable insights to help prepare for future flood events. However, floodplain managers aren’t always equipped with the proper tools necessary to engage in the local hazard mitigation planning process. In this session, the presenter will provide overviews of a variety of planning strategies and tools used to engage floodplain managers around both current and future flooding. The presenter will provide a brief overview of the five-year planning cycle, share insights from stakeholder involvement, and discuss how floodplain manager expertise might be captured in hazard mitigation plans. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions, share their experience engaging with the plan, and recommend other flood planning strategies or tools that have been effective for them.
 

Rodney Bahner, AICP

FEMA, Region 3, Virginia FIT

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• Modernizing Water Resources Intelligence

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As water resource and public safety teams at the state level, it's imperative that we provide an accessible and dependable real-time flood monitoring network & flood event analysis to support actionable planning and risk-based decisions with a goal of preventing and reducing the loss of life and property. To accomplish that, the Virginia Flood Monitoring System (VFMS) was constructed in early 2024. The network, which consists of 130+ sites, provides critical early warning in flood prone areas - especially in central and western communities - in addition to monitoring smaller creeks and streams that tend to rise quickly in response to heavy rainfall events. To better help our agencies and its partners understand forecasted and real-time high-water impacts, VDEM and VDOT work together on multiple initiatives to include early flood warning systems, geodetic and bridge surveying, GIS applications and event data collection and analysis. VDOT’s application to the FHWA's PROTECT Discretionary Program was recently selected which will provide funding to implement the Modernizing Operations for Virginia’s Evacuation Resilience (MOVER) program, a pilot effort for the procurement, installation, and data integration of weather and traffic monitoring technology within VDOT’s Hampton Roads, Fredericksburg, and Richmond Districts along with strategic operations and systems improvements. MOVER is the Department’s first step in the implementation of a comprehensive statewide integrated technology initiative to ensure efficient traffic flow on critical routes during emergency weather events and to create a more resilient evacuation network in Virginia. An additional substantial boost to the Commonwealth's planning and operational capability for high water events is NOAA's historic implementation of event-driven flood inundation mapping which has been a longstanding request from communities across the United States and is publicly available, along with all gage data, at water.noaa.gov.
 

Steven Pyle, VDEM

 

Sarah Chappel, VDEM

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Maria Mutuc, PE

VDOT

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Bryan Wade, AEM

VDOT

 

10:05am-10:35am | Networking Break​

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10:35am-11:20am | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Enhancing Flood Resilience with PCSWMM: An Albemarle County Case Study

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When a concerned Albemarle County resident shared a photo of floodwaters reaching their doorstep in 2018, it spurred the county into action, initiating a crucial process of flood hazard identification and mitigation within the Branchlands Watershed. Securing a BRIC grant from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) in 2020 further solidified the commitment of both Albemarle County and VDEM to building resilience against flooding across the state. This endeavor adopted a holistic approach, modeling the entire 900-acre watershed to identify and address flooding issues. Areas prone to pluvial flooding due to undersized pipes, channels, and inadequate infrastructure were pinpointed. The identified Simulated Flooded Areas (SFAs) were then ranked based on county-developed criteria, ensuring that the most critical flooding concerns were prioritized for mitigation efforts. Ultimately, twelve projects were designed to reduce flooding in homes, businesses, and on roads, fostering increased resilience in the face of future flood events. These projects, along with supporting data to guide future CIP funding and resource allocation, were presented to the County. Notably, one of the top-priority projects directly addressed the flooding that initially sparked this initiative, demonstrating the power of community engagement and proactive flood mitigation strategies.

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Stavros Calos

Albemarle County

 

Annalee Wisecarver, EIT

Kimley-Horn

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• Synching your floodplain regulations and the Uniform Statewide Building Code \

 

Nearly 300 of Virginia’s counties and independent municipalities participate in the NFIP (about 20 do not). Many of those communities adopted local floodplain management regulations 40-50 years ago. Communities all across the Commonwealth have two sets of requirements for floodplain construction: local regulations and the flood provisions of the Uniform Statewide Building Code. Compliance with the USBC is required by state law. So, what happens when there are differences? Answering that question should prompt examination of local regs compared to the USBC – and how best to resolve differences. This session will highlight the flood provisions in the USBC and explore the benefits of a “code coordinated” ordinance that relies on the USBC while preserving community-specific requirements and higher standards. We’ll also share lessons learned from 14 years providing support to the State of Florida where 98% of its 468 NFIP communities use a FEMA-approved code-coordinated ordinance.
 

Rebecca C. Quinn, CFM

RCQuinn Consulting, Inc.

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• Comparison Analysis for FFRMS and ClimateEVA Floodplain Elevation

 

The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) was established to encourage federal agencies to consider and manage current and future flood risks in order to build a more resilient nation. The project allows the flexibility that required agencies choose one from three approaches to establish flood elevation. One of the approach, Freeboard Value Approach (FVA) is to add an additional 2 feet to the base flood elevation for non-critical actions and by adding an additional 3 feet to the base flood elevation for critical actions. ClimateEVA (Extreme Value Analysis) is a WSP developed tool that enables users query dynamic precipitation-frequency analysis data based on projections from 50- and 100-year climate models with an easy-to-use web interface. In this presentation, we will share a comparison study between floodplains from FFRMS FVA approach and HEC-RAS 2D models with climate-projected precipitation under 100-year climate scenarios. We will also demonstrate how to obtain climate-precipitation data from ClimateEVA and import such data into built HEC-RAS 2D models. FFRMS is widely available and designed to be a planning tool as a response to climate change. This experiment can provide some insight on the performance of FFRMS versus the actual representation of future precipitation impact on floodplains.

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Qijue Chen

WSP

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11:25am-12:10pm | Concurrent Sessions​​

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• Building Resilience in the City of Hampton: Adapting to Rising Tides and Rainfall to Mitigate Flooding

 

​Coastal communities like Hampton, Virginia, are grappling with the increasing threat of flooding due to intensified rainfall, rising tides, and sea-level rise. In a collaborative effort, the City of Hampton has partnered with Kimley-Horn to conduct watershed studies, employing hydraulic and hydrological modeling techniques to pinpoint flood-prone areas and develop mitigation strategies. This abstract focuses on the King Street Watershed Study, which aims to alleviate flooding within the watershed boundaries. The study revealed that Simulated Flood Areas (SFAs) in the King Street watershed are susceptible to pluvial and tidal flooding caused by inadequate stormwater infrastructure and low roadway elevations. These SFAs were ranked based on city-defined criteria to prioritize project implementation and sequencing, aiming to reduce structural and street flooding experienced by residents. Prioritization factors included storm recurrence intervals, proximity to ongoing projects, and the extent of structural flooding. The study culminated in the presentation of proposed projects to the City of Hampton, encompassing site-specific details and priority rankings. This proactive approach underscores the City of Hampton's commitment to building resilience against the

mounting challenges of climate change and ensuring a safer future for its residents.

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Mohammed Shar, PE, PhD, CFM, CCE

City of Hampton

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Arturo Vilcherrez, EIT

Kimley-Horn​

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• Enhancing Flood Resilience: The Redesigned NFIP Compliance Audit Program

 

Amidst the evolving landscape of flood risk management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is embarking on a transformative journey with the launch of the redesigned National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Compliance Audit Program. Led by Josh Lippert, this session offers a comprehensive overview of the strategic roadmap guiding the implementation of this groundbreaking initiative. Transitioning from the Compliance Assistance Visit/Compliance Analysis Visit (CAC/CAV) process to the NFIP Compliance Audit Program signifies a watershed moment in FEMA's commitment to bolstering flood resilience nationwide. Attendees will gain invaluable insights into the timelines, milestones, and key components of the rollout strategy, laying the foundation for effective implementation. The redesigned NFIP Compliance Audit Program introduces a myriad of values, paramount among them being the ability to measure compliance "health" at a point in time, enabling the assessment of improvement over time. This measure aids FEMA in focusing resources where they are most needed, amplifying the program's impact on community resilience. Join us in this interactive session to delve deeper into the redesigned NFIP Compliance Audit Program and seize the opportunity to shape the future of flood resilience. Together, we can navigate this journey towards a more resilient future, where communities are fortified to withstand and recover from the impacts of flooding events.

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Josh Lippert, CFM

FEMA Region 3

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• City-Wide Water Level and Waves Basis of Design Study for Coastal Flood Mitigation in Norfolk, Virginia

 

The Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Project (NCSRM) is being completed in partnership between USACE and City of Norfolk to reduce the flood risk associated with coastal storms. The proposed NCSRM system includes floodwalls, levees, gates and pumping, nature-based solutions and property-scale floodproofing. The design of these features requires an understanding of how coastal water levels, waves, and wave responses such as overtopping vary within the City’s extensive estuarine shoreline. The City's consultants completed a city-wide coastal analysis that establishes coastal basis of design parameters, assessing storm surge, waves and wave loads, and wave overtopping. The analysis used available public data from the USACE Coastal Hazards System to drive non-linear wave transformation and probabilistic wave overtopping analysis for all of the NCSRM floodwall, gate and levee extents. For each principal structure type a wave overtopping threshold criterion was established (e.g. 0.03 cfs/ft for floodwalls and 0.01 cfs/ft for levees), and the design proposed for each NCSRM phase was evaluated for compliance. Identification of critical reaches in this way is essential for understanding areas that may require additional analyses or design refinements to improve the functional performance of the system. The information was also used to tabulate representative wave forces on structures classified as vertical walls. Finally, water level and wave characteristics were determined for areas where property-scale floodproofing is proposed, to help inform those designs. The presentation describes how the city-wide analysis was completed efficiently through a combination of public data, GIS analyses and custom coding to generate wave parameters in a repeatable, scalable manner. Participants will learn how this type of analysis can benefit coastal communities as they consider the feasibility and costs of coastal flood mitigation programs.

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Maarten Kluijver, PE

Moffatt & Nichol

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12:10pm-2:00pm | Lunch Plenary ​

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Details to be announced.

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2:00pm-2:45pm | Concurrent Sessions​

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• Investing in Resilience: Virginia’s Community Flood Preparedness Fund

 

The Community Flood Preparedness Fund (CFPF), established by the General Assembly in 2020, provides grants and loans to local governments across Virginia to help build capacity, complete studies and analysis, and construct projects that help communities address flooding. As of June 2023, the CFPF has awarded approximately $157.4 million for nearly 100 proposals across Virginia. The CFPF has been the Commonwealth’s largest ever investment in resilience, with an emphasis on building local capacity for flood planning while also contributing significantly to the costs of major stormwater and flood protection infrastructure projects in communities that have already demonstrated the need. It has also incentivized the use of natural and nature-based features, representing a strong financial commitment that aligns with the Commonwealth’s stated policy preferences for using green infrastructure. Hampton Roads communities have applied for and used funding from the CFPF for all three types of projects, including the development of resiliency plans, completing technical studies and analyses, and designing and constructing projects, including several with significant nature-based components. This session will provide an analysis of how the CFPF has been used statewide, with an emphasis on how localities can take advantage of the fund to pursue local flood mitigation priorities. The session will also cover specific examples from the Hampton Roads region.
 

Benjamin McFarlane AICP, CFM

HRPDC

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• You've Adopted Higher Standards. Now What?

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You’ve convinced your leadership that adopting higher standards will lead to a safer, stronger, more resilient community. You’ve navigated the adoption process and embedded higher standards into your floodplain ordinance. Now your work is done, right? Unfortunately, not. Designing local permitting systems to successfully implement higher standards can be challenging. But we’ve developed strategies that achieve success in a number of ways. This presentation will walk you through Henrico County, Virginia’s approach to implementing their floodplain management program that effectively applies and enforces the higher standards they adopted in 2021 (and earlier). This presentation will cover the benefits of public facing resources, internal standard operating procedures, and engaging directly with the development community. Tips and resources to help communities navigate what comes after higher standards are adopted will also be shared.
 

Kristin Owen, AICP, CFM

Henrico County

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• Predicting Flooding in Vulnerable Communities

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Katherine Osborne

Stantec

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