FEMA Rule Calls for Updated Flood Modeling

A new policy from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will require projects using FEMA funding to demonstrate improved resilience, reports Julie Strupp for Construction Dive.

“Starting Sept. 9 new projects and infrastructure rebuilt after a disaster with FEMA funding must be elevated at least 2 feet above the area flood level, using up-to-date data and accounting for likely impacts of climate change, per the new Federal Flood Risk Management Standard,” Strupp explains. The rule aims to build resilience into the reconstruction process to protect infrastructure from future flooding.

The agency says previous approaches are outdated due to growing flood risk. “FEMA’s new standards will increase the flood elevation and the floodplain in order to reflect both current and future flood risk. The requirement that jurisdictions account for flooding that is likely to occur in the future under climate change is new.”

The new rule will apply to roughly 35,000 FEMA-funded projects in the next decade “involving new construction, substantial improvement or repairs to substantial damage, as well as to Hazard Mitigation Assistance projects involving structure elevation, dry floodproofing and mitigation reconstruction.”