Proposed federal flood risk standard incorporates climate change

On Jan. 30, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order (EO) 13690 establishing a federal flood risk management standard “to improve the Nation’s resilience to current and future flood risk.” The executive order also sets up a process for further soliciting and considering stakeholder input before the standard is implement.

EO 13690 demonstrates President Obama’s belief in the importance of climate change as a major factor in increasing flooding risks. Recognizing the severe damage that flooding can cause to infrastructure, including buildings, roads, ports, industrial facilities and even coastal military installations, the new executive order directs federal agencies to ensure that new federal building projects are constructed to withstand the impact of flooding, following the new standard.

Learning from Hurricane Sandy

“The standard announced today leverages the experience gained through the Hurricane Sandy recovery and closely tracks flood elevation requirements already adopted in at least 350 jurisdictions across the country,” said John Podesta, counselor to the president, and Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new federal standard is similar to flood risk standards in place in the states of New York and New Jersey; both states were hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, and some locations are still recovering.

The federal flood risk management standard requires federal agencies to “consider the best available, actionable science of both current and future risk” when tax dollars are used to build or rebuild in flood plains. The standard establishes the flood level to which new and rebuilt federally funded structures or facilities must be resilient; however, agencies will have some flexibility in selecting one of three approaches for establishing the flood elevation and hazard area they use in siting, design and construction:

• Use the best available, actionable data and methods that integrate current and future changes in flooding based on climate science
• Build to two or three feet above the 100-year or 1% annual chance flood line
• Build to the 500-year or 0.2% annual chance flood level.

A draft version of the implementing guidelines is open for comment until April 6. If you're a government contractor, likely to be involved in a building project that might be in a flood zone, you should be sure to review the draft guidelines and comment as appropriate.

For more information on the federal flood risk management standard, click here.