Webinars Supporting Flood Risk Reduction

Community Rating System Webinar

The Community Rating System (CRS) is a very helpful tool that floodplain managers can leverage to help reduce flood risks. In the context of shared responsibility, the CRS program recognizes local community action to manage risk, and provides a unique opportunity for communities to lessen the cost of National Flood Insurance premiums paid by their residents. CRS provides incentives in the form of reduced flood insurance rates to recognized communities that take further action to manage their flood risks beyond those minimum steps required by the National Flood Insurance Program.

On September 20, 2011, Bill Lesser from FEMA HQ was the feature presenter for a webinar cosponsored by FEMA and the USACE on the basics of CRS and how it overlaps with the goals of the Silver Jackets teams. Al Goodman from the State of Mississippi presented on CRS User Groups as well as offered the state perspective. Stephanie Bray from USACE emphasized the advantages of Silver Jackets involvement with the CRS program.

The hour long webinar was recorded and can be found at https://fema.connectsolutions.com/p27992959/ .

USACE/NRCS Partnership Handbook, a Field Guide to Working Together Toward a Shared Goal.

As part of the continued collaborative effort between the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a handbook for field staff has been developed to stimulate and facilitate active cooperation and collaboration. The handbook contains basic information about each agency's missions, programs, capabilities, and modes of operation. Case studies and examples are included to illustrate what has worked in the past and where further collaboration and problem solving are needed to reach better results in the future. More details on the partnership can be found at http://wmc.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/partnerships/COE/partnership.html. A webinar was held April 26, 2011.

USACE Levee Safety Program and Development of Engineering Circular

USACE is developing an Engineer Circular (EC) that will provide policy and guidance for the USACE Levee Safety Program. Over the course of this year, webinars have been held to gather input from a variety of stakeholders including those within USACE and from other federal, state, and local stakeholders with an interest in levee safety. Last December the first in the series of webinars was held and covered the general concepts about the Levee Safety Program including the vision, draft guiding principles, and suggested portfolio management process as well as the process used to develop the EC.

In February the second in the series of webinars was held and covered the Levee Safety Program's routine activities including portfolio management, routine inspections, periodic inspections, levee screening and safety classification, risk communication, operations and maintenance, incident reporting and the national levee database.

The third in the series of webinars was conducted in March and addressed non-routine activities, interim risk reduction measures, issue evaluation studies and levee safety risk management studies. These webinars can be revisited at http://www.usace.army.mil/leveesafety/activities

ASFPM Webinar on the State of Flood Risk Reduction in the US…Are We Reducing Risk or Incentivizing It?

A webinar consisting of several leaders including Sandra Knight, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Mitigation for FEMA, Alex Dornstauder, Deputy Director of Homeland Security from USACE, Larry Larson, Executive Director of ASPFM, James Fiedler, President of National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies, and Andrew Fahlund, Senior Vice President for Conservation from American Rivers was held May 4, 2011. The topics of discussion were the status of flood risk management and the prognosis for moving the effects in a sustainable direction that reduces risk and gradually restores the ecological services performed by our nation's floodplains. A recording of the webinar can be found at http://vimeo.com/23534543

Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP)

Doug Bellomo, Director of the Risk Analysis Division from FEMA, indentified common ground with the Silver Jackets teams. This webinar introduced Risk MAP, focused on its public engagement pieces, outlined some of the mutual benefits stemming from a strong Silver Jackets/Risk MAP linkage, and discussed how the Public Participation Communities of Practice could be a resource for those running into implementation challenges.

Effective public engagement and risk communication are keys to increasing awareness and persuading people to act to reduce their current or future risk. Neighboring communities in a watershed must work together to effectively manage flood risk. Flood risk isn't something that can be done effectively along political boundaries. The webinar was held April 28, 2011. Doug Bellomo Presentation (pdf, 1.45 MB).

Sustainability with U.S. Department of HUD

A webinar on the US Department of HUD's Community Sustainability initiative was held June 2, 2011. It was sponsored by HUD, FEMA, USACE and the Natural Hazards Mitigation Association (NHMA). The information exchange will allow Silver Jackets team members and HUD Sustainability Officers to identify opportunities to leverage resources to meet common goals in order to strengthen community resiliency through community mitigation planning and projects. The feature presenter was Brian Gillen, the HUD Region V Sustainability Officer. The topics he covered included: an overview of the HUD Sustainability Office goals, a snapshot of various funding programs, a description of the current federal sustainable planning network, and examples of mitigation projects supported by HUD funding.

In addition there was a presentation by Ed Thomas, President of NHMA, summarizing the interagency patchwork quilt approach to addressing a community's long-term objectives while building livable, sustainable communities. Ed emphasized that leveraging multiple programs can create a synergy more beneficial than a project developed by any agency working alone. The supporting paper entitled "Planning and Building Livable, Safe and Sustainable Communities: the Patchwork Quilt Approach" (pdf, 1.10 MB) can be accessed.

All Federal and state agency representatives who have an interest in flood risk management and mitigation will find this webinar useful. The webinar was recorded and can be access at https://fema.connectsolutions.com/p74856073/

Revised 11 Oct 2011