About the Flood Resiliency Blueprint

Purpose

The Flood Resiliency Blueprint will be a resource for riverine and stream management and support the establishment and furtherance of local government stormwater maintenance programs to reduce flooding in North Carolina. The project will explore and learn from examples of similar work in other states and identify major watersheds affected by flooding through the incorporation of existing and future flood risk projections to ultimately direct funds toward activities that best support the creation of an actionable blueprint. The main objective of the blueprint is to form a set of prioritized projects and funding strategies that the State can implement in each of North Carolina’s 17 River Basins.

The purpose of the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint is to reduce the likelihood and extent of flooding, reduce vulnerability and impact from flooding, and increase community ability to maintain and quickly resume pre-storm activities following a flood.

Goals & Strategies

Goal

Develop an online decision support tool which seamlessly guides state, county, municipal, and other jurisdictions to identify and select flood mitigation strategies responsibly, systematically, equitably, and transparently.

Strategy

Online Decision Support Tool

Develop an online decision support tool to allow end users (e.g., state agencies and regional and local governments) to seamlessly visualize flood vulnerability for different flood risk conditions and choose from a suite of flood mitigations strategies (e.g., nature-based solutions, structural and nonstructural approaches, etc.) based on the best available data and models available. The tool will produce output products such as planning-level cost estimates, potential funding sources, and evaluation of costs and benefits of proposed actions at the basin and sub-basin scale throughout the state.

Goal

Develop community and basin-specific risk management processes to identify and address flooding for NC communities.

Strategy

Basin-specific Action Strategies

Develop River Basin Specific Action Strategies for prioritized major river basins in NC to validate decision support tool and identify priority geographic areas for additional modeling efforts to support a common, statewide model.

Goal

Establish a repeatable, statewide methodology for prioritizing, and selecting flood mitigation strategies for future implementation.

Strategy

Blueprint Process Document

Develop a documented process for conducting flood resiliency planning at multiple scales which can be applied anywhere in the state, taking into account NC basins have different flood exposure, data and modeling needs, and/or capacity.

  • Long-term Administration of Blueprint: Design a program that allows for long-term repeatability of the decision-support tool and other Blueprint elements including, but not limited to, capacity building for municipal and state government end users, updating key data and modeling inputs, and long-term basin planning.
  • Governance and Decision Making: Recommendations for a governing body to evaluate/approve flood mitigation projects and/or additional modeling/data needs for funding (e.g. DOT, DEQ, municipal, etc.)
Goals Strategies
Develop an online decision support tool which seamlessly guides state, county, municipal, and other jurisdictions to identify and select flood mitigation strategies responsibly, systematically, equitably, and transparently.

Online Decision Support Tool

Develop an online decision support tool to allow end users (e.g., state agencies and regional and local governments) to seamlessly visualize flood vulnerability for different flood risk conditions and choose from a suite of flood mitigations strategies (e.g., nature-based solutions, structural and nonstructural approaches, etc.) based on the best available data and models available. The tool will produce output products such as planning-level cost estimates, potential funding sources, and evaluation of costs and benefits of proposed actions at the basin and sub-basin scale throughout the state.

Develop community and basin-specific risk management processes to identify and address flooding for NC communities.

Basin-specific Action Strategies

Develop River Basin Specific Action Strategies for prioritized major river basins in NC to validate decision support tool and identify priority geographic areas for additional modeling efforts to support a common, statewide model.

Establish a repeatable, statewide methodology for prioritizing, and selecting flood mitigation strategies for future implementation.

Blueprint Process Document

Develop a documented process for conducting flood resiliency planning at multiple scales which can be applied anywhere in the state, taking into account NC basins have different flood exposure, data and modeling needs, and/or capacity.

  • Long-term Administration of Blueprint: Design a program that allows for long-term repeatability of the decision-support tool and other Blueprint elements including, but not limited to, capacity building for municipal and state government end users, updating key data and modeling inputs, and long-term basin planning.
  • Governance and Decision Making: Recommendations for a governing body to evaluate/approve flood mitigation projects and/or additional modeling/data needs for funding (e.g. DOT, DEQ, municipal, etc.)

Key Terms

Actions that prepare for and adjust to new conditions, thereby reducing harm or taking advantage of new opportunities. Adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected hazards or their effects, which reduces harm or exploits beneficial opportunities.

Flood hazards that include wave action, storm surge, and tidal flooding.

A phenomenon in which two or more flooding sources occur simultaneously or subsequently within a short period of time. The most common type of compound flooding—a combination of storm surge and riverine flooding—can produce floodwaters that are longer in duration and more widespread than anticipated.

An event or physical condition that can cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption of business, or other types of harm or loss.​

Measurable damage resulting from a hazardous flooding event on people, socioeconomic systems, environmental, structural, commercial and infrastructure assets.

Capacity of individuals, a community, business, or natural environment to reduce, withstand, respond to, and recover from flooding by positively adapting and mitigating the impacts of changing conditions and challenges, including flooding and climate change.

A statewide, watershed-based, volume-based, flood resilience planning approach and decision-making framework, intended to form the backbone of North Carolina’s flood planning process.

Combination of the likelihood of a flood hazard, the physical exposure of people and assets to that flood hazard, and the vulnerability of people and assets to suffer loss and damage during and after a flooding event.

Level of ability people, communities, and assets (homes, businesses, infrastructure, etc.) have to prepare for, manage, survive, and recover from a flood event given existing socio-economic, environmental, and physical contexts.

The interconnected networks of natural and constructed ecological systems within and in-between urban areas utilized for stormwater management at different scales. Examples include rain gardens, stormwater wetlands, parks, floodplains, and living shorelines.

Engineered structural stormwater control practices such as pipes, ditches, dams, levees, and retention ponds.

Individuals, groups, and communities that have historically and systematically been denied access to services, resources, and power relationships across economic, political, and cultural dimensions as a result of systemic, durable, and persistent racism, discrimination, and other forms of oppression.

Any effort that reduces the overall risk and severity of flood related loss and damage to life and property.

The program of flood insurance coverage and floodplain management administered under the Act and applicable Federal regulations promulgated in Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Subchapter B

Also referred to as "nature-based infrastructure;" an approach that uses natural systems or processes to provide flood mitigation, such as wetlands for flood storage or coastal marsh to reduce the impact of waves, storm surge, and coastal erosion.

Practices that reduce flood losses by removing people and property out of risk areas. Non-structural mitigation techniques include elevated structures, property buyouts, permanent relocation, zoning, subdivision, building codes, and stormwater detention requirements.

Commonly referred to as "flash floods," principally caused by downpours in areas without adequate drainage, by removal of natural storage functions, or by modification of natural drainage.

A committee comprised of representatives from various sectors that provide technical and other expert advice and context for the development of the Blueprint.

Being prepared, ready to respond, able to cope and recover from a flood event. Resilience to flooding can be achieved through a suite of tools and services, including mitigation.

The largest category of surface water drainage (i.e., an area of the landscape that is drained by a river and its tributaries); there are seventeen (17) river basins in North Carolina.

Fluvial, or riverine flooding, occurs when excessive rainfall over an extended period causes a river to exceed its channel capacity.

People who contribute to the planning and decision-making processes of ongoing resilience efforts in communities where they live, work, play, and invest.

Practices that reduce flood losses by reconstructing landscapes. Structural mitigation techniques include floodwalls/seawalls, floodgates, levees, evacuation routes, and stormwater control measures.

The TAG is comprised of representatives from sub-TAGs and specific members appointed by DEQ to provide feedback, input, expert opinion, and support to the Blueprint team. This group is a collective of experts in their respective fields that have specific knowledge and experience in the flood resiliency space.

Groups who traditionally (or historically) have not had equal access to economic opportunities because of discrimination or other societal barriers. This may vary by context and geography but can include race, gender, ethnicity, sexual-orientation, disability, or low-income status.

Populations sharing a particular characteristic, as well as geographic communities, who have been systematically denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, social, and civic life.

An area of land that contains a common set of waterbodies (streams, rivers, lakes, or wetlands) that all drain into a single larger body of water. Watersheds can be defined at multiple geographic scales. In North Carolina, 17 “major” watersheds (basins) are defined by statute.