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FEMA Media Library

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Catalog of FEMA National Dam Safety Program Resources (P-732)

This is a catalog of all the print publications that have been developed by FEMA for the National Dam Safety Program.

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Illustration Featured Vaccine Map

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Draft Environmental Assessment for the City of Paducah Riverfront Park, DR4428 and DR4540

Environmental Assessment
City of Paducah Riverfront Park Project
FEMA-DR-4428-KY and FEMA-DR-4540-KY
City of Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky
August 2020

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Guidance: Hydraulics: Two-Dimensional Analysis (Dec 2020)

This document discusses 2-D modeling as it pertains to National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulatory products. NFIP regulatory products are used to determine if a structure is located in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), set the flood insurance risk premium rate, and enforce appropriate floodplain management regulations. The 1-percent-annual-chance flood is a regulatory standard for the NFIP. Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are regulatory maps, where the 1-percent and in some instances 0.2-percent-annual chance floodplain boundaries are shown. If a flood insurance study includes regulatory floodways, additional information such as average flood velocity and cross sectional area are provided at some modeled cross sections as well. It is important to note that although some communities might choose to use FIRMs as a flood risk management tool, the main purpose of these maps is still flood insurance rate determination and floodplain management. Therefore, the most critical information shown on FIRMs are the flood elevations associated with the 1-percent-annual-chance discharges in the flooding sources. This document is not a technical manual or reference for 2-D modeling techniques.

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Guidance: Levee (Dec 2020)

This consolidated guidance document was prepared for FEMA, as part of the Risk MAP program, to promote sound and consistent implementation of levee-related National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations and mapping program standards that apply to levees.

This guidance document is intended to provide current information on the mapping of levees and associated flood hazards. This document captures current standards and practices and, therefore, does not address all topics related to the identification of flood hazards and risks associated with levees.

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Guidance: Areas of Mitigation Interest (AoMI) (Dec 2020)

The Areas of Mitigation Interest (AoMI) dataset is to capture the mitigation interests of the community and provide targets for future mitigation action. This dataset allows:

1. The Flood Risk Project team to identify areas that may be suited for mitigation action based on the Risk MAP findings.
2. Local stakeholders to provide information about local mitigation plans and datasets.
3. Integration of this data relevant to mitigation to enable further planning and action.

The AoMI dataset is comprised of attributed polygon features stored in the Flood Risk Database (FRD) to represent items that warrant flood risk mitigation attention.

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Guidance: Riverine Mapping and Floodplain Boundaries (Dec 2020)

This document provides guidance for riverine mapping and floodplains, and all the components that accompany it. FEMA prepares flood hazard mapping to create broad-based awareness of flood risk, provide data necessary for mitigation programs, and rate flood insurance for specific properties. Each floodplain or flood hazard area is divided into flood insurance rate zones that are based on the floodplain boundaries determined on a work map. Areas within the 1percentannual-chance (100-year) floodplain boundary are typically termed Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA). Areas between the 1- and 0.2-percent-annual-chance (500-year) floodplain boundaries are termed areas of moderate flood hazard. The remaining areas above the 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplain are termed areas of minimal flood hazard.

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Guidance: Quality Management (Dec 2020)

An effective functioning Quality Management System (QMS) is best comprised of a balance between proactive Quality Assurance (QA) preventive protocols, reactive Quality Control (QC) validation protocols, and continuous process improvement (root cause analysis and process improvement). These items are normally best described and documented in a Quality Management Plan (QMP). Each of these elements should be focused on compliance with the Standards for Flood Risk Analysis and Mapping, which are codified in a FEMA Policy memorandum.

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Guidance: Accepting Numerical Models for Use in the NFIP (Dec 2020)

For communities and mapping partners reference and information, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintains lists of numerical models meeting minimum regulatory requirements as a means of ensuring consistency in implementing Title 44, Chapter 1, of the Code of Federal Regulations (44 CFR) Paragraph 65.6(a)(6) of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations. That paragraph explains conditions under which a computer model can be used for flood hazard mapping in the NFIP.

These lists are organized by the area of responsibility of the certifying agency: Nationally Accepted Models and Locally Accepted Models. Four fall under the Nationally Accepted Models:
1. Coastal,
2. Hydrologic
3. Hydraulic, and,
4. Statistical models.

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Guidance: Contiguous Community Matching (Dec 2020)

This document provides guidance for achieving agreement between Flood Risk Project data for contiguous communities. It addresses agreement with data in the National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) for surrounding areas, base map matching, agreement of hydrologic analysis, agreement of hydraulic analysis and Water Surface Elevations (WSELs), floodplain and floodway matching, and agreement between non-regulatory Flood Risk Products.

Note that the guidance principles provided in this document apply to matching between stream reaches, communities, counties, and states as well as when conducting studies, restudies, Physical Map Revisions (PMRs), Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs), and appeals.