Hughes, Thomas, Emergency Management – Mitigation, Insurance & Resilient Communities, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), 1310 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9713, thughes@pa.gov; Silvis, Virginia G., Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 319B Earth & Engineering Science Building, University Park, PA 16802, vgs5063@psu.edu.
The Northeastern U.S. has experienced an increase in extreme precipitation events in
recent decades due to climate change; a trend forecasted to continue through the end of the
century. Consequently floodplain management, both for the present and the future, is more
important than ever. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is the main federal
instrument deployed in the U.S. to guide floodplain management across the country and
encourage best practices. Most NFIP research has focused on insurance affordability issues
related to the flood insurance part of the program. The floodplain management component has
been little studied, despite its potential for improving community flood resilience and climate
adaptation. This research focuses on the resources and support for floodplain management in
Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania requires that each of the 2,560 municipalities in the commonwealth
participate in the NFIP, resulting in over 2,000 floodplain managers and other municipal
authorities working in the floodplain management space. I conducted a survey from July to
December 2023 targeting those municipal officials, both floodplain manager and other, that are required to implement the NFIP floodplain regulations, resulting in 295 completed responses. At least one completed survey was obtained from each of the 67 counties in the commonwealth. Respondents indicated there were issues with both training and resources available to local-level floodplain managers, with 50% signaling that their floodplain management staff did not have sufficient technical resources or training to implement NFIP requirements. Floodplain managers also identified disconnects between floodplain management and flood insurance at the local level.
The findings of this survey point to a need to reexamine the current local-level floodplain
management requirements of the NFIP in order to better support floodplain managers in their work towards making their communities more resilient for the impacts of climate change now and future.
Validation, Disheartening, Challenging, Optimistic