National Flood Policy—ASFPM 2015 Recommendations
J. Infrastructure & Public Buildings
Recommendation
Infrastructure & Utilities
J-1 Develop a coherent and sustainable funding strategy
to address the growing need for infrastructure
maintenance and renewal and related nonstructural flood
risk management activities at the federal, state, and local
level.
See: H-9
[The President and Congress jointly]
J-2 NATIONAL HAZARD RESILEINCE STANDARDS
a) Develop national hazard resilience standards for the
location, design, construction, and reconstruction of
all public infrastructure and buildings that take into
account factors like alternative locations, future
conditions, green or nature based options, mitigation
and No Adverse Impact. These standards should then
become a condition of federal funding.
b) Green infrastructure, nature based approaches and
Low Impact Development must be used in standards
for constructing and reconstructing infrastructure.
Explanation/rationale
This mirrors the recommendation in the ASCE 2014
report on Flood Risk Management.
The strategy should include innovative methods for
shared federal/state/local funding of infrastructure
projects and public-private partnerships where
appropriate.
This will protect federal investments in infrastructure
and reduce future public assistance after disasters.
Although flood is the primary interest here, this is not
feasible unless it’s done as multi-hazard. This ties closely
to development of a Federal Flood Risk Management
Standard (FFRMS) in R-1.
Green infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development
(LID) can be defined as the natural and man- made
landscapes and features that can be used to manage
runoff. Examples of natural green infrastructure include
forests, meadows and floodplains. Examples of manSee: R-1, R-2, K-4, O-6, C-1, C-7, F-1, F-20, F-19, H-1, H- made green infrastructure include green roofs, rain
4, H-7, H-11
gardens and rainwater cisterns. NAI incorporates LID
[Congress, Administration, MitFLG, states]
and GI.
J-3 MITIGATING PUBLIC FACILITIES/INFRASTRUCTURE
This will reduce the damage to utilities and hold them
a) Require utility companies (eligible for Public accountable for considering flood risk in decisionmaking
Assistance) to analyze the full range of mitigation when using taxpayer funds to rebuild after a disaster.
options and account for current and future flood risk
in planning, design, construction and re-construction
of facilities.
b) Future federal assistance should be prohibited unless Federal taxpayer investment must be protected, or
the requirements in J-2 a) and b) have been funding to fix the same problem is required again and
adequately incorporated.
again.
See: R-1, O-6, K-4, J-2, C-1
[MitFLG, FEMA, States]
J-4 HIGHWAY DAMAGES AND REPAIR
a) Improve sharing post disaster highway data and best
practices to improve resilient reconstruction of nonfederal/state highways.
b) Develop guidelines to assist local highway
departments to help them in reconstruction following
flooding.
[FEMA, DOT, States]
NFPPR policy rec and explanations
Local DPWs often lack staff and expertise to know the
best management practices for road rebuilding.
FEMA and DOT, working with state DOT’s can develop
guidelines and perform local training.
See added recommendations in the ASFPM report for
ALA regarding this topic.
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Section J Infrastructure
Draft 1-28-15