ABSTRACT

This chapter reports findings of a study completed at the University of Washington Department of Urban Design and Planning of needs for more effective flood hazard reduction planning in Washington State. It relates to the not new but still growing realisation that urban areas are not just the recipient of flood impacts; urbanisation can and does contribute to and exacerbate flood impacts on other urban and non-urban areas. The chapter reviews documentation for eight federal and state programs concerned with flood plain management, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), Army Corps of Engineers construction and maintenance programs, and federal and state programs which fund local governments to do flood hazard mitigation. The NFIP, administered by FEMA, has since 1968 been the major institutional response at the federal level to the problem of flood plain development. A zero-rise standard would be much more restrictive of flood plain development.