School of Engineering and Computer Science

Flood Plain Dialog

In the Fall of 2006, the NRI started a series of meetings to address issues of future development in the flood plain—a key issue for the State since the Katrina floods in New Orleans, and an issue unresolved in the previous session of the State Legislature. NRI gathered an august group of individuals with knowledge and interest in the issue including State legislators and staff, local government representatives, local flood agencies, non-governmental organizations, councils of governments, building industry representatives and others who had previously participated in discussions of this issue. Attendance has been between 25 and 30 persons per meeting; the meeting notice list now includes about 60 persons. Meetings were held in October, November, December, January and March on the Stockton campus.

The group broke the overall issue into three sub-issues. After extension discussion of the State’s role in providing leadership through preparation of a State Flood Plan, a letter summarizing a series of recommendations was sent by the NRI to the Governor and members of the Legislature.

The second issue was expenditure of the flood bond funds approved in November 2006; the group discussion has triggered focused discussions by three major regional flood control bodies. Final discussions of the bond funds should be scheduled shortly. Lastly, the group discussed the roles of the State, of local government, and of private individuals. NRI staff has been monitoring the many bills addressing governance and will be scheduling dialog discussion shortly.

This work has receieved an award from the Floodplain Management Association for its work.

You may wish to view the Minutes of our meetings.

• Pacific’s Natural Resources Institute Awarded for Flood Work
• Flood Protection Legislation Update