The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Flood Resiliency Blueprint has released improved flood mapping and risk data for five river basins in Eastern North Carolina.
In partnership with North Carolina Emergency Management’s (NCEM) North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, new nonregulatory or “advisory” flood maps are now available in the Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool for the Neuse, Lumber, Tar-Pamlico, White Oak and Cape Fear river basins. The Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool is an online decision support tool that helps local governments, agencies and non-governmental partners develop, evaluate and prioritize resilience actions as well as plan and marshal funding to implement those priorities.
Community engagement is central to the Flood Resiliency Blueprint process. The Draft Flood Resiliency Blueprint identified the need for new maps and modeling efforts after extensive coordination with local leaders, other state agencies, nongovernmental organizations and university researchers. The Blueprint team also evaluated programs in other states like Texas and Louisiana for guidance, with a focus on better understanding existing mapping and data to sufficiently evaluate North Carolina’s exposure to flooding.
“Research from UNC Chapel Hill found that more than 90,000 buildings in Eastern North Carolina flooded at least once from 1996-2020, and 43 percent of those buildings were outside the mapped FEMA floodplain,” said DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson. “The General Assembly’s investment in updated modeling and mapping means that North Carolinians in five river basins now have a more accurate picture of their actual flooding risk.”
"NC Emergency Management is proud to provide flood mapping support to DEQ which will produce additional flood mapping products to build resilient communities across the state," said NC Emergency Management Director Will Ray. "As part of a multi-year advisory flood data web application development project, which began in 2022, the NCEM Floodplain Management Program was able to provide data and resources to assist in this project, once again showing the whole-of-community approach to disaster preparedness In North Carolina."
The new mapping effort refines and expands advanced two-dimensional rain-on-grid models—numerical models that apply precipitation directly onto a landscape, simulating surface runoff and routing. The maps, not used for legal or regulatory purposes, are available for previously unmapped or undermapped basins that were too small to be included on regulatory maps. They also expand beyond what is normally included in traditional regulatory floodplain mapping and include areas that flood despite being many miles from the nearest stream. Communities can also explore their future risk in the face of more frequent and severe storms, sea level rise and projected growth patterns.
“These new maps, available through our Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool, mean that Eastern North Carolinians can make more informed decisions and better investments to build their resilience in the face of more frequent and severe flooding,” said Flood Resiliency Blueprint Manager Stuart Brown.
The maps and risk data are accessible in the Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool. The data is being used to develop the Flood Resiliency Blueprint’s River Basin Action Strategies. The strategies will support local and regional flood resilience planning by providing communities with accurate, data-driven assessments of flood risk and vulnerability and help estimate the effectiveness of a range of flood resilience projects and policies. This resource can inform a variety of decisions, including land use planning, emergency response, individual choices about private flood insurance and personal resiliency measures like elevating homes. New maps for the French Broad River Basin will be available this fall, and River Basin Action Strategies are expected this summer for the five eastern basins.
About the Flood Resiliency Blueprint
In 2021, the North Carolina General Assembly directed the NC Department of Environmental Quality to develop a statewide Flood Resiliency Blueprint. The Blueprint serves as the backbone of North Carolina’s flood resiliency planning and is based on the best available science, stakeholder engagement and sound decision-making to develop actionable projects. At the heart of the Blueprint is an online decision support tool to help local governments, agencies and nongovernmental partners develop, evaluate and prioritize resilience actions as well as plan and marshal funding to implement those priorities. The Blueprint is currently funded and authorized to work in six of North Carolina’s 17 river basins. River Basin Action Strategies are being developed for the six initial basins. The Blueprint will make North Carolina more resilient to flooding by funding projects that limit flood extent and severity, allowing communities to recover more quickly and limit future risk as storms become more frequent and severe. DEQ has funded 81 Blueprint projects in six river basins totaling more than $40 million.