Better floodplain maps

Thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the DNR was able to launch a complete redo of the floodplain maps in 14 Indiana counties.

With new construction and other changes to the landscape, the new maps were sorely needed. Some county maps date back more than 30 years.

The initiative comes from the Flood Hazard Mapping Program, administered through FEMA’s Cooperating Technical Partner program. In terms of floodplain mapping, the DNR Division of Water is FEMA’s primary partner in Indiana.

DNR staff will use the grant money to update the maps with new technology. Throughout the past several months, the DNR Division of Water has held meetings with community and county officials to seek their input into the maps and to help ensure that they more closely correspond to local data.

Not only are the new maps more accurate, they are, for the first time, digital. Engineers are overseeing conversion of the paper maps to preliminary digital format, keeping the format more consistent with that of FEMA. Four engineering firms are helping the state update local floodplain studies as part of the project.

Possibly best of all, those four engineering firms are all Indiana companies.
PEN Products, a division of the Indiana Department of Corrections, will help with production of the maps, ensuring maximum “bang for the buck.”