INTRODUCTION

Hurricane Sandy has delivered another painful reminder that urban areas need to find new ways to confront the increasingly difficult task of flood preparation. A flood occurs “when water runoff from the land exceeds the capacity of the stream channel.

”Flood Risks Excepting the Inner Mountain West and Southern California, a map of vulnerable flood areas picks up almost all major urban areas in the United States.Flood Risks Between 1929 and 2003, urban floods in the United States caused an estimated $171 billion in property damage.Flood Risks Floods have caused the most losses of any natural disaster in the United States.5 Billions of dollars have been invested in flood prevention structures.

But, as “first responders” in the battle to prevent and respond to flood damage, local governments will see urban flood damages rise for four primary reasons. First, federal flood control policy over eighty years has created the illusion that infrastructure and post-disaster relief can provide maximum protection from flood damages. Second, more cost-effective avoidance strategies, such asless intensive flood plain development and restoration, have been undermined by the federal flood insurance program, which has encouraged intense development in river and coastal flood plains instead of redirecting it to less vulnerable areas.

Third, global climate change is projected to produce more intense flood and coastal storm surge events. Fourth, damage prevention responsibility is being de facto devolved to local governments as the federal government and the states, with notable exceptions, are investing less of the scant, available dollars in flood infrastructure construction.Flood Risks