FEMA’s Geospatial Dambreak, Emergency Action Planning, Consequences and Hazards Toolset

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) efforts to develop a new GIS toolset named Geospatial Dam Break, Emergency Action planning, Con-sequences and Hazards (GeoDam-BREACH). GeoDam-BREACH enables users to rapidly develop simplified dam break inundation zones, perform loss of life assessments, facilitate the efficient development of a consistent Emer-gency Action Plan (EAP) and maps, and support the goals of FEMA’s Risk MAP program by facilitating the creation of non-regulatory Risk MAP datasets that can be used for multiple activities including automated analysis, risk communication and consequence assessments.
The National Dam Safety Review Board (NDSRB) has recommended that all states should have EAPs for all high hazard dams by fiscal year 2012. The cost of developing inundation studies and EAPs is the primary factor prevent-ing this goal from being met. According the National Inventory of Dams (NID), only 7,103 of the nation’s 13,990 high hazard dams nationwide have EAP’s. Addi-tionally there are potentially thousands of unstudied low or significant hazards dams that would potentially warrant reclassification if the true hazards of the dam were known through the development of inundation studies.
In fiscal year 2010, FEMA launched its Risk MAP pro-gram with the vision to deliver quality data that increases public awareness and leads to action that reduces risk to life and property. This vision includes the implementa-tion of non-regulatory datasets to help communicate ha-zards associated with dams and provide these datasets to local communities. GeoDam-BREACH will provide users with a cost effec-tive methodology for developing consistent, simplified inundation studies and EAPs that will potentially encour-age their development, helping to meet the NDSRB’s rec-ommendation of having 100% EAP coverage and conse-quently promoting dam safety while additionally support-ing FEMA’s Risk MAP program.