National Levee Safety Program – Capacity Building in the Nation

ABSTRACT ONLY - Building levee-related capacity takes time and a consideration of existing resources. The National Levee Safety Program acknowledges this and is committed to assisting states, tribes, regional districts, and levee owners with building their capacity by providing tools, resources, and training to help them collect, understand, and manage their data in order to make informed levee decisions. This presentation will begin with a recap of feedback received from stakeholders over the past three years since launch of the National Levee Safety Program as well as summarize the results of a state survey led by ASDSO and the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM). All of this feedback helps the National Levee Safety Program set a baseline understanding of what the levee-related challenges and needs are across the country. The presentation will then provide a brief overview of the newly developed 5-year strategic plan for the National Levee Safety Program and how the goals, objectives, and activities outlined in the plan will seek to support states, tribes, regional districts, and levee owners. Goals of the program include making best practices, tools, and accurate/timely data available to those who need them; raising public awareness of how levees contribute to flood risk management and community resilience; focus support for effective delivery of levee-related activities through aligning responsibilities and improving agency coordination; and increasing levee-related capability through training and other activities. As part of the strategic plan discussion, key tools and resources currently available or under development to assist in capacity building will be showcased. The final portion of the session will include either a summary of case histories or a panel discussion with representatives from a state and regional district, as well as a municipality/levee owner on their levee-related challenges and needs and how they might benefit from integrating National Levee Safety Program resources.