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<br />4.0 FLOOD PLAIN MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS <br /> <br />The NFIP encourages State and local governments to adopt sound flood <br />plain management programs. Therefore, each Flood Insurance Study pro- <br />duces maps designed to assist communities in developing flood plain <br />management measures. <br /> <br />4.1 Flood Boundaries <br /> <br />To provide a national standard without regional discriminationr <br />the 1 percent annual chance (lOO-year) flood has been adopted by <br />FEMA as the base flood for flood plain management purposes. The <br />0.2 percent annual chance (SOO-year) flood is employed to indicate <br />additional areas of flood risk in the community. For each stream <br />studied in detail, the 100- and SOO-year flood plain boundaries <br />have been delineated using the flood elevations determined at each <br />cross section. Between cross sections, the boundaries were inter- <br />polated using topographic maps at a scale of 1:2,400, with a con- <br />tour interval of 2 feet (Reference 11). <br /> <br />The 100- and SOO-year flood plain boundaries are shown on the Flood <br />Boundary and Floodway Map (Exhibit 2). In cases where the 100- <br />and SOO-year flood plain boundaries are close together, only the <br />100-year flood plain boundary has been shown. Small areas within <br />the flood plain boundaries may lie above the flood elevations but <br />cannot be shown due to limitations of the map scale and/or lack of <br />detailed topographic data. <br /> <br />For the streams studied by approximate methods, only the 100-year <br />flood plain boundary is shown. The approximate flood boundaries <br />for this study were taken from the Flood Hazard Boundary Map for <br />Otero County (Reference 12). <br /> <br />4.2 Floodways <br /> <br />Encroachment on flood plainsr such as structures and fill, reduces <br />flood-carrying capacity, increases flood heights and velocitiesr <br />and increases flood hazards in areas beyond the encroachment itself. <br />One aspect of flood plain management involves balancing the economic <br />gain from flood plain development against the resulting increase <br />in flood hazard. For purposes of the NFIPr a floodway is used as <br />a tool to assist local communities in this aspect of flood plain <br />management. Under this concept, the area of the 100-year flood <br />plain is divided into a floodway and a floodway fringe. The flood- <br />way is the channel of a stream, plus any adjacent flood plain areas, <br />that must be kept free of encroachment so that the 100-year flood <br />can be carried without substantial increases in flood heights. <br />Minimum Federal standards limit such increases to 1.0 footr pro- <br />vided that hazardous velocities are not produced. The floodways <br />in this study are presented to local agencies as minimum standards <br /> <br />9 <br />