FLOOD01659

• County: Statewide
• Title: Floodplain Management Handbook
• Date: 9/1/1981
• Prepared By: Flood Loss Reduction Associates
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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jurisdiction's permission for encroach-
ment on the water I s edge is not likely
to increase the risk of flooding for
others. However, some other effects of
development, such as pollution, may
have widespread effects.

The types of floodplain manage-
ment measures each participant is
willing to consider are also affected
by geographic considerations. Few
communi ties or even states want to pay
the entire cost for a large mainstream
dam producing benefits for several
downstream jurisdictions.

To overcome this situation, all
of the private and public interests
affected by a particular flood problem
and its potential solutions need to
work together.

Governmental Roles

Floodplain management requires a
cooperati ve approach with each govern-
mental level performing those parts of
planning, implementation and conduct of
programs best suited to its authorities
and capabilities.

Federal Role

The federal government's
strengths for floodplain management are
its nationwide perspective, large
financial capability and wide scope of
activities. These advantages suit it
for certain types of activities such as:

. Providing expert technical assistance
in a wide variety of disciplines.

. Offering
technical
consistency
program for

economic incentives and
guidance encouraging
with a unified national
floodplain management.

. Operating long-term programs
collection and provision of
data and information.

for
basic

. Coordinating programs
common river basin or
its floodplains.

affecting a
shoreline and

. Financing activities
initial cost.

wi th a high

. Planning and operating activities
spanning two or more states or
several local jurisdictions.

As mentioned previously, the
federal government lacks authority to
control land use and cannot operate
local programs or projects on a day-
to-day basis. Federal participation
emphasizes support for the development
and implementation of programs and
leaves their operation and maintenance
largely to non-federal interests.

State Role

States also have a significant
technical and financial capability and
jurisdiction spanning many local units
of government. In addition, they have
the constitutional authority to regu-
late land use. The principal state
activities include:

. Coordinating federal and non-federal
activities.

. Controlling land use or providing for
local governments to do so.

. Providing the types of technical and
specialized planning assistance more
frequently needed by local govern-
ments.

. Financially assisting local govern-
ment activities.

. Coordinating intrastate activities.

. Assisting and coordinating local
projects involving federal funds.

The principal limitation on state
management of floodplains stems from
the fact that many streams, including
some of the larger ones, either flow
from state to state or form the
boundary between states. In such cases,
each state can manage only its part of
the floodplain. Also, like the federal
government, states lack the staff for
managing every needed program or
project and tend to emphasize local
government operation and maintenance.

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