Reports
The Statewide Flood Resiliency Blueprint will be executed in three phases. The phases will allow for more nimble decision making and constant evaluation of the process to incorporate learning. After each phase, there will be a review of findings and recommendations, the direction of the project will be evaluated, and the scope of work for subsequent phases will be refined accordingly. The three Phases are:
Phase I: Develop Draft Blueprint and Draft Neuse Basin Flood Resiliency Action Strategy
- Task 1: Stakeholder Outreach/Facilitation. In addition to considerable stakeholder outreach, this task also includes literature review, data collection and inventory, review of existing statewide planning efforts, and review of governance schemes from select peer states, among other subtasks.
- Task 2: Gap Analysis. Perform a statewide inventory and gap analysis of data, modeling, and other resources necessary to develop the Blueprint and Action Strategies.
- Task 3: Recommendations/Decision Framework. Develop a series of recommendations to support the Draft Blueprint and Action Strategies.
- Task 4: Develop Draft Blueprint and Pilot Action Strategy. This task also includes developing the requirements needed for an online decision support tool.
Phase II: Develop Decision Support Tool
Phase III: Apply to Targeted Basins Statewide
Phase 1
Tab/Accordion Items
Subtask 1.1: Literature Review and Data Collection Inventory
| The purpose of this document is to conduct a thorough literature review and data collection inventory of existing data, planning efforts, research projects, studies, and regional scale modeling that have been developed to provide a basis for understanding, to build upon existing efforts, and to help meet the intent of the North Carolina (NC) Flood Resiliency Blueprint. The inventory will result in a report that summarizes the efforts, the lessons learned, the key components of existing work, and an index with links to all resources reviewed. |
| Subtask 1.3: Outreach and Engagement Plan for the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint | As part of the Blueprint, DEQ developed an Outreach and Engagement Plan to coordinate stakeholder engagement in accordance with the overall DEQ Public Participation Plan. The goals are to implement engagement strategies across a diverse range of stakeholders and governments, and to develop and implement communication and outreach strategies that demonstrate audience-appropriate North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint Subtask 1.3: Outreach and Engagement Plan for the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint | 2 communication approaches/tools to ensure the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint meets the needs of all North Carolina. The Outreach and Engagement Plan was developed for the participants in the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint development process, will be approved by DEQ, and will document how and when various stakeholder and government representatives will be engaged. The Principal Advisory Group (PAG) and Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) will be engaged throughout the contract period to ensure successful development of the Blueprint. By following the steps outlined in this Outreach and Engagement Plan, DEQ and its consultants will have mechanisms to manage stakeholder engagement requirements through specified tasks. |
| Subtask 1.4: Catalogue of Government and Organization Watershed Planning Efforts in the Neuse River Basin | This document is a catalogue of local, regional, and state organizations engaged in watershed planning or resiliency efforts in the pilot river basin. This document includes the mission, history, level of engagement, area of expertise, capacity to engage in flood resilience planning and implementation through providing local input, and other information that will inform the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint) team on how to complement existing efforts and skills. The intent of this catalogue is to identify local, regional, and state organizations engaged in watershed or resiliency planning efforts in the Neuse River Basin. Identification of these organizations is essential for determining what efforts have previously been undertaken, who was involved and helps ensure that resilience planning efforts through the Blueprint recognize and build upon these previous efforts. |
| Subtask 1.5: Peer State Flood Resiliency Programs | This document aims to review governance schemes from at least five peer states and provide examples of how datasets, models, and platforms are used for decision-making and the levels at which governance decisions are made (e.g., regional, local, state). The result is a written report and presentation that documents the findings, develops an assessment of the pros and cons of each scheme, and provides recommendations for North Carolina’s approach, including funding mechanisms for enabling implementation beyond local jurisdictional boundaries. Recommendations are given based on information learned and knowledge of North Carolina laws and policies. Rule changes necessary to implement a robust flood resiliency program have been identified. |
| Subtask 1.7: Review of Statewide Planning Efforts with Flood Resilience Recommendations | The purpose of this Statewide Planning Efforts with Flood Resilience Recommendations Review is to document identified specific recommendations from existing statewide planning efforts that correspond with flood resilience strategies, and to provide an understanding of completed and ongoing statewide efforts related to watershed and resiliency planning. This review will build an awareness of existing efforts to meet the intent of the North Carolina (NC) Flood Resiliency Blueprint. |
| Subtask 1.10: Blueprint Recommendation Process | The purpose of this document is to propose and refine a process for the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint) Advisory Groups to provide recommendations to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to build alignment and establish how final decisions are made, specifically targeting the process to deal with differing perspectives. This is a brief document, including diagrams, to identify the decision workflow, who participates, level of participation, and who is accountable for final decisions regarding implementation of the Blueprint. The recommendation document is considered a supplement to the Outreach and Engagement Plan (Subtask 1.3) for the Blueprint and can be more efficiently used in combination with that plan. |
| Subtask 2.1: Flood Risk Resiliency Types and Sources of Flooding Inventory Gap Analysis | The purpose of this document is to identify and evaluate datasets in North Carolina that could be available for use in projects performed as part of the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). These datasets contain the critical components of a successful flood resiliency effort such as probability of hazard occurrence, risk assessments, estimated damages enabling the evaluation of the effectiveness of mitigation, and resiliency projects. |
| Subtask 2.3: Neuse River Basin Literature Review Expansion | The purpose of the current document is to expand the previous literature review to document the most current plans, reports, and documents that identify current flood resiliency efforts and sources of flooding within the Neuse River Basin. This includes existing local/regional/state resilience efforts, policy, and plans. Further documentation is provided to identify existing investments in flood resilience: structural, non-structural, nature-based, and planning including details such as age/condition, need for future maintenance, and current ownership/ management. For plans, the report indicates if recommendations have been implemented and any barriers to implementation. This includes current state, regional, or local resilience staffing levels and relative levels and types of expertise. |
| Subtask 2.4: Hydrologic and Hydraulic Modeling Gap Analysis | The intent of this document is to identify and evaluate H&H modeling within North Carolina that could be available for use in projects performed as part of the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). Specifically, this document is intended to provide a Gap Analysis for H&H modeling available within the state, including those developed as part of resiliency assessments. Efforts were made to capture all H&H modeling that could be made available through coordination with Blueprint stakeholders and that either already had associated products that could support evaluation and decision-making regarding proposed projects intended to reduce flood impacts projects or could be used to develop such products. |
| Subtask 2.5: Future Flood Hazards Gap Analysis | The purpose of this document is to identify scientifically defensible data necessary to analyze future flood hazards: future land use, climate, etc. List of datasets (including datasets that exist and those that would need to be created) required for assessing future flood hazards. For the purposes of this analysis, “future” can be defined as 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, and 70 years in the future. The Department of Environmental Quality must approve other definitions of “future.” |
| Subtask 2.6: Flood Risk Reduction Project Funding Analysis | The purpose of this document is to list federal, state, local, and private funding sources for flood risk resiliency projects to be used for planning and implementation. This includes the amount, frequency of availability, and limiting factors that may determine which solutions are applicable to grant options. |
| Subtask 2.7: Existing Inventory of Toolkit Flood Resilience Strategies | This report provides inventory and evaluation of existing flood resilience and mitigation strategies for developing the North Carolina (NC) Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). The following strategies were considered: Infrastructure-Based Solutions, Nature-Based Solutions, Planning and Policy, and Programmatic Best Management Practices. For each flood resilience and/or mitigation strategy under the Gray Infrastructure Solutions and Nature-Based Solutions sections, the following items are discussed: flood hazards targeted (source/frequency) and limiting factors such as geographic constraints; implementation and maintenance costs, technical difficulty, availability of funding sources, whether funding is tied to the disaster declaration, and environmental or community impact on other functions; the pros and cons of each strategy and in what situations the strategy is best deployed versus under what conditions the strategy is less effective; and the level of technical planning and modeling required to be awarded funding from sponsors and how the Blueprint can close the technical resource gaps. |
| Subtask 2.8: Nature-Based Solutions Gap Analysis | The purpose of this document is to identify and evaluate existing datasets for all or portions of North Carolina (NC) that are available to identify potential projects to reduce the effects of flooding using nature-based solutions (NBS) as part of the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). Specifically, this document is intended to provide a Gap Analysis for NBS datasets and methods available in the state. Nature-based solutions are one component of a robust, well-planned flood resiliency strategy, along with more traditional components such as upgrading or adding additional infrastructure, buyouts, and dredging of waterways. Therefore, available datasets useful in identifying opportunities for NBS must be leveraged as a key element of this planning effort, and additional data needed should be identified. |
| Subtask 2.10: Identification of Existing Recommendations | The purpose of this report is to identify specific recommendations from existing statewide planning efforts that correspond with flood resilience strategies and how they can be effectively connected to the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). This will build awareness of existing efforts and help connect identified strategies to the intent of Blueprint, a statewide watershed planning effort to establish a framework and tools to assist local communities in decision-making related to reducing flood risk and increasing resilience. |
| Subtask 2.11: Identification and Evaluation of Online Flood Mitigation Decision-Making Support Tools | This document identifies and evaluate three existing online flood mitigation decision-making support tools. This report also includes the pros, cons, and any changes recommended for incorporation to meet the Blueprint requirements. This report discusses how databases supporting those tools are administered and requirements of those tools including the feasibility of their deployment on North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) infrastructure. |
| Subtask 2.12: AI and ML Tools to Support the Development of Blueprint | The purpose of this report is to identify Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) tools that can be used or developed to improve the North Carolina (NC) Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint) (e.g., reduce costs of updates, increase the accuracy of web-based decision tools, improve engagement and decision making). |
| Subtask 2.13: Nature-Based Solutions Existing Opportunities Gap Analysis | The purpose of this document is to identify and evaluate existing datasets for North Carolina that are available to identify spatial distribution, coverage, and potential effectiveness of projects to reduce flooding using nature-based solutions (NBS) as part of the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). Nature-based solutions are one component of a robust, well-planned flood resiliency strategy along with more traditional components such as upgrading or adding additional infrastructure (e.g., stormwater detention, dry-proofing, wet-proofing, and enhanced road crossings), improved land use policies, flood resilient development incentives, and natural resource management policy buyouts, and dredging of waterways. |
| Subtask 2.14: Identification of Vulnerable, Underserved and Under-resourced Communities in the Neuse Basin | The scope of this task was to support the Blueprint through the identification of vulnerable, underserved, and under-resourced communities in the Neuse River Basin that experience or will experience flooding and possible solutions for increasing the resiliency of those communities and adjacent ecosystems, based in part on stakeholder engagement with those communities. To prepare for stakeholder engagement, the communities must first be identified. This document outlines the data and process used to identify these communities in the Neuse River Basin along with recommendations related to engagement of these communities. Potential solutions for increasing resiliency will be identified after stakeholder engagement has occurred for the Draft Neuse Basin Flood Resiliency Action Strategy (Subtask 4.4). |
| This report provides recommendations regarding the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool. The recommendations span several topics, including recommendations on developing, implementing, and maintaining multi-scale risk decision-making tools as well as recommendations for linking solutions identified in the toolbox and beyond to identify regional and local flooding issues within the Blueprint online tools. The result will be the ability for decision makers to link their flooding issue to the flood resiliency options, including approximate costs and funding options, to make informed decisions. The report also includes recommendations for administering the online decision-making tool to meet the goals of the Blueprint. |
| Subtask 3.3: Recommendations for Integrating Federal, State, and Regional Flood Resiliency Efforts | This document recommends how the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint program (Blueprint) can implement the existing knowledge, experience, and resources within the federal, state, and regional programs dedicated to flood resiliency. By drawing upon the wisdom and strategies of these established efforts, the Blueprint program can create a more comprehensive and cohesive approach to flood resilience that protects communities from the impact of flooding. |
| Subtask 3.5, 3.6, 3.7: Recommendations: Open Access H&H Modeling, Storm Frequencies, and Climate Forecast Models Support Tools | The purpose of this document is to summarize the following Phase 1 recommendations for: open-access hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) modeling software and approaches, including how various models can be leveraged and cross-utilized; model scale; storm frequency options; and climate forecast model(s) selection. North Carolina is a data-rich state, including statewide foundational datasets that lend themselves to supporting the development of models for different stakeholders with unique needs and goals. These datasets and models have been identified and documented as part of the Task 2 deliverables. This document will provide recommendations for open-access H&H modeling use, application of storm frequency options, and selection of climate forecast models. |
| Subtask 3.9, 3.10, 3.14: Recommendations: Standardized Statewide Datasets | There are many datasets required for the determination of flood risk and the evaluation of mitigation alternatives. These datasets have been identified and documented as part of the Task 2 deliverables. The datasets have various scales and degrees of accuracy and many are managed at the local or watershed level. This document will cover priority datasets and modeling efforts deemed necessary to be developed, updated, or maintained statewide for economies and scale. The following report is organized to clarify and summarize the Statewide Datasets Recommendations. Recommendations for statewide modeling efforts are covered in Subtask 3.5. |
| Subtask 3.11: Recommendations for the Utilization of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to Inform Blueprint | Since 1993, flooding has caused billions of dollars of damage across the US each year4. Proper hazard mitigation strategies and plans can not only save economy lost, but also lives. New technology like AI can improve the current workflow towards a more proactive natural disaster response solution. With a mature data foundation, AI solutions can support more rational, data-driven decision-making processes by providing near real-time flood hazard and risk data. This document is recommendations for AI use in the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint. Subtask 2.12 Artificial intelligence Machine Learning Tools gives a broader understanding of the current AI/ML environment. |
| Subtask 3.15: Recommendations for Developing and Maintaining Local Stormwater Management Programs | This report provides recommendations for developing and maintaining local stormwater management and maintenance programs associated with developing the North Carolina (NC) Flood Resiliency Blueprint (Blueprint). The recommendations include the level of resources required to maintain these programs, possible funding sources, and ways to address the funding gaps of small, under-resourced communities. |
| This document provides a comprehensive list of definitions applicable to the Draft North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint. Trusted and vetted sources, including accepted federal and state agencies, informed the following definitions. | |
| Subtask 4.0: Draft North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint - Executive Summary | This document serves as the Executive Summary for the Draft North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint, representing the most significant statewide flood resiliency investment in North Carolina’s history. The Blueprint is designed to bring together all flood-related resources and knowledge in the state into one unified platform. It will offer decision-makers at all levels a standardized methodology for flood planning, an online decision-support tool, and river basin-specific action strategies to address flooding in North Carolina communities. It will also allow the state to make targeted decisions about where to allocate resources for the most significant impact. The Blueprint will continue to be refined based on further stakeholder and community engagement, the pilot Neuse River Basin Flood Resiliency Action Strategy, the development and implementation of the Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool, and on-the-ground project implementation. |
| Subtask 4.1: Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool Requirements | This section outlines recommendations for the documentation of requirements needed to develop a suite of functions to produce an online decision support tool. Resources shall be readily available to the public and not require software installation to access data or tools. Tools shall be developed to support decision-making at multiple levels: state, regional, and local, with an intended audience ranging from private citizens to regional planners to Legislative partners. These tools will allow all users to conduct scenario analysis and exploration based on climate predictions, identify areas with conservation values that can mitigate flooding impacts, identify funding sources, query data, and execute reports to facilitate decision-making. In addition, users shall be able to prioritize projects and/or approaches based on outcomes, community impact, cost, and collective impact on the environment and stakeholders. |
| Subtask 4.2 and 4.3: Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool Storyboards, Wireframes, and Mockups | The Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool will be developed to include a wide variety of functionality for several user roles within state and local government, as well as the general public. The Blueprint Tool application will consist of several modules to meet those needs. This document presents a series of storyboards to show how users will interact with the application modules, along with wireframes and mockups to represent the application visually. Also mentioned throughout this document, Phase II of the NC Flood Resiliency Blueprint Project will focus more on the exact look, user experience, and functionality of the Blueprint Tool. It will be built from the research, gap analysis, and recommendations that are products of Phase I of the project. |
| Subtask 4.5: Draft North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint | This document serves as the Draft North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint, representing the most significant statewide flood resiliency investment in North Carolina’s history. The Blueprint is designed to bring together all flood-related resources and knowledge in the state into one unified platform. It will offer decision-makers at all levels a standardized methodology for flood planning, an online decision-support tool, and river basin-specific action strategies to address flooding in North Carolina communities. It will also allow the state to make targeted decisions about where to allocate resources for the most significant impact. The Blueprint will continue to be refined based on further stakeholder and community engagement, the pilot Neuse River Basin Flood Resiliency Action Strategy, the development and implementation of the Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool, and on-the-ground project implementation. |