Floodplain Management + Resilience Planning

As a coastal and riverine county, Nassau County is highly susceptible to coastal weather events and flooding. The vast number of wetlands across our county are a reminder of our topography and vulnerability to these types of events. We are already seeing and experiencing effects from storms like Matthew and Irma, to daily flooding in certain parts of the community after heavy rain. These issues impact community health, safety, and welfare, and touch all aspects of County infrastructure. With increased growth pressures facing our community, a comprehensive strategy to address these interrelated issues is imperative. 

Definitions

• Floodplain Management - a decision-making process that aims to achieve the wise use of the nation's floodplains. "Wise use" means both reduced flood losses and protection of the natural resources and function of floodplains. (FEMA)
• Community Resilience – measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations. (RAND)

August 23, 2018 - Read a memo from County PEO staff regarding floodplain management and resiliency planning.

September 7, 2018 - Nassau County submitted a Resilience Planning Grant (RPG) grant application to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This assessment would look at the County east of I-95 (excluding the island, as a preliminary vulnerability assessment was completed there by the Regional Council several years ago), and west of I-95, south and east of SR200/301. A vulnerability assessment looks at the “potential for loss of or harm/damage to exposed assets largely due to complex interactions among natural processes, land use decisions, and community resilience (NOAA, 2010).” These areas were chosen by staff as a Phase I assessment because they are the areas experiencing the most rapid growth, and they are areas for which Flood Insurance Studies (FIS) have not been done, so Base Flood Elevations (BFE) have not been established. Because BFE’s are unknown, a vulnerability assessment can be especially valuable until FIS are completed. A Phase II assessment for the rest of the County west of I-95 would be a secondary study.