Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Risk Mapping, Assessment and Planning (Risk MAP) Market Research

Lets not forget that ultimately this is about hazard identification and now risk assessment. The hazard identification aspect seems to be getting lost. No slick risk communications effort will work if the base data is crappy.

To best help communities plan for sustainable development that will be required to accommodate the 40% U.S. population growth projected by 2050, FEMA should continue to make robust investments in developing and maintaining flood hazard data. However, the balance of that investment should shift. Be willing to invest more in studying greater numbers of miles of understudied or unstudied flooding sources using less rigorous, ...more »

I find it appaling that we still have communities and counties that have old paper maps that have not beem modernized by MAP Modernization or Risk MAP. After the entire Map Mod effort and the Risk MAP effort. Part of the new priorities have to be getting the entire inventory into a digitall platform AND a plan for efficiently mapping rural and other areas. I continue to be stumped why this cannot be done given the ...more »

Dividing the Current PTS Scope: FEMA should consider that any potential efficiencies gained by dividing the PTS Scope into contracts separate from study production, risk assessment, and mitigation planning tasks may be offset by the need for increased coordination and communication between the additional contractors that would be added as a result. Procuring separate contracts for activities such as upfront discovery/communications ...more »

There have been many strategies and processes for community engagement - with dozens of stakeholder types identified as targets (emergency managers, realtors, developers, State, other Federal, etc.). The reality is that there are not enough resources to do all that is recommended - and more sophisticated communities like CRS communities don't need the outreach help. FEMA should to a risk analysis or communications ...more »

Small Business Participation in the PTS Procurement: FEMA should consider whether the role of small businesses should be for a portion of the scope of the current PTS contracts (as suggested elsewhere) or for the full scope for a Region (possibly one of the smaller regions based on annual allocated funding). With the increase in the small business size standard for AE firms ($14M) there are small businesses that could ...more »

Throughout the various threads on the Risk MAP Market Research IdeaScale there are discussions about the ideal PTS acquisition strategy that FEMA should pursue. Three topics are emerging: procuring parts of the current PTS scope as a non-AE procurement to achieve cost competition, dividing the current PTS scope into various contract vehicles, and small business participation. Over the years FEMA has seen that with every ...more »

One way Risk MAP can succeed is to evolve it into a "Mit MAP" program with a focus on mitigating SPECIFIC hazards found using all of the new Risk MAP non-regulatory products. Imagine being able to use the new products to target the most hazardous floodprone properties in the NFIP program for mitigation or buyout, backed with federal dollars. I'm afraid that our current effort at getting mitigation action, while good, ...more »

Why doesn't FEMA begin to employ Satellite technology or LiDAR technology for EC's ? New regulations in the next year will drastically impair education, execution and processing of EC"s. If you think it is bad now.....wait until all of these are required....how many homeowners are really going to be able to understand ....how many in our ranks understand: the requirements, the accuracy, the effect ?

RISK MAP should be made an all hazards program. We have 10 of thousands of locals doing mitigation planning, most include flood. FEMA should take this tool and allow for to incorporate all hazards. In these budget times, we need to be streamline outdate single silo planning concepts.

Across this forum there are many threads suggesting the Program is currently inefficient, operating at excessive costs, and ineffective at delivering its objectives. Several suggest the answers reside within additional/alternative contracting types. Recall the Program just modified its contracting strategy to initiate Risk MAP. The current strategy has supported the Program through major programmatic changes including ...more »

Although, Risk MAP has a duty and will continue having a duty to produce flood maps for purposes of administering the National Flood Insurance Program there should be an increased emphasis in helping communities become more resilient against all natural hazards; this helps answer the “why” Risk Analysis does what it does, which is to help communities create a safer tomorrow. The challenge in this is that there is the ...more »

A good framework for potential Statements of Objectives could be the framework recently presented by Risk Analysis, which includes 1) Leveraging Relationships 2) Data Analysis 3) Collaborations and Communications and 4) Delivering Mitigation. In the past, these contracts have been mainly focused on just the Data Analysis; the engineering services needed to produce flood risk data and geospatial maps. However, this does ...more »

Risk MAP has shown us that it can play an integrator/facilitator role. That being said, we will need the other components of the above described framework. The first being the ability to leverage relationships; this is the community engagement approach or in other industries it’s called business development or sales. The key to this is to first understand a community’s priorities and interest (not just their flood ...more »

Severe Repetitive Loss properties should probably pay a higher premium. Maybe they could pay a token $100 extra each year, or have 5% higher premium than their base premium.

If FEMA’s reason for a non-AE procurement is to obtain cost competition, they could include cost as part of a Phase 2 submittal between qualified firms selected under an AE (FAR 36)procurement (this was noted by another commenter). FEMA has already included elements of cost as part of competing task orders between the current PTSs, which has proved effective. FEMA has also introduced cost-based task order competition ...more »

Show the 10-year floodplain on the maps and make it a different color. Boldly identify it has the most hazardous area. Revise the standard determination form and add a line or check box that needs to be completed if any portion of the structure is within the 10-year floodplain.

The current structure of the PTS contracts, did not require participation of small business to any significant degree. To maximize knowledge of local flood history, hydrologic conditions, and local expertise, Regional contracts to small businesses should used to conduct all technical studies. Primary PTS contracts should be used only to ensure consistency in study methods and mapping products. Other unique local ...more »

I think that there should be gridded weather data that shows accumulated scores within 1 KM grids that can be used with other data.

I believe the ACE should investigate the costs/grant money available for water holding tanks to prevent flooding in the sewer systems in a flood plain. I dont believe this research has been done to my knowledge.

Risk MAP should be reinventing the entire process. FEMA should focus on developing data tied to Structures and developable parcels in the floodplain. This could allow the elimination of many costly products. Today’s technology and data availability would make this achievable.

Under the current PTS contracts, the 3 big JVs/LLCs were facing significant funding cutbacks and therefore cut there workload to engineering subcontractors in order to their own staff working. Consequently, FEMA lost out on the a ton of local knowledge and efficiency of using local small businesses. Remember why the small businees program was started- small businesses are the life blood of the American economy. Small ...more »

Omitting 10% of potential hazards (e.g., earthquake, terrorism) leaves communities unprepared to handle non-flood disasters. Resilience at State/local level is key to disaster preparedness/response. Incorporating all hazards into the Risk MAP Program provides a comprehensive solution for risk management at minimal cost and can be tailored to meet specific community requirements/hazards. FEMA should incorporate scenario-based ...more »

The use of A&E resources to perform QAQC throughout the different phases of the map creation and acceptance process is not cost effective. The tasks associated with performing QAQC on DFIRM and FIRM products are better aligned with the competencies and staff base contained in geographic information system/spatial technology companies. A single, non A&E contract would allow FEMA to choose a provider based on the “Best ...more »