The Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) Program is an innovative approach to creating partnerships between FEMA and participating National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) communities, regional agencies, state agencies, tribes and universities that have the interest and capability to become more active participants in the FEMA flood hazard mapping program.
Eligible regional agencies include: Watershed management and flood control districts, regional planning councils, councils of governments and regional offices of state agencies.
There are benefits to partnering with state, local and regional organizations to produce NFIP maps, including:
- The data used for local permitting and planning is also the basis for the NFIP map, facilitating more efficient floodplain management.
- The CTP Program provides the opportunity to interject a tailored, local focus into a national Program; thus, where unique conditions may exist, the necessary, special approaches to flood hazard identification may be taken.
- The partnership mechanism provides the opportunity to pool resources and extend the productivity of limited public funds.
Resources for Cooperating Technical Partners
Sign up for emails about Cooperating Technical Partners Program activities.
Cooperative Agreement Funding Opportunity
Each fiscal year, FEMA issues a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) describing the available funding, priorities, requirements and process for eligible applicants to request funding for program activities.
Mapping Activity Statement Template
As partners and FEMA identify specific mapping activities to perform under the Partnership Agreement, they will develop Mapping Activity Statements (MASs) to define the roles and responsibilities of all partners involved in a study/mapping project.
Partnership Agreement Template
The Partnership Agreement is a broad statement of principle, emphasizing the value of the three components of the National Flood Insurance Program: Flood Insurance, Floodplain Management and Flood Mapping.
Blue Book
FEMA developed the Blue Book, dated September 2011, to outline the unit cost approach FEMA uses in estimating the value of contributions made by communities, tribal nations, regional agencies and state agencies for updated Flood Insurance Rate Map production.
Digital Technical Support Data Notebook Submittal Requirements
The Technical Support Data Notebook (TSDN) contains all of the support data for a community for which FEMA published a flood map and revisions to that flood map. The requirements for the TSDN are documented in FEMA's Appendix M: Guidance for Technical and Administrative Support Data.
A partner may submit a digital TSDN, in lieu of the hard copy; all materials that are not in digital format must be submitted in hard copy format. A transmittal letter clearly identifying the project and the materials provided must be submitted along with the TSDN.
Cooperating Technical Partners (CTP) Program Training
FEMA regularly hosts the CTP: Special Topics (E241) training. This course is designed specifically for states, tribal nations, regional agencies and local communities that are participating in the CTP Program.
Admission requires approval of the FEMA Regional CTP Coordinator. Once approval has been given, application for admission to the course is made by using the General Admission Application Form. The application may be downloaded, as a PDF document, from the EMI Courses & Schedules page on the EMI Website.
Send the CTP Program an email for questions.