Thursday, November 17, 2011

NGS Releases Final Report for Floodplain Mapping Pilot Project

As NGS moves closer to 2022 and replacing the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83) and the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88), NGS is interacting closely with agencies that use the datums to assist in the transition. Much of the interaction with agencies is being conducted through NGS pilot projects. The first pilot project, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was conducted in North Carolina in cooperation with the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program and the North Carolina Geodetic Survey. This eight-month project was designed to evaluate the impact of the new datums on floodplain mapping data and products and to begin a dialogue on policies and procedures requiring updating.

Accurate, reliable, and up-to-date datums are essential for a wide range of activities, including managing construction and infrastructure projects such as bridges, dams, and levees; alerting emergency planners to changes in elevation over storm evacuation routes that are slowly sinking and are susceptible to inundation; mapping flood plains to produce accurate flood zone maps and determine flood insurance rates; precisely controlling equipment used in agriculture and road construction; monitoring sea-level changes; and managing ecosystem restoration projects, to name just a few.

This report may be downloaded here.