By Mitch Paine, CFM
From June 2015 Floodplain Management Today
Over the past year, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources reviewed over 50 comprehensive development plans from various communities throughout the state. Our goal was to examine the plans to see how well flood risk is addressed for the long-range plan for growth and development in communities. The basic floodplain management regulations often address development after the decision to build in a floodplain has already been made. These regulations only specify how that particular building may be built, but not whether or not the building should be built in that location in the first place. Comprehensive plans can be tools to examine development trends and steer development out of risky areas.
NeDNR analyzed plans and created a resource guide for communities and planning consultants to use as they work on new and updated comprehensive plans. The research found that 3 out of 4 plans included flood hazard maps, but only 1 out of 4 imposed that flood hazard map on the future land use map. Only 20% of plans included a calculation of the area of the community in the floodplain and no plan had any analysis of population exposed to flood hazards. Only 1 plan discussed critical facilities at risk from flooding.
The research also found that nearly 50% of plans contain a goal or policy to preserve floodplains in new growth areas for open space or recreation. But very few plans had any goals to reduce flood risk in existing community areas. And very few plans had any proposed actions or policies to use land use tools to maintain open space in flood risk areas. Around 15% suggested using cluster development incentives to preserve floodplains in new subdivisions. And about 15% called for acquisition programs to remove floodprone structures.
Each plan was scored on how well it addressed flood risk and then compared with a number of community statistics. The quality of plans with respect to flood risk is somewhat correlated with population of the community as well as the amount of flood insurance in force. It appears that the larger the community, the better plans address flooding, in general. And the more insurance in force, the better plans address flooding. Interestingly, there seems to be no correlation between how much of a community is located in the floodplain and how well the plans address flood risk.
Our conclusion after this project is that comprehensive plans have a long way to go in helping communities address the long-term flood risks. Streams are probably the only permanent features of communities and comprehensive plans offer the best opportunity to discuss their impact. Adding better data, developing better goals, and suggesting more informed policy actions will help make communities across Nebraska more resilient and better prepared to deal with the inevitable future floods.
More information at: 
Comprehensive Plans and Flood Risk
