Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology Acceptability Process Committee Meets on Flood Standards Development
Oct 3, 2014
The Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology (“Commission”) Acceptability Process Committee (“Committee”) met on September 30, 2014.
Dr. Jack Nicholson, the Committee Chairman, gave a presentation on the development process for flood standards, explaining that, although there is no requirement to bring a flood model to the Commission for its approval, the Commission is required by law to adopt standards by July 1, 2017.
In his presentation, Dr. Nicholson established basic guidelines for the development process. Specifically:
- Both flood and hurricane loss models will have the same deadlines and submission requirements
- Hurricane loss and flood loss will be modeled independently
- Hurricane and flood modeling standards will be separate
- The failure of a hurricane model will not impact the acceptability of a flood model, and vice versa
To date, the Commission has met with several modeling companies to discuss flood model development. Dr. Nicholson said he expects there will be a learning curve for the Commission in this area.
It is anticipated the inland and coastal flood data would need to be included in the model, inasmuch as inland and coastal flood standards will likely be different, he said.
Dr. Nicholson said two new professional team members will review the flood standards who will be experts in Coastal Engineering and Hydrology, respectively. The deadline to apply for these positions was October 2, 2014.
He added that the process to accomplish the Commission’s flood standards mandate should include creating a Flood Standards Development Committee that would meet at least monthly. A discussion of Flood Standards should be included in the Commission’s 2015 Report of Activities.
Dr. Nicholson suggested an October meeting to review statutory changes, engage in discussions with modelers and identify issues that need further discussion. A detailed timeline and objectives summary is outlined in the attached document entitled “Development of Flood Standards.”
Commission Chair Dr. Lorilee Medders suggested full Commission participation in the proposed Flood Standards Development Committee. All present agreed.
Ensuring modelers are involved during the formative process of flood standards development was also discussed.
Hyperlinks to the meeting materials are provided below:
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