The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced on May 12 that the Office of Water Resources in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois State Water Survey took first place in FEMA’s 2021 National Cooperating Technical Partner (CTP) Recognition Award for their statewide efforts to assess flood risk at the individual property level. 

The Water Survey and IDNR are participants in FEMA’s Cooperating Technical Partners Program and continue to collaborate together, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to collect first floor elevations of all structures in and near the 500-year frequency floodplains of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, as well as other flood-prone areas across the state. Structure-specific flood risk information has been incorporated into Illinois Structures at Flood Risk GIS database and web map to support flood preparedness and local community flood mitigation efforts.  

In an email, Loren Wobig, director of IDNR’s Office of Water Resources, wrote that “This award recognized the extensive collaboration that is necessary at local, state, and federal levels to advance flood mitigation efforts in the state. In the truest sense of integrated water issue management, everybody involved in this joint regional effort does their specialized part to contribute to the overall team project. At the end of the day, Illinois communities large and small, resourced or disadvantaged alike in the floodplains, are benefited by being given science-based information...to help promote, prioritize, and enact flood damage reduction mitigation actions.”

Congratulations to the Coordinated Hazard Assessment and Mapping Program (CHAMP) team at the Water Survey for this recognition of their efforts!

Read more about the Water Survey's contributions as a FEMA Cooperating Technical Partner. 

Read more about efforts to assess flood risk at the property level.