FEMA is anticipating another five year mapping program and it is important that we have a clear goal for updating the rest of Maine's floodplains. Consequently the Maine Floodplain Management Program will be completing a new business plan for updating the rest of Maine's floodplains in the coming months. Priority will be given to those communities or groups of communities that are able to come up with partnership funds to help stretch FEMA dollars.
During the first mapping effort it has become obvious that good mapping requires better topographic data than is generally available. Fortunately we have seen a steady decline in the cost of topographic data acquisition. For large scale projects we have seen prices come down from $1000 dollars/sq. mi. to less than $500/sq. mi.
We have also seen innovative high tech methods developed for creating floodplain maps quickly and less expensively. These methods would create floodplain delineations that would be a vast improvement over the current maps, many of which were developed with very crude information and very little or no hydrological or hydraulic studies.
Despite the decreasing costs associated with topographic data acquisition and more efficient floodplain mapping techniques the cost of updating the remaining floodplains is substantial. The best chance for Maine communities to upgrade their floodplain maps is in adopting an organized regional approach. By participating in large group efforts that participate financially in the effort economies of scale can be realized that will lower the costs for all communities and potentially attract additional grant money from other federal agencies in addition to FEMA.
As we go through our planning process priority will be given to groups of communities that are able to come up with partnership funds. For more information please contact Joseph Young. 287-8051