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Maine Floodplain Management and Mapping News
Forward to a Friend Vol. 3, Issue 2
Summer 2010
In This Issue
New Staff Member
Harpswell Sees Some Changes
Floodplain Mapping Update
LiDAR Update/Freesoftware
Handy FEMA Bulletin Reference Guide
Maine GeoLibrary Saving Money for Maine
Other SPO Newsletters
"Quote of the Day"
Newsletter Funding
Meet Janet Parker
Janet Parker
Janet Parker

The Maine Floodplain program welcomes Janet to the Program. Janet comes to us from her position as a GIS specialist for the State Planning Office. She is  working on  her masters degree in planing at the Muskie School in Planning.
She has taken over the duties of Brigitte Ndikum-Nyada who moved with her family to the Boston area and has taken a position with FEMA in Boston. Janet Can be reached at 207-287-8052 or by e-mail.
 
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FEMA Issues New Summary of Map Actions for Harpswell
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Harpswell Aerial Photo

A new preliminary Summary  of Map Actions (SOMA) has been released  by FEMA. The new SOMA has reduced the number of voided Letters of Map Amendments (LOMA's) substantially. Harpswell with over 200 miles of coastline has one of if not the highest number of LOMA's in the state with 86 approved prior to the issuance of new Preliminary digital flood insurance rate maps. (DFIRMS) The new SOMA indicates that of the 86 LOMA's, 39 will remain valid 46 will be ruled invalid due to new hydraulic and hydrologic anylyses and 1 remains to be determined based on further investigation.
 

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Floodplain Mapping Update

By Joseph Young
Mapping Coordinator

Aroostook County

The USGS Maine Water Science Center is making steady progress in completing the Flood insurance Study and mapping for Fort Kent. Topographic work, field reconnaissance, field surveys and retrieval of background data are 100 % complete and hydrology is nearly complete. The target for completion of preliminary maps is early fall of this year.

Kennebec County

The appeals process for those communities with new base flood elevations started on July 5, 2010 and will close on October 4, 2010. The anticipated date for a Letter of Final Determination is December 16, 2010 which will begin the six month adoption period. Communities should plan on updating their ordinances to include the new mapping panel numbers and any necessary changes in language to reflect current FEMA requirements by June of 2011.

Cumberland and York Counties

FEMA and its Contractors continue to work through issues raised by communities regarding base flood elevations established in preliminary floodplain maps. The current target for publishing formal notices in the local newspapers is the last week in July and first week in August. The formal appeals process will be restarted on the date of the second notice with an anticipated effective date for new maps being in mid summer of 2011.

Androscoggin County

Work in the county is progressing well. Base mapping, topographic and hydrological analysis have been completed. The contractor is currently finishing the field surveys, developing  hydraulic data and beginning the mapping process. The next few months will be spent performing QA/QC work on the data developed to date, completion of floodplain mapping and QA/QC of that data, development of the DFIRM database and producing preliminary maps. The target date for distribution of preliminary maps is still late fall of this year.

LiDAR system in action
LiDAR Depiction
LiDAR Update-Free Software

Joseph Young
Mapping Coordinator

The Northeast Coastal Lidar project is proceeding on schedule. The Joint Funding Agreement has been signed and flights are scheduled to begin this fall.

As more LiDAR data becomes available GIS geeks will want to see what they can do with it. NOAA has a free program called FUSION. FUSION is a lidar data viewer and processing software package that helps researchers understand, explore, and analyze lidar data. The software tools perform basic or advanced tasks, handle very large data sets and produce products from raw lidar point data, including digital elevation models (DEMs) and contours. The software also provides tools to output the products in typical GIS formats. If you are interested you can find the software on the NOAA Digital Coast website.


User's Guide to Technical Bulletins
Technical Bulletin Guide
FEMA Technical Bulletins 

Joseph Young
Mapping Coordinator

FEMA publishes a guide to technical bulletins. This User's Guide is intended to assist those using the Technical Bulletins issued by the FEMA Mitigation Directorate. It contains a Key Word/Subject Index that identifies topics contained in the Technical Bulletins regarding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Reference sources and information about ordering additional NFIP publications are also provided. Anyone dealing with FEMA regulations from Code Enforcement officers to builders or Architects will find this a handy reference. It can be downloaded from the FEMA website.

Maine GeoLibrary Board
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GeoLibrary Board Approves Plan to Save State and Towns $$$

Dan Walters, Board Member
Chair Ortho-Imagery SubCommittee
Maine GeoLibrary Board

The Maine GeoLibrary has given conceptual approval to a new five year plan for acquiring updated Ortho Imagery. If the plan is implemented the State would most likely save hundreds of thousands of dollars in data acquisition costs as well as leverage hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant funding. Many of Maine's communities are priced out of the market for acquiring ortho imagery because of the high costs associated with small area acquisitions.
 
"Given current economic conditions this is just the sort of creative forward thinking the state needs to deliver quality service at a lower cost." said GeoLibrary Board Vice Chair Bill Hanson.

By seeking out partners in this data acquisition the Board will be able to serve the people of Maine in maintaining a critical geo-spatial data set used by multiple agencies in state, local and federal governments as well as the private sector. Private sector consumers include a wide range of users from large web based companies like Google to individual Realtors, developers and homeowners  interested in specific properties. An ongoing program that will refresh this data is an important tool for maintaining accurate up to date maps for all these constituencies.
 
Ortho Imagery is one of several data sets that are much more affordable when acquired for large geographic areas. By coordinating large scale acquisition and seeking out partners the Board will be able to reduce the cost of acquisition from prices approaching one dollar per acre to less than 10 cents an acre. The Board will seek to create a  local, federal and private economic partnership to maintain a low cost high value data set used throughout the state on a daily basis which will reduced the costs to each partner even further.

Click on this link to view a copy of the Boards Ortho Imagery report.
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The State Planning Office publishes several newsletters. Generally newsletters are published on a quarterly basis. If you have an interest in other SPO activities you may  subscribe to them through the following links.

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Quote of the Day
 

"Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other."

Carrie P. Snow .

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Newsletter Funding

This newsletter is funded with a grant provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  EMB-2007-CA-0874