Resources

International Guidelines on Natural and Nature‐Based Features for Flood Risk Management. This well-researched and documented report provides detailed descriptions of natural and nature-solutions as well as guidance for planning and design that is useful for community planners and engineers. Published U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. ERDC SR-21-6 http://dx.doi.org/10.21079/11681/41946

Texas Living Shoreline Site Suitability Tool developed by Texas General Land Office, Texas A&M, and the HARTE Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies can be used to predict locations suitable for living shoreline and help identify the best methods to address the conditions at that site.

Building Community Resilience with Nature-based solutions: Strategies for Success – prepared by FEMA to address the values of NBS and suggests how to move forward with NBS projects.

Building Community Resilience with Nature-based solutions: A guide for local communities – compiled by FEMA to explain nature-based solutions, provide the business case for their pursuit, and suggests how local funds and federal resources can be used to implement nature-based solutions.

Naturally resilient communities solutions guide prepared by the American Planning Association, Association of State Floodplain Managers, American Society of Civil Engineers, and others, provides case studies from successful projects using nature-based solutions to address flooding.

The Nature Conservancy’s Climate Risk and Resilience Resources Library provides a comprehensive list of resources for nature-based projects.

Building with Nature, – a book prepared by Ecoshape, a consortium of public and private organizations pursuing nature-based projects worldwide, provides examples of nature-based solutions as well as planning and engineering considerations important for successful outcomes.

Green infrastructure design and implementation – prepared by US EPA, provides design manuals and tools as well as advice for challenging situations.

Tools, Strategies and Lessons Learned from EPA Green Infrastructure Technical Assistance Projects – prepared by US EPA to provide practical, successful inspiring solutions for designing community space that improves health and quality of life and provides abundant water resources.

The Living Shoreline Academy has compiled examples of living shoreline projects and resources for communities and property owners as well as engineering professionals to assist proper design and successful implementation.

Reconnecting Rivers to Floodplains – prepared by American Rivers to guide consideration of floodplain functions — connectivity, variable flow, spatial scale, and habitat — to guide river and floodplain restoration.

Georgetown Climate’s Green Infrastructure Tool Kit, developed by Georgetown Climate Center Adaptation Clearinghouse, focuses on green infrastructure solutions for stormwater management in urban areas. Contains detailed information on a variety of solutions and advice on design and implementation.

US Climate Resilience Tool Kit is a web-based tool to help communities develop resilience to meet the evolving challenges of climate change. It provides a variety of useful tools to explore risks, find experts, and local funding for projects.

Texas General Land Office’s A Guild to Living Shorelines in Texas provides streamlined information on how private property owners can design, permit, and construct living shoreline projects.

Galveston Bay Foundation’s Habitat Restoration features a variety of projects that have improved the natural resources of the Bay.

Guidance for Considering Use of Living Shorelines – prepared by NOAA to provide information on “NOAA’s perspective and roles regarding living shorelines implementation.” It describes NOAA’s principles guiding living shoreline projects to stabilize shorelines and highlights NOAA science, tools, and training to help inform the selection of appropriate techniques.

Louisiana Watershed Initiative provides summary sheets on nature-based solutions for rural and urban areas, opportunity maps (for Louisiana) and training modules.

The White Hous’s Nature-Based Solutions Resource Guide contains a summary and links to 177 federal knowledge resources, tools, guidance, and technical assistance on nature-based solutions.

Local Funding for Coastal Projects: An Overview of Practices, Policies, and Considerations – presents options for raising revenue and discusses emerging financial tools as well as community considerations to determine the most appropriate for funding a beach or coastal restoration project. https://asbpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Local-Funding-Report_Final_1.22.20.pdf)

Financing Natural Infrastructure for Coastal Flood Damage Reduction– a resource on financial tools for investing in natural infrastructure to reduce current and future risks from flooding.

i-Tree Landscape and i-Tree Canopy, can help assess tree coverage (as well as identify carbon dioxide, air pollution, and stormwater reduction benefits). i-Tree Canopy can be used to prioritize areas for planting using information about population, density, minorities, and poverty levels.

The 3/30/300 “rule” is an evidence-based guideline for creating greener and healthier communities first published in 2022. Details on the guidelines can be found in: Konijnendijk, C.C. Evidence-based guidelines for greener, healthier, more resilient neighborhoods: Introducing the 3–30–300 rule. J. For. Res. (2022).

RiskFactor.com is a free tool created by the nonprofit First Street Foundation providing valuable information about floods and other risks associated with a property. It also provides a nationwide view of flood risks.

Floodsmart.gov is FEMA’s website on floods explaining flood risk, flood maps, flood insurance, and the costs of flood events.

FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center is the gateway and official source of flood hazard information.

TexasFlood, developed by the Texas Water Development Board, Texas Division of Emergency Management and Texas General Land Office, provides real time information on water levels and flooding. It links to the Interagency Flood Risk Management Flood Decision Support Toolbox, which provides real time weather information and anticipated flood levels to help determine flood risk under various scenarios.

Texas A&M’s Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas has developed a number of interactive web-based tools including those identifying flood risk and evaluating cost and benefit of flood hazard mitigation options.

Texas Water Development Board provides information on grants available for flood hazard mitigation projects.

FEMA’s Resources for Benefit-Cost Analysis webpage provides several resources to guide communities’ analyses.

The Texas Floodplain Management Association can be a good way to connect with local professionals knowledgeable about flood risks, flood hazard mitigation, flood insurance, and Texas policies, programs, and funds relevant to flooding.

The Association of State Floodplain Managers is a source of information on current policies and news on flood and hazard mitigation topics and can help you find local floodplain management professionals.

Delft3D is open source software used to simulate coastal flooding with a modular modeling system which includes hydrodynamic (Delft3D-FLOW module), morphodynamic (Delft3D-MOR module), waves (Delft3D-WAVE module), water quality (Delft3D-WAQ module including the DELWAQ kernel) and particle (Delft3D-PART module) modeling.

Delft Dashboard is an input processing tool that assists in extracting topography and other data useful for flood modeling such as with Delft3D.

The Soil & Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a small watershed to river basin-scale model used to simulate the quality and quantity of surface and ground water and predict the environmental impact of land use, land management practices, and climate change. SWAT is widely used in assessing soil erosion prevention and control, non-point source pollution control and regional management in watersheds.

The American Society of Civil Engineers, Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute (ASCE CORPI) is dedicated to the promotion of science and engineering developments in areas related to coasts, rivers, and related infrastructure.

Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 7) provides the most up-to-date and coordinated loading provisions for general structural design. This standard prescribes design loads for all hazards including dead, live, soil, flood, tsunami, snow, rain, atmospheric ice, seismic, wind, and fire, as well as how to evaluate load combinations.

ASCE EMI Fluid Dynamics Committee: EMI (Engineering Mechanics Institute)’s mission is to promote work and design standards related to engineering mechanics. The Fluid Dynamics Committee is within EMI, and highlights specific work on fluid mechanics.

The US EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a publicly available database containing information on toxic chemical releases and pollution prevention activities reported by industrial and federal facilities.

The US EPA Facility Registry System (FRS) is a publicly available database that identifies facilities, sites, or places of environmental interest in the United States. 

Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) is a US EPA public database that provides compliance information about regulated facilities, such as: federal regulation requirements, dates of inspections, violations of environmental regulation, and actions taken against the facility as a result of any violations.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a US EPA permit program which addresses water pollution by regulating point sources, like facilities, that discharge pollutants to US waters.

The US EPA National Emissions Inventory (NEI) is a publicly available dataset containing measured, modeled, and estimated data for emissions of known source categories in the US. The NEI is released every three years based primarily upon data provided by State, Local, and Tribal air agencies for sources in their jurisdictions and supplemented by data developed by the US EPA.

The US EPA Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS) is the official repository for site and non-site specific Superfund data in support of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). It contains information on hazardous waste site assessment and remediation from 1983 to the present.

The US EPA Risk Management Program (RMP)  is a risk management and assessment program which requires facilities holding more than a threshold quantity of a regulated substance to develop a Risk Management Plan, parts of which can be accessed by the public. A more complete copy of EPA’s RMP database is made public by the Data Liberation Project via FOIA request.

The US EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model is a screening-level model and prioritization tool that incorporates TRI chemical reporting data, US Decennial Census data, chemical toxicities in regards to long-term effects on human health, and geographic locations of facilities and nearby water bodies. This information is used to model chemical releases through air and water and the potential human exposure and health-related impacts that may result.