As part of the new state flood planning process, the Texas Water Development Board designated 15 regional flood planning groups, based on major river basins. Each group completed a regional flood plan, which the TWDB will review and incorporate into the statewide flood plan.
Highlights
By law, each regional flood planning group has diverse representation from various sectors; many members lack technical flood experience but have unique local perspectives on flooding.
The regional flood plans evaluate existing and future flood risk, set regional goals for flood protection, and estimate expected costs. Each plan recommends flood management projects that reduce flood risk, mitigate flood hazards to life or property; flood management evaluations to identify flood risk or flood solutions; and flood management strategies for solutions that haven’t been developed.
Key insights
- Texas’s regional flood planning groups provide a model for inclusive watershed-based collaboration and coordination. By including stakeholders from different backgrounds, each region better understands its flood risks and how to improve resilience and equity.
- These regional flood planning groups also demonstrate the importance of adequate funding for ongoing watershed-scale planning and implementation. Without consistent funds for ongoing collaboration and coordination, most communities revert to traditional flood resilience approaches — instead of watershed-scale planning, which emphasizes natural features and processes.
