2023 Amended Regional Flood Plan

In the wake of historic flooding in Texas, the 2019 Texas legislature passed legislation to create Texas’ first-ever regional and state flood planning process. The legislature created the state flood planning framework and charged the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) with creating flood planning regions based on river basin boundaries and with administering the ongoing work of flood planning.

The main objective of this flood planning process is to reduce flood risk. This coordinated statewide effort serves as a response to recent flood disasters by identifying actions to protect against loss of life and property and guide state and local flood policy.

The TWDB subdivided the state into 15 regions based on river basins. Each region developed a Regional Flood Plan that will be rolled up into a single state flood plan.

The flood planning effort is truly a bottom-up process that leans on a group of local volunteers who represent private and public interests to govern. This effort provides ample opportunity for regional stakeholders and the public to participate in the development of the flood plan.

The regional flood planning process is not a one-time effort. It is intended to be a cyclical process that will recur every five years allowing for the opportunity to continue to build on and improve the plan in order to address the evolving needs of the state. Additionally, the TWDB recognized a need for amendments to the Regional Flood Plans between planning cycles to account for changes in conditions or new information following adoption of the Regional Flood Plans. More information about the Regional Flood Plan amendment process can be found  here .

The Regional Flood Plan was submitted to the TWDB on Jan. 10, 2023, and an amended version of the plan was submitted on July 14, 2023.

The objective of flood risk analysis within the flood plan was to perform a comprehensive and cohesive flood risk analysis for the region. Flood risk analysis included efforts to:

• Define the 100-year (1.0% annual chance event, or ACE) and 500-year (0.2% ACE) flood hazard for both existing conditions and 30 years into the future based on the latest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data assessment,
• Perform an exposure analysis to determine who and what is at risk, and
• Perform a vulnerability analysis of communities and critical facilities.

This effort included flood map gap analysis to identify areas where the mapping was insufficient or inadequate given certain standards. Identifying flood prone areas was an important piece of this effort. Through surveys and mapping, the public was able to report areas that were not currently reflected in the existing flood hazard mapping. A more detailed explanation of the existing and future flood hazard analysis can be found in Chapter 2 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

The goal of conducting regional flood planning is to protect the public against loss of life and property damage from flooding events; the San Jacinto RFPG was tasked with identifying region-specific goals and standards (referred to as Flood Management Practices and Flood Protection Goals in the Regional Flood Plan) to guide the direction and measure progress of the Regional Flood Plan. 

Flood Management Practices and Flood Protection Goals included an effort to evaluate and recommend floodplain management practices as well as develop floodplain management goals for the region.

More details about the Flood Management Practices & Flood Protection Goals can be found in Chapter 3 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

The San Jacinto RFPG conducted a flood mitigation needs analysis which considered a variety of criteria. The results of this preliminary assessment show that large portions of the San Jacinto region have both inadequate mapping and hydrologic/hydraulic models as well as few detailed studies.

Potential flood mitigation actions were identified starting with conducting research on stakeholder input and publicly available data. You can view more details of flood mitigation needs and actions in Chapter 4 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan and view the Regional Flood Plan data in the interactive data section below.

The flood risk analysis and identification of flood mitigation needs helped the San Jacinto RFPG identify and consider recommendations on evaluations (or studies), strategies, and projects to address known flood mitigation needs. $33.8 billion is needed to fund the flood mitigation actions identified in the Amended Regional Flood Plan. A breakdown of the types of actions is included below.

Each recommended action includes an identified local sponsor. The inclusion of flood mitigation actions in the plan allows those actions to qualify for future financial assistance from the state. The flood mitigation actions included in the plan are not endorsed by the San Jacinto RFPG. Additionally, flood mitigation actions must follow all National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines and comply with all local, state and federal regulations.

A full breakdown of the recommended actions can be found in Chapter 5 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

The Regional Flood Plan also focuses on emergency management, preparedness, response, and recovery phases of flood emergencies specific to the San Jacinto region. This information relies upon survey responses, oral testimony of entities and citizens from the region, and local knowledge of the technical consultants ensuring that the presented flood response information and activities are specific to this region. You can read more about Flood Response Activities in Chapter 7 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

The San Jacinto RFPG also made recommendations to the State of Texas to improve floodplain management and mitigation within the region. A total of 24 recommendations were developed. The complete list of administrative, regulatory, and legislative recommendations can be found in Chapter 8 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

Additionally, a Flood Infrastructure Funding survey was sent to 99 Sponsors with recommended flood mitigation actions identified in the DRAFT Regional Flood Plan and the Regional Flood Plan submitted on Jan. 10, 2023. Each sponsor was provided the list of mitigation solutions identified under their authority, including project costs, and was asked to provide the level and type of local funding available for the proposed mitigation solutions and the amount of federal and state assistance needed to complete the project.

Based on the survey responses received to date, there is an estimated $25.3 billion in state and/or federal funding needed to implement the recommended flood mitigation actions identified in the Amended Regional Flood Plan. This represents only a portion of the $33.8 billion needed to fund the entire plan. Learn more about the Flood Infrastructure Financing Analysis in Chapter 9 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.

In addition to numerous full RFPG and RFPG committee meetings, the San Jacinto RFPG hosted seven public meetings to educate the public about the regional flood planning process and results as well as to solicit public input.

Monthly RFPG meetings and committee meetings are subject to Texas Open Meetings Act requirements and public comments can be heard at each of these meetings.

Additional public outreach efforts were made including public surveys, website development, professional conference participation, and presentations. More about public engagement can be found in Chapter 10 of the Amended Regional Flood Plan.