Author Description

The Federal Guidelines for Inundation Mapping of Flood Risks Associated with Dam Incidents and Failures is presented by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as part of the National Dam Safety Program (NDSP), a partnership of States, Federal agencies, and other stakeholders formed to encourage individual and community responsibility for dam safety. As part of the NDSP, States are responsible for regulating non-Federal dams and do so autonomously from the Federal government and other States. This document provides information for Federal and State agencies, local governments, dam owners, and emergency management officials to use for reducing flood hazards and the resulting potential for economic damage and loss of life. This document is intended as a resource for developing State-specific guidelines for dam safety and as a reference manual for dam safety professionals to map dam breach inundation zones. The purpose of this document is to provide dam safety professionals with guidance on how to prepare dam breach inundation modeling studies and conduct mapping that can be used for multiple purposes, including dam safety, hazard mitigation, consequence evaluation, and emergency management including developing EAPs. This guidance is intended to provide a consistent approach that can be applied across the country. If adopted by individual States, the standardized methods and approaches presented in this document can be leveraged for a variety of dam safety products and across jurisdictional boundaries to strengthen dam safety across the United States. This document is not intended to establish dam safety policy or provide requirements and specifications, but rather to function as a compilation of the best technical resources and practices available for inundation modeling and mapping. It is also not intended to provide a complete manual of all procedures available for dam breach analysis and mapping. Topics include conducting breach assessments, methods for esti