Regulations & Guidance (ERs, ECs, EGMs, PGLs IWR Publications)

General Planning Guidance

• Planning Guidance Notebook - ER 1105-2-100
  
• Economic and Environmental Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies
  
• Reconnaissance Phase Guidance -Planning Guidance Memorandum #99-01
  
• Shortening the Planning Process -Planning Guidance Letter #97-10
  
• Expedited Reconnaissance Study Phase Guidance -Planning Guidance Letter #96-3
  
• Planning Civil Work Projects Under the Environmental Operating Principles - EC 1105-2-404
  
• Flood Damage Reduction Measures in Urban Areas -ER 1165-2-21
  
• Implementation of Executive Order 11988 on Flood Plain Management -ER 1165-2-26
  
• Digest of Water Resources Policies and Authorities - EP 1165-2-1
  
• Flood Proofing Regulations -EP 1165-2-314
  
• Beyond Expected Value: Making Decisions Under Risk and Uncertainty (IWR Publication 02-R-4)
  

Economic Analysis Guidance

• Risk-Based Analysis for Evaluation of Hydrology/Hydraulics, Geotechnical Stability, and Economics in Flood Damage Reduction Studies -ER 1105-2-101
  
• Risk-Based Analysis for Flood Damage Reduction Studies -EM 1110-2-1619
  
• Benefit Determination Involving Existing Levees - Policy Guidance Letter # 26
  
• Restoration of Market Value Benefits -- Policy Guidance Letter # 41
  
• Guidance on Levee Certification for FEMA CECW-P/CECW-E (25 March 1997)
  
• Flood Damage Reduction Risk-Based Analysis Waiver -Planning Guidance Letter #97-3
  
• National Flood Insurance Program Operating Costs, FY 2004 -- Economic Guidance Memorandum #04-04
  
• FY 2004 Interest Rates -Economic Guidance Memorandum #04-02
  
• Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures with Basements -Economic Guidance Memorandum #04-01
  
• Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures without Basements -Economic Guidance Memorandum #01-03
  
• National Economic Development Procedures Manual, Overview Manual for Conducting NED Analysis (IWR Publication 91-R-11)
  
• Guidelines for Risk and Uncertainty Analysis in Water Resources Planning, Volume I, Principles with Technical Appendices (IWR Publication 92-R-1)
  
• Guidelines for Risk and Uncertainty Analysis in Water Resources Planning, Volume II, Examples (IWR Publication 92-R-2)
  
• Framework for Estimating National Economic Development Benefits and Other Beneficial Effects of Flood Warning & Preparedness Systems (IWR Publication 94-R-3)
  
• Risk-Based Evaluation of Flood Warning and Preparedness Systems - Overview (IWR Publication 96-R-25)
  
• Risk-Based Evaluation of Flood Warning and Preparedness Systems - Technical (IWR Publication 96-R-26)
  
• Procedural Guidelines for Estimating Residential and Business Structure Value for Use in Flood Damage Estimations (IWR Publication 95-R-9)
  
• Tools for Risk Based Economic Analysis (IWR Publication 99-R-2)
  

Other Guidance

• Risk-Based Analysis in Geotechnical Engineering for Support of Planning Studies - ETL 1110-2-556 (28 May 1999)
  
• Organization & Functions - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources - ER 10-1-23
  
• Civil Works Construction Cost Index System (CWCCIS) -EM 1110-2-1304
  
• Flood Control Cost-Sharing - Policy Guidance Letter Number 51
  

Training

Tools & Software

HEC-FDA

The HEC-FDA computer program was developed by the Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center to assist Corps staff in analyzing the economics of flood-damage-reduction projects. The program:

• Stores hydrologic and economic data necessary for an analysis;
  
• Provides tools to visualize input data and results;
  
• Computes Expected Annual Damage and Equivalent Annual Damages; and
  
• Implements the risk-based analysis procedures described in EM 1110-2-1619
  
• Description of Software
  
• Download
  
• Documentation
  

Palisade @Risk

@RISK is a commercial software application of Palisade Corporation that functions as an add-in to Microsoft® Excel. As an add-in, @RISK becomes seamlessly integrated with Excel spreadsheets, adding risk analysis to existing models. @RISK uses a technique known as Monte Carlo simulation to show all possible outcomes. Running an analysis with @RISK involves three steps.

1. Define Uncertainty - by replacing uncertain values in the spreadsheet model with @RISK probability distribution functions. These @RISK functions simply represent a range of different possible values that cells could take instead of limiting it to just one value
2. Select output cells whose values are of interest
3. Simulate - @RISK recalculates the spreadsheet model hundreds or thousands of times. Each time, @RISK samples random values from the @RISK functions you entered and records the resulting outcome.

See Palisade @Risk Website

CEFIT

The IWR released CEFIT (Corps of Engineers Floodplain Inventory Tool) software to Districts Corps-wide in September 2004. It was developed under the Flood Damage Data Collection Program for use in residential flood damage analysis. It is designed to record residential inventory data, calculate depreciated structure and content replacement values, and develop and export dollar damages by depth to the HEC-FDA program. The CEFIT software was developed by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (M&S) under contract with the Corps. The depth-damage functions included in the program are approved for application to residential properties and are alternatives to the generic depth-damage functions published in the EGMs 01-13 and 04-01.

The RE-7, CE7 and CCI - RE7 (Residential Estimator Program) and CE7 (Commercial Estimator Program), which were also developed by M&S are tools that can be utilized to determine depreciated structure and content values. CCI (Commercial Content Inventory Program) can be used to estimate commercial and light industrial content values. These programs were released for Corps use along with the CEFIT program. GIS - Geospatial software applications, particularly ESRI's ArcGis are particularly useful tools for FDA. ArcGIS Desktop software products can be utilized to author, analyze, map, manage, share, and publish geographic information. Layers of spatial data can be overlaid to assist in such tasks as developing structure inventories, determining structure elevations, determining floodplain land uses, developing graphics for reports, etc.

See ESRI Website

Other

Data Sources by Category

Demographics and Land Use

• Population, income, housing data - http://www.census.gov/
  
• Demographics, housing data -http://www.fedstats.gov/
  
• Earnings & wages, by region, occupation category, type of organization etc.: http://www.bls.gov/
  

Historical Flood Damage Data

• Worldwide Weather and Climate Events - http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/weather-events.html
  
• Newspaper Links - http://www.disastercenter.com/medianew.mv
  
• Flood Insurance Policy Claims & Statistics -http://www.fema.gov/business/nfip/statistics/pcstat.shtm
  

Floodplain Delineations

• FEMA Flood Hazard Mapping - http://www.fema.gov/fhm/

Maps

• US Maps Resources Links - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states.html
  
• US Census GIS Gateway -http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gis_gateway.html
  

Structure Valuation

• Local Real Estate Assessors Data
  
• Marshall & Swift/Boeckh - http://www.marshallswift.com/ See also CEFIT, RE7 & CE7 under Tools & Software
  
• Procedural Guidelines for Estimating Residential and Business Structure Value for Use in Flood Damage Estimations (IWR Publication 95-R-9)
  

Content Values/Ratios

• Commecial & Industrial Content Valuation - See description of CCI under Tools & Software
  
• Residential Content Ratios - See:
  
  • CEFIT software under Tools & Software. CEFIT program calculates content damages based upon structure characteristics, eliminating the need to calculate content values.
    
  • Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures with Basements -Economic Guidance Memo #04-01, These depth/damage functions calculate content damage as a function of depreciated structure value, eliminating the need to calculate content values.
    
  • Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures without Basements -Economic Guidance Memo #01-03, These depth/damage functions calculate content damage as a function of depreciated structure value, eliminating the need to calculate content values.
    
• Guidelines to Estimating Existing and Future Residential Content Values (IWR Publication 93-R-7)
  
• Analysis of Non-Residential Content Value and Depth Damage Data for Flood Damage Reduction Studies (IWR Publication 96-R-12)
  
• Dredged Material Management Plan and EIS - McNary Reservoir and Lower Snake River Reservoirs (Walla Wall District, July 2002) - Non-Residential Content/Structure Ratios - http://www.nww.usace.army.mil/dmmp/dmmp_appc.htm - tab3
  

Depth-Damage Functions

• Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures with Basements -Economic Guidance Memorandum #04-01
  
• Generic Depth-Damage Relationships for Residential Structures without Basements -Economic Guidance Memorandum #01-03
  
• Commercial Structures - Depth/Damage Relationships for Commercial Structures, Expert Panel Meeting, Houma, Louisiana (Jan 1997).
  
• Business Depth/Damage Analysis Procedures (IWR Publication 85-R5)
  
• Dredged Material Management Plan and EIS - McNary Reservoir and Lower Snake River Reservoirs (Walla Wall District, July 2002) - Non-Residential Depth/Damage Functions
  

Other Damage Categories

• Vehicle Operating Costs - http://www.runzheimer.com/bvsc/scripts/vssample.asp
  
• Flood Insurance Admin. Costs - Economic Guidance Memorandum #04-04
  

Other Documentation/Sample Reports

• Flood Proofing - How to Evaluate Your Options