January 31, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. - The perfect storm for floodplain management in Kentucky may have formed about three
years ago.
That’s when the Kentucky Association of Mitigation Managers (KAMM) was formed to promote floodplain management and mitigation statewide and Warren Campbell, a nationally certified floodplain manager, joined the Department of Engineering at Western Kentucky University with a vision to create a floodplain management program.
When Campbell arrived at WKU in 2004 after serving as city hydrologist in Huntsville, Ala., he became just the seventh nationally certified floodplain manager (CFM) in Kentucky. Now thanks to the efforts of KAMM and WKU’s floodplain management minor, Kentucky has 46 CFMs.
“We’re pleased that WKU established a floodplain management minor,” said Taylor Duncan, KAMM’s current chair and floodplain manager for the city of Olive Hill. “Students aren’t learning just the engineering of flooding, they’re learning about the policy issues of flooding.”
WKU launched the nation’s only floodplain management minor in 2006. In the 2006-07 academic year, 14 WKU students passed the national CFM examination.
“KAMM’s goal is to increase awareness of floodplain management in the state,” said Carey Johnson, KAMM’s immediate past chair and an employee of the state Division of Water. “This program gives students the opportunity to study and experience all aspects of floodplain management.”
While Hurricane Katrina’s devastation in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast showed the impact of widespread flooding, Campbell and Johnson noted that flooding is an issue everywhere and especially in Kentucky, which ranks behind only Alaska in the number of streams and rivers.
Flooding causes numerous deaths and disaster declarations each year in Kentucky and nationwide.
“The thing that’s important about floodplain management is the only time government disaster assistance is available is after a presidential declaration,” Johnson said. “The small floods affect people too.”
Nationwide, 20,472 communities participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. Kentucky has 365 communities in the program.
“People get caught up in property damage, but floodplain management and mitigation is designed to save lives,” Duncan said. “It all comes back to public safety.”
Demand is growing for floodplain managers, Campbell said. FEMA is spending $1 billion on flood map modernization and California passed a $4 billion bond issue for flood mitigation.
Besides preparing for the national CFM exam, WKU students are participating in numerous floodplain management activities such as topographic surveys for watershed modeling, watershed monitoring along the U.S. 31W Bypass, assessing flood risks in Bowling Green and modeling stormwater injection wells.
“Floodplain management is not taught in the classroom,” Campbell said. His vision for the program includes a “traveling classroom” for students to visit flood sites in Kentucky and nationwide.
“We’re hoping WKU’s program is a steppingstone to a major in floodplain management or for courses offered at other universities in the state,” Johnson said. “It’s a very important field.”
Duncan, Johnson and other KAMM representatives visited WKU on Jan. 17 to present Glasgow senior Aaron Wallace with a $500 scholarship. Wallace, who passed the national CFM exam, also is the 2007/2008 recipient of the $2,000 Nick Winters Scholarship, a prestigious national award from the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM).
For more about KAMM, visit http://www.kymitigation.org/. For more about WKU’s floodplain management minor, visit http://www.wku.edu/engineering/ce/floodplainminor/floodplain.php
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Warren Campbell at (270) 745-8898.
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