Gilbert F. White Forum

• Priming the Pump: Understanding Big Data and AI
  This panel discussion offered a foundational understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning, as well as their applications in both the public and private sectors. The session highlighted the benefits and risks—including privacy, bias, and ethical concerns—of applying these technologies in real-world settings.
• Drilling Down: The Role of Big Data and AI in Floodplain Management
  Panelists explored how AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data transformed floodplain management. They discussed enhanced hazard and risk identification, streamlined regulatory processes, and improved risk communication, sharing practical applications and case studies. Ethical considerations and unintended consequences of AI deployment were also examined.
• Policy Landscape
  This panel compared U.S. and European Union (EU) approaches to policy frameworks for Big Data and AI, with a focus on the EU AI Act and U.S. federal/state initiatives. Panelists discussed governance, standards, and best practices for data and AI use in flood modeling, mapping, risk communication, and insurance, highlighting collaborative efforts between the public sector, private industry, non-profits, and academia.

Three breakout discussions allowed participants to meet in smaller, cross-sector groups to share expertise and examine policy implications and opportunities related to the Forum’s plenary topics.

Across the United States, communities and states are facing challenging issues surrounding urban flooding, including:

• Higher intensity, more frequent rainfall
• Increasing impervious surfaces (due to population growth and development)
• Aging infrastructure
• Sea level rise
• Water quality decline
• Disruption of the natural water cycle
• Insurance coverage
• Risk identification and communication

Over the past 15 years, coastal storms and hurricane-driven events have become ever larger and more frequent. For coastal communities, the combination of more intense, extreme hurricane-driven rainfall and sea level rise has resulted in a dual urban flooding threat, bringing devastating impacts to facilities, resources, economies and lives. Localized flooding events of massive proportions have also hit inland. In addition to numerous historic floods, smaller rainfall events are also significantly impacting many urban areas. Older parts of cities, in particular, are vulnerable to flooding from these higher frequency events. The flooding that takes place often occurs outside of the floodplains typically identified by the National Flood Insurance Program.

Four recent efforts are providing new data and insights regarding urban flooding and its consequences:

• Tasked by the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources released a report in 2015 on the extent, cost, prevalence, and policies related to urban flooding in Illinois.
• The Center for Disaster Resilience, University of Maryland, and Center for Texas Beaches and Shores, Texas A&M University, Galveston Campus, is conducting a study entitled "The Growing Threat of Urban Flooding."
• The ASFPM Stormwater Management Committee is developing an urban flooding discussion paper.
• The National Academy of Science (NAS) is currently completing a FEMA-sponsored study entitled Urban Flooding in the United States.

To catalyze discussion and action on urban flooding, the ASFPM Foundation will host a two-day policy forum in March 2019. More than one hundred invited experts representing federal, state and local agencies, the private sector, academia and other stakeholder groups will come together to explore opportunities, barriers and challenges, and focus on the policy path forward.

Topics to be examined include:

• Governance (local, state, federal, tribal)
• People (e.g., social impacts)
• Water quality and quantity
• Ecosystems
• Economy (including impacts on private industry, commerce, jobs, etc.)
• Risk identification in an environment of changing risk (including risk communication)

The targeted outcome will be a set of tiered (local, state, tribal, federal, public-private sector) recommendations to increase resilience and drive locally relevant action to prepare for, mitigate against and recover from escalating urban flooding. In particular, the forum will seek to clarify:

• Governance – roles and responsibilities of cognizant agencies at each level of government
• Integration – needs associated with understanding and implementing a uniform policy set for the nation
• Policy and funding adjustments – changes that are required to enable those roles and responsibilities
• Priorities for future action – immediate and long-term

From the forum’s results, the foundation will develop a written report with national policy recommendations. It will be shared widely with the administration, congressional offices, state and local agencies and the many practitioners focused on urban flooding issues.

In preparation for the forum's discussions, those invited to attend and participate in this event were also invited to submit brief papers with their current thoughts on urban flooding. These papers were provided to all attendees in advance of the meeting with the request that they read these papers in advance of the event.

• 2019 GFW Forum Think Papers
• 2019 Panelist Biographies

To learn more about the ASFPM Foundation Gilbert White Forum series and the 2019 event, please contact the ASFPM Executive Office at 608-828-3000, asfpmfoundation@floods.org, or ASFPM Foundation President Doug Plasencia at dplasencia@moffattnichol.com.

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact the foundation’s Donor Coordinator, George Riedel or Fundraising Committee Chair Jeff Sparrow.

• Meeting the Challenge of Change (June 2016)
• Abstract of Meeting the Challenge of Change
• ASFPM Foundation to hold a Gilbert F. White National Flood Policy forum this fall in D.C.
• Collection of Think Papers from some of the Forum Participants
• Climate Science: Dr. Antonio J. Busalacchi, Jr., University of Maryland
• Insurance: Michael Cohen, RenaissanceRE Holdings, Ltd.
• Practitioners: David Ford, David Ford Consulting Engineers, Inc.
• Community: David Canaan, Director, Mecklenburg County, NC, Water and Land Resources

• Anderson Consulting Engineers, Inc.
• CDM
• ESP Associates
• Ideation, Inc.
• Michael Baker International
• Stantec

The nation’s coastal floodplains faced ever-increasing and changing pressures. Population growth in the coastal zone; escalating demands on fisheries and other resources unique to the coast; discovery of resources that could fuel a nation; and ecosystems under stress from land use and river management strategies were not new challenges. However, what was new was the unprecedented growth of the United States population, coupled with a climate that had drastically changed in just a handful of generations.

Current demands on constrained coastal resources were not sustainable. Even if human population, resource consumption, and climate trends had stabilized at 2013 levels, evidence indicated that critical coastal functions could not be sustained. The mainstream science community acknowledged that populations in coastal regions were growing rapidly against the backdrop of a changing climate, and that the impacts of these trends were and would continue to be disruptive to lives, ecosystems, and economies.

To facilitate national policy discussions on important floodplain management issues, the ASFPM Foundation sponsored the Gilbert F. White Flood Policy Forum—a gathering of leading experts in the field of flood policy and floodplain management. These Forums developed policy recommendations and established an ongoing record of flood policy issues and directions for the future. The Forums were named in honor of Gilbert F. White, the most influential floodplain management policy expert of the 20th century. The Forums were not only a tribute to his work, but also recognition of the success of his deliberative approach to policy analysis and research.

The goal of each Forum was to convene the top technical and policy strategists to examine a particular flood challenge, and to develop recommendations for policies that would reduce the human casualties, environmental impacts, and economic losses associated with flooding, as well as policies to protect and enhance the natural and beneficial functions of floodplains.

The Coastal Forum, by design, was linked to Gilbert F. White’s 1942 dissertation, Human Adjustment to Floods. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. White dramatically expanded the options available to deal with flooding from being purely about controlling floods to also modifying practices or financial exposures in a manner that would allow humans to adjust to flooding impacts. Forum 2013 provided the opportunity to explore the management principles that should underlay a sound coastal flood risk management and coastal resource management strategy, while beginning to enumerate the policy, technology, data, and essential research necessary to implement such a strategy.

Download the 2013 Forum Background Paper

• 2013 Forum Program Agenda
• 2013 Forum Participant Papers
• Participants List

• Larry Larson, ASFPM – Principles for Managing Coastal Risk and Resources
• Denise Reed, Water Institute of the Gulf – Coasts as Natural Systems
• Nick Hardiman, Environment Agency, UK – Getting England to Adapt at the Coast
• Margaret Davidson, NOAA – Coastal Vulnerability
• Capstone Agenda – Capstone Agenda
• Chad Berginnis, ASFPM – Coastal Flood Policy Roundtable Introduction

• AECOM
• Black & Veatch SPC
• CDM Smith
• Dewberry
• ESP Associates
• H2O Partners
• Michael Baker Jr., Inc.
• Stantec
• URS Corporation

The 2010 Forum solidified a vision for a national flood risk and resource management strategy and identified key steps needed for its implementation. Over 60 papers provided deep analysis and sparked robust discussions on quantification, communication, and management strategies for flood risk. The forum’s findings remain central to shaping modern floodplain policy.

Key topics included outcomes and indicators, communication and human behavior, management strategies, data and tools for managing risk, and national policy recommendations.

• Background Material & Common Understandings
• Overview of "Flood Risk Management," 2010 Forum

• Condensed Report
• Forum YouTube Channel
• Perspectives on Floodplain Management Video

• Forum Agenda
• Participants List
• Forum Photos
• States Symposia, April 2011: State Symposia Summary (2011)
• States Symposia, March 2013: State Symposia Summary (2013)

• Scott Edelman, AECOM – Welcome and Introductions
• Sam Riley Medlock, ASFPM – Forum Topic and Process
• Jeanne Christie, ASWM – Challenges in Managing Natural and Beneficial Resources
• Dennis Mileti, Univ. Colorado – Behavior Factors and How to Effect Change
• Doug Plasencia, Michael Baker Jr., Inc. – Setting the Stage for National Policy

Watch full videos: ASFPM Foundation YouTube Channel

• Background Material
• Symposium 1 Agenda
• Quantifying Flood Risk – Gregory Baecher
• The Need for a Resource Conservation Ethic – Doug Plasencia & Jacquelyn L. Monday
• Participants List

• Background Material
• Symposium 2 Agenda
• Matrices
• "Increasing Public Awareness for Flood Disasters" – Dr. Dennis Mileti
• Participants List

The 2007 Forum used Gilbert F. White’s "geographic" approach to managing floods, considering eight adjustment factors: Elevation, Flood Abatement, Flood Protection, Emergency Measures, Structural Adjustments, Land Use, Public Relief, and Insurance. Attendees considered these factors against trends in population growth, social demographics, climate change, federal budgets, risk communication, technology, infrastructure, and natural resource management. The resulting dialogue informed policy change and research necessary for effective future floodplain management.

• Background Reading Materials

• Summary Report
• Forum Agenda
• Guidelines for Papers
• Applying Gilbert White's Adjustment Concept to Address Floodplain Management in 2050
• Human Factors in 2050: Population Trends, Growth, Urbanization
• Environmental Factors and Natural Resources in 2050: Climate Change, Ecosystem Degradation, Land Use
• Government and Other Factors in 2050: Devolution Upwards and Downwards
• Changes to Floodplain Management As We Move Towards 2050
• The Use of Scenario Based Planning to Guide Future Adjustments

This inaugural forum adopted a science-based policy analysis advanced by Gilbert White, Robert Kates, and Ian Burton. Forum participants considered whether knowledge about flood hazards was insufficient, unused, or ineffective, and how growing vulnerability might overwhelm even effective practices. Their discussion laid the groundwork for the recommendations summarized in the full report.

• Background Issues Papers

• Download the Final Forum Report (PDF)
• MS PowerPoint Presentation 2005