Student Paper Competition

ASFPM Foundation's 12th Annual Collegiate Student Paper Competition

Please join us at this year's competition which is part of the ASFPM National Conference in Orlando, FL on Tuesday May 17, 2022.

Every spring the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) conducts an annual national conference that attracts more than 1,200 floodplain management professionals from federal, state and local government, as well as the private sector for a week-long event that showcases state-of-the-art techniques, programs, practices, resources, materials, equipment, accessories and services to accomplish flood mitigation, risk reduction and other community goals. Since 2011, ASFPM Foundation has sponsored a student paper competition as a way to engage the next generation in the important conversations pertaining to our profession. Three finalists are invited to present their papers at the conference where they will also have the opportunity to learn about a wide range of topics that will be relevant to their future career. This year's competition will be a part of the program at the 2022 ASFPM Annual National Conference on May 15-19, 2022.

Teams consisting of one or more graduate or undergraduate students currently enrolled in a college or university are encouraged to submit abstracts on subjects relating to floodplain or stormwater management by January 15, 2022. The abstracts will be judged by a panel of floodplain management professionals and three finalists will be invited to submit their papers in April 2022. The three finalists will receive free registration at the ASFPM annual national conference, free lodging at the conference hotel, domestic air travel and up to $200 reimbursement of meal and other travel expenses to make their presentations at a special student session and then present their papers at the 2022 ASFPM annual national conference on May 17, 2022 in a conference session.

A panel of floodplain management professionals will judge the papers and presentations. Winners will be announced awards luncheon on Thursday, May 19, 2022. First Place: $1,000 scholarship; Second Place: $500 scholarship; Third Place: $250 scholarship.

Click here for information on eligibility, submission process and timeline, and topic areas of consideration and abstract criteria, or download a flyer.


Jasmine Thomas	2019 Student Paper Competition Question & Answers	Nora Schwaller

Past Student Papers

2021 Collegiate Student Paper Competition Finalists:

Student Paper Competition Finalists 2021 Detecting Coherent Floods in the Northeast United States for Flood Risk Management, co-authored by Equisha Glenn and Naresh Devineni, The City College of New York. Equisha Glenn, presenting.

Using Historical Information to Inform Planning for Floods after Fires, co-authored by Ying Chik (Vanessa) Lee, Alev Bilginsoy, Yiwen Chen, Dana Clark, Adam Dickenson, Kendal Harris, Xiaoyue Wang, and Shauna Wright , University of California - Berkeley. Vanessa Lee, presenting.

2020 Collegiate Student Paper Competition at ASFPM Virtual Conference

First Prize Winner: Modeling the Downstream Consequences of the 1976 Teton Dam Failure and Resulting Flood by Validating the GeoClaw Software with Historical Data, by Hannah Spero and Dr. Donna Calhoun at Boise State University.

Second Prize Winner: Dealing with the Deluge of Waste: Flood Waste Management in a Two-Tier City of India, by Mahasweta Chakraborty, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.

Third Prize Winner: Does Predator Presence Affect Stream Hydrology via Trophic Cascades?, by Meg Zuercher, St. Louis University.

Student Paper Competition Finalists 2020

Winners of ASFPM Foundation's 2020 Student Paper Competition.
L-R: Hannah Spero, Mahasweta Chakraborty and Meg Zuercher.

Watch the video of the 2020 Student Paper Competition.

2019 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Cleveland, Ohio

First Prize Winner: Disaster Exposure and Mitigation: The Impact of Major and Minor Flood Events on Population Loss, by Nora Louise Schwaller and Jordan Branham, PhD Students at the University of North Carolina, Department of City and Regional Planning.

Second Prize Winner: A Win-Lose Situation for Floodplain Buyouts: Exploring the Impacts on Participants in the State of Illinois, by Jasmine Patricia Thomas, University of Illinois, Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Winners of ASFPM Foundation's 2019 Student Paper Competition.
L-R: Jasmine Thomas, ASFPM Foundation President Doug Plasencia, and Nora Schwaller.
Photo by John Hays.

2018 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Phoenix, Arizona

The Case for a Floodplain Enhancement Rating System: Has the time come for an ASFPM accreditation program?, by John MacDougall, Pamela Reber, Evan Stewart and Paul St. Louis from University of Washington-Seattle

Who Knows What Comes Tomorrow: A Case Study of Resilience in Boulder County, Colorado, by Simone Domingue, a PhD student in the Department of Sociology from University of Colorado-Boulder

Winners of ASFPM Foundation's Student Paper Competition.
L-R: ASFPM Foundation President Doug Plasencia, Pamela Reber and Simone Domingue.
Photo by John Hays.

2017 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Kansas City, Missouri

Exploring the Concept of Cumulative, Probabilistic Flood Hazard Maps, by Maryellen Hearn from Technical University of Dresden, Erasmus Mundus Flood Risk Management Master

After the Flood: Exercising Best Practices in Property Acquisition Programs and Open Space Projects, by Ashton Rohmer from the Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½ Chapel Hill

Quantifying the Future Flood Impact and Damages in the Chesapeake Bay Regions Due to Storm Surge, Sea Level Rise and Marsh Migration, by Ali Mohammad Rezaie from Civil Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, George Mason University

2017 competitors L-R: Ashton Rohmer (2nd place), Ali Mohammad Rezaie (3rd place), Maryellen Hearn (1st place) and ASFPM Foundation President Doug Plasencia.

2016 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Large Scale High Resolution Flood Inundation Mapping in Real Time, by Adnan Rajib from the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University

Evaluating Risks of Dam-Reservoir Systems Based on Rare Event Simulation, by Qianli Deng, a student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland-College Park

Assessing Sediment Accumulation in Reservoirs Behind Dams in the Lake Erie Watershed from Past to Present, by Fatemeh Alighalenbabakhani, a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State University-Detroit

2016 competitors L-R: ASFPM Foundation President Doug Plasencia, 2nd place winner Qianli Deng, 1st place winner Adnan Rajib, and 3rd place winner Fatemeh Alighalenbabakhani. Photo by Michele Mihalovich.

2015 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Atlanta, Georgia

Developing Flood Loss Curve for City of Sacramento, Md Nowfel Mahmud Bhuyian

Salmon Refuge: The Endangered Species Act and FEMA's NFIP, Patrick Johnson

Mitigating Calgary, Alberta's Vulnerability to Flooding, Adnya Sarasmita

2015 Competitors, Pictured L-R:
Adnya Sarasmita, University of Washington, 2nd place; Patrick Johnson, University of Idaho, 1st place; Md Nowfel Mahmud Bhuyian (Tanvir), University of Tennessee Technological University, 3rd place.

2014 Collegiate Student Paper Competition in Seattle, Washington

Bioretention Research and Demonstration Project, Grant Livingston

Preventing Flood Damage to Businesses in Historic Downtown Snoqualmie, WA, Kristen Vitro

Mitigating Total Flood Impacts through Intentional Flooding in Agricultural Land along the Lower Nooksack River, Francesca White

Student Paper 2014
2014 Competitors, Pictured L-R:
Grant Livingston, Oregon State University, 1st place
Kristin Vitro, University of Washington, 2nd place
Francesca White, University of Washington, 3rd place
Doug Plasencia, ASFPM Foundation President