ACSM Bulletin Features Article on the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program

The November/December 2000, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping Bulletin includes an article about the pioneering floodplain mapping program underway in North Carolina. The article - 368KB is entitled "North Carolina to Produce Flood Insurance Rate Maps in Partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)" . The authors-Gary W. Thompson, PLS, Director, North Carolina Geodetic Survey, and Dave Maune, Ph.D., Dewberry - discuss the origins, organization, and funding of the State's program; FEMA's Cooperating Technical Partner Initiative; and the phases and components of the flood process that will be applied in North Carolina. Then the authors focus on LIDAR, which will be used to produce Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The DEMs will be used to perform the engineering studies for developing up-to-date, accurate flood hazard data and floodplain mapping. As the authors point out, "LIDAR is considered by many to be the 'latest and greatest' technology in the toolbox of the surveying and mapping community-at least to those in the business of producing DEMs."

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