At the initial Louisiana Mapping Project (LaMP) Technical Workshop there were five presentations made related to technical aspects of the National Flood Insurance Program and the development of new Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps.  These workshops were conducted at four different locations across the 15 LA coastal parishes as shown below.

Monday, June 25th – Vermilion Parish Police Jury Courtroom 1 - 2nd Floor, 100 N. State St., Abbeville, LA (Includes Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, St. Mary & Vermillion Parishes)

Tuesday, June 26th– St. Tammany Government Complex, 21490 Koop Dr., Mandeville, LA (Includes St. Tammany & Tangipahoa Parishes)

Wednesday, June 27th – Yenni Building Council Chambers, 1221 Elmwood Park Boulevard, Jefferson, LA  70123 (Includes Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines & St. Bernard Parishes)

Thursday, June 28th – Jeane Lafitte National Park, Wetland Acadian Cultural Center Auditorium, 314 Saint Mary St., Thibodaux, LA, (Includes St. John, St. Charles, Terrebonne & Lafourche Parishes)

Each workshop consisted of essentially the same material.  The first presentation was conducted by Mr. Bill Barton, FEMA TRO.  He first explained the roles of the Federal government and the local participation requirements for the national flood insurance program.  He described the different requirements for flood insurance inside the floodplain versus outside the floodplain.  However, recommended that all residents in south LA have flood insurance.  Flood Zones may change when the new DFIRMs are published and Base Flood Elevations (BFE) may change therefore Mr. Barton recommended all residents purchase flood insurance now before the new DFIRMs become effective.  Click here to view the pdf of this PowerPoint presentation.

The second presentation was conducted by Joannes Westerink, Ph.D. from Notre Dame (http://newsinfo.nd.edu/facultydetail.cfm?facultyid=176 )  Dr. Westerink discussed the entire hurricane surge modeling process from development of the modeling grid to validation of the grid and the model parameters.  The results of hundreds of theoretical and actual hurricane model runs with varying parameters and coastal landfall locations were also presented and discussed.  Click here to view the pdf of this PowerPoint presentation.

The third presentation was conducted by Mr. Denis Riordan from National Geodetic Survey.  Mr. Riordan is the Geodetic Advisor to Louisiana.  He presented a briefing on using Current Vertical Control in South Louisiana.  This presentation described the various datum adjustments in LA since 1929 and the new South Louisiana Height Modernization program.  Mr. Riordan described the installation and operation of the new Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) and the additional vertical control points in 2006 to develop the NAVD 88 2006.81 epoch Datum.  The use of the NGS On-line Positioning User Service was also briefed. This presentation was concluded with a short description of the various types of GPS surveying and the accuracies that can be expected from each.  Click here to view the pdf of this PowerPoint presentation.

Following a lunch break, Mr. Chris Jones presented a briefing on Floodplain Mapping for Coastal, Riverine and Interior Drainage.  Mr. Jones described how riverine and coastal flood events are combined to create flood models.  He described the analysis of coastal structures and the use of transects.  Mapping of wave run-up and wave overtopping were addressed.  The use of WHAFIS 3.0 to perform wave height analysis was also briefed. Click here to view the pdf of this PowerPoint presentation.

The last presentation was conducted by Mr. Bart Standley, P.E., CFM from Michael Baker Jr., Inc.  During his presentation he discussed many issues with levees in south LA.  He described levee certification requirements and the role of the levee owner and the role of FEMA as the levee certifier.  The attendees were briefed on the FEMA Procedure Memorandum 43 which describes the Provisionally Accredited Levee (PAL).  Mr. Standley also described how FEMA and USACE have coordinated to ensure that levee guidance documents compliment one another.  Click here to view the pdf of this PowerPoint presentation.