DNR gets award for Whitewater River flood insurance study

Connersville, IN—The DNR Division of Water and HNTB have won the Indiana Association of Floodplain and Stormwater Managers (INAFSM) 2019 Outstanding Floodplain Project for their Whitewater River Flood Insurance Study.

The Division of Water and HNTB collaborated to modify an existing Flood Insurance Study for the river’s stretch in Wayne and Fayette counties, which is approximately 40.6 river miles long.

This 40.6 river-mile stretch was modeled by the team in 2.5 months. To do so in such a short time, the team used new to isolate sections of stream to allow multiple team members to work on the project at the same time. This allowed up to six team members to be creating geometry at defined points, then merge their work under the direction of one engineer to ensure the models were aligned properly.

Once the models were merged into a single file, one engineer defined the floodway to ensure a smooth, compliant floodway was defined. After a quality-control check by senior staff, the floodplain and floodway were then split to allow delineation by up to 10 engineers working simultaneously to meet the compressed schedule. As each engineer completed the delineation, the files were merged again to ensure that no gaps and/or errors had occurred in the mapping.