Urban Flooding Awareness Act of 2015

Urban Flooding Awareness Act of 2015

Directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a study on urban flooding.

Defines "urban flooding" as the inundation of property in a built environment, particularly in more densely populated areas, caused by rain falling on increased amounts of impervious surface and overwhelming the capacity of drainage systems. Requires the primary focus of the study to be on urban areas outside of special flood hazard areas.

Directs the NAS to evaluate the latest research, laws, regulations, policies, best practices, procedures, and institutional knowledge regarding urban flooding. Requires the study to include an examination of:

• the prevalence of and costs associated with urban flooding events across the United States, with a focus on the largest metropolitan areas and trends in frequency and severity over the past two decades;
• the adequacy of federally provided flood risk information and the most cost-effective methods and products to characterize the risk of property damage from urban flooding on a property-by-property basis;
• the potential for training and certifying local experts in flood risk characterization as a service to property purchasers and owners;
• the causes of urban flooding and its apparent increase;
• the most cost-effective strategies, practices, technologies, policies, standards, or rules used to reduce the impacts of urban flooding;
• the role of the federal and state governments in spurring market innovations based on public-private-nonprofit partnerships;
• the most sustainable and effective methods for funding flood risk and flood damage reduction at all levels of government;
• the relevance of the National Flood Insurance Program and Community Rating System to urban flooding areas outside traditional flood plains and strategies for improving compliance, broadening coverage, and increasing participation under the Program;
• strategies for protecting communities in the lower elevations of a watershed or drainage area from the flooding impacts of development in upstream communities;
• cost-effective strategies for reducing infiltration/inflow into combined and separate sewer systems; and
• opportunities to increase coordination between stormwater management programming under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and flood risk management and mitigation programming under various laws.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov