Guidance for Flood Risk Analysis and Mapping: Coastal Structures

This course adapts FEMA's Guidance for Flood Risk Analysis and Mapping: Coastal Structures (Guidance Document No. 42, November 2024) for engineers serving as the engineer of record on certified coastal flood protection structures or as a Mapping Partner under the National Flood Insurance Program. The course covers the five primary coastal structure types (gravity seawalls, pile-supported seawalls, anchored bulkheads, revetments, and dikes/levees), the 44 CFR § 65.2 design criteria for FEMA recognition on Flood Insurance Rate Maps, and the analytical treatment of intact, partially failed, and removed structures during the 1-percent-annual-chance flood. Students will work through evaluation criteria, failure geometry approximations, and documentation requirements that govern how coastal structures appear on FIRMs.

Learning Objectives

1. Distinguish among the five primary coastal flood protection structure types and explain the cross-section, foundation, and load-resisting characteristics that drive their evaluation and recognition under the NFIP.

2. Apply the 44 CFR § 65.2 design criteria for FEMA recognition, including design water levels and wave parameters, minimum freeboard, toe and backfill protection, and structural stability checks at both minimum and critical water levels.

3. Evaluate the survival, partial failure, or removal of coastal structures during the 1-percent-annual-chance flood, including geometric approximations for failed vertical walls and sloping revetments and the treatment of buried structures and sheltered-water bulkheads.

4. Describe the certification, operation and maintenance, and Technical Study Data Notebook documentation requirements that a Mapping Partner or engineer of record must satisfy to support a Letter of Map Revision or initial FIRM recognition.