NYSDEC CRRA

Question 1

Adaptation

Answer 1

The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its physical, social or economic effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to the expected climate and its effects

Question 2

Adaptive Capacity

Answer 2

The ability of systems, institutions, humans, and other organisms to adjust to potential stress or damage, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences.

Question 3

Base Flood

Answer 3

Flood with a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

Question 4

Base flood elevation (BFE)

Answer 4

The elevation of a flood with a 1-percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

Question 5

Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012

Answer 5

Legislation that was later revised by the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 requiring FEMA and other agencies to make a number of changes to the way the NFIP is run. Key provisions of the legislation required the program to raise rates to reflect true flood risk and make the program more financially stable. The legislation also authorized the Technical Mapping Advisory Council to reconvene.

Question 6

Bridge

Answer 6

A structure carrying a road, path, railway line, or canal across a river, ravine, railroad, or other obstacle and spanning more than 20 feet through the centerline.

Question 7

Bridge freeboard

Answer 7

The vertical distance, usually expressed in feet, between the design flood elevation and the lowest chord or horizontal structural element of a bridge.

Question 8

Channel

Answer 8

A natural or artificial watercourse of perceptible extent with a definite bed and banks to confine and conduct continuously or periodically flowing water.

Question 9

Checkflow

Answer 9

A stream flow used to assess the performance of a hydraulic opening of a bridge or culvert at flows other than the design condition. For bridges and culverts on the New York State system, the checkflow is Q100. For design flows other than Q50, the checkflow may be different. Additional checkflows may be used in specific situations where structure performance at other flows is a concern.

Question 10

Climate

Answer 10

Climate, in a narrow sense, is usually defined as the average weather, or more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the mean and variability of relevant quantities over a period ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The typical period for averaging these variables is 30 years, as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are most often surface variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and wind. Climate, in a wider sense, is the state of the climate system, including a statistical description.

Question 11

Climate-Informed Science Approach

Answer 11

The use of data and methods informed by best-available, actionable climate science.

Question 12

Coastal Flooding

Answer 12

Flooding that occurs along the Great Lakes, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Question 13

Coastal High Hazard Area

Answer 13

An area of special flood hazard extending from offshore to the inland limit of a primary frontal dune along an open coast and any other area subject to high-velocity wave actions from storms or seismic sources.

Question 14

Code of Federal Regulation (CFR)

Answer 14

The codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government.

Question 15

Critical Action

Answer 15

Any activity for which even a slight chance of flooding would be too great.

Question 16

Critical Facilities

Answer 16

Systems, facilities, and assets so vital that if destroyed or incapacitated it would disrupt the security, economy, health, safety, or welfare of the public.

Question 17

Culvert

Answer 17

A tunnel carrying a stream or an open drain under a road or railroad, and having a span of less than 20 feet through the centerline of the road.

Question 18

Design Flood

Answer 18

The largest flood that a given project is designed to accommodate

Question 19

Design flood elevation

Answer 19

The elevation of the highest flood that a method is designed to protect against.

Question 20

Development

Answer 20

Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations, or storage of equipment or materials

Question 21

Ecosystem

Answer 21

A functional unit consisting of living organisms, their non-living environment, and the interactions within and between them. The components included in a given ecosystem and its spatial boundaries depend on the purpose for which the ecosystem is defined: in some cases, they are relatively sharp, while in others they are diffuse. Ecosystem boundaries can change over time. Ecosystems are nested within other ecosystems, and their scale can range from very small to the entire biosphere. In the current era, most ecosystems either contain people as key organisms, or are influenced by the effects of human activities in their environment.

Question 22

Encroachment

Answer 22

Activities or construction within the floodway, including fill, new construction, substantial improvements, and other development. These activities are prohibited within the adopted regulatory floodway unless it has been demonstrated through hydrologic and hydraulic analyses that the proposed encroachment would not result in any increase in flood level

Question 23

Exposure

Answer 23

The degree to which elements of a climate-sensitive system are in direct contact with climate variables and/or may be affected by long-term changes in climate conditions or by changes in climate variability, including the magnitude and frequency of extreme events.

Question 24

Facility

Answer 24

Any man-made or man-placed item other than infrastructure.

Question 25

Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS)

Answer 25

The national flood risk management standard established by Executive Order 13690 to be incorporated into existing processes used to implement Executive Order 11988

Question 26

Flood

Answer 26

The overflowing of the normal confines of a stream or other body of water, or the accumulation of water over areas not normally submerged. Floods include river (fluvial) floods, flash floods, urban floods, pluvial floods, sewer floods, coastal floods, and glacial lake outburst floods.

Question 27

Flood design class

Answer 27

Any of several categories of buildings defined by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Question 28

Flood fringe

Answer 28

Area between the floodway boundary and limit of the 1-percent annual chance floodplain

Question 29

Flood hazard

Answer 29

Flood conditions (e.g., depth, wind, velocity, duration, waves, erosion, debris) that have the potential to cause fatalities, injuries, property damage, infrastructure damage, agricultural loss, damage to the environment, interruption of business, or other types of harm or loss.

Question 30

Flood-hazard area (New York State)

Answer 30

The horizontal area inundated under water at an elevation equal to one of several New York State flood-risk management guideline elevations.

Question 31

Flood insurance rate map (FIRM)

Answer 31

The insurance and floodplain management map produced by FEMA that identifies, based on detailed or approximate analyses, the areas subject to flooding during a 1-percent-annualchance (100-year) flood event in a community. Flood insurance risk zones, which are used to compute actuarial flood insurance rates, also are shown. In areas studied by detailed analyses, the FIRM shows BFEs to reflect the elevations of the 1-percent-annual-chance flood. For many communities, when detailed analyses are performed, the FIRM also may show areas inundated by 0.2-percent-annual-chance (500-year) flood and regulatory floodway areas.

Question 32

Flood insurance study (FIS)

Answer 32

A compilation and presentation of flood hazard data for specific watercourses, lakes, and coastal flood-hazard areas within a community. When a flood study is completed for the NFIP, the information and maps are assembled into an FIS.

Question 33

Flood insurance study report (FIS Report)

Answer 33

The FIS Report contains detailed information of the FIS, including flood elevation data in flood profiles and data tables.

Question 34

Floodplain

Answer 34

Any land area that is susceptible to being inundated by water from any source.

Question 35

Flood profile

Answer 35

A graph showing the relationship of water-surface elevation to location, with the latter generally expressed as distance above the mouth for a stream of water flowing in an open channel.

Question 36

Floodway

Answer 36

See Regulatory Floodway

Question 37

Freeboard

Answer 37

A factor of safety usually expressed in feet above a flood level for purposes of floodplain management. It tends to compensate for the many unknown factors that could contribute to flood heights greater than the height calculated for a selected size flood and floodway conditions, such as wave action, bridge openings, and the hydrological effect of urbanization of the watershed.

Question 38

Freeboard Value Approach

Answer 38

The use of two feet above the 1-percent-annual-chance flood (also referred to as the base flood) as the elevation for standard projects and three feet above the 1-percent-annual-chance elevation for critical buildings, like hospitals and evacuation centers.

Question 39

Geographic information system (GIS)

Answer 39

A system of computer hardware, software, and procedures designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modeling, and display of spatially referenced data for solving complex planning and management problems

Question 40

Guideline elevation

Answer 40

Any one of several elevations calculated according to procedures described in this guidance, and that define the elevation and horizontal extent of flood waters for consideration in project design.

Question 41

Hazard

Answer 41

The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend or physical impact that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems, or environmental resources.

Question 42

Hydraulic analysis

Answer 42

An engineering analysis of a flooding source carried out to provide estimates of the depths of floods of selected recurrence intervals.

Question 43

Hydrograph

Answer 43

A graph showing the rate of flow (discharge) versus time past a specific point on a river, or other channel or conduit carrying flow.

Question 44

Hydrologic analysis

Answer 44

An engineering analysis of a flooding source carried out to establish peak flood discharges and their frequencies of occurrence.

Question 45

Hydrology

Answer 45

The science encompassing the behavior of water as it occurs in the atmosphere, on the surface of the ground, and underground.

Question 46

Impacts (consequences, outcomes)

Answer 46

Effects on natural and human systems

Question 47

Infrastructure

Answer 47

The basic physical and organizational structures (e.g., buildings, roads, and power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

Question 48

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR or lidar) system

Answer 48

An airborne laser system, flown aboard rotary or fixed-wing aircraft, that is used to acquire x, y, and z coordinates of terrain and terrain features that are both manmade and naturally occurring. LiDAR systems consist of an airborne Global Positioning System (GPS) with attendant base station(s), Inertial Measuring Unit, and light-emitting scanning laser.

Question 49

Limit of moderate wave action (LiMWA)

Answer 49

The inland limit of the coastal area expected to receive 1.5-foot or greater breaking waves during the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event.

Question 50

Map Service Center (MSC)

Answer 50

The official public source for flood hazard mapping produced in support of the NFIP. The MSC can be used to find official flood maps, access a range of other flood hazard products, and take advantage of tools for better understanding flood risk.

Question 51

Mean sea level

Answer 51

Sea level measured by a tide gauge with respect to the land upon which it is situated. Mean sea level is normally defined as the average relative sea level over a period , such as a month or a year, that is long enough to average out transients such as waves and tides.

Question 52

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)

Answer 52

An ongoing program under which the FEMA Administrator shall review, update, and maintain NFIP rate maps in accordance with 42 U.S.C. § 4101b.

Question 53

Percentile

Answer 53

One of the values of a variable that divides the distribution of the variable into 100 groups having equal frequencies, e.g., 90 percent of the values lie at or below the 90th percentile; 10 percent lie above it.

Question 54

Practicable

Answer 54

Able to be done within existing constraints. What is practicable will be context specific and include consideration of pertinent factors, such as environment, statutory authority, legality, cost, technology, and engineering.

Question 55

Pressure Flow

Answer 55

Flow occurring when the water surface elevation reaches the lowest chord of a bridge.

Question 56

Qx

Answer 56

The flow volume that is equaled or exceeded at the return period indicated by x, where x equals the number of years, on average, between occurrences of the specified flow, e.g., Q50 indicates the flow volume that is expected to occur at least once every 50 years, i.e., with a 2% annual probability.

Question 57

Regulatory Floodway

Answer 57

A floodplain management tool that is the regulatory area defined as the channel of a stream, plus any adjacent floodplain areas that must be kept free of encroachment so that the base flood discharge can be conveyed without increasing the BFEs more than a specified amount. The regulatory floodway is not an insurance rating factor. (TMAC)

Question 58

Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)

Answer 58

Scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that include a time series of emissions and concentrations of the full suite of greenhouse gases (GHGs),aerosols, and chemically active gases, as well as land use/land cover. RCPs usually refer to the portion of the pathway extending to the year 2100. Four RCPs were selected from the published literature and are used in the present IPCC assessment (Assessment Report 5, AR5) as a basis for the climate predictions and projections presented in the AR5. (IPCC, based on Moss et al., 2008 and Moss et al., 2010).

Question 59

Resilience

Answer 59

The ca pacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation. (IPCC, derived from Arctic Council, 2013).