Abstract
Innovation in Flood Loss Mitigation for the Navajo Housing Authority
Track: Architecture, Engineering, Construction
Authors: Nadine Clah, David Turk
The Navajo Nation covers approximately 27,000 square miles, which is larger than the state of West Virginia, and is the largest federally recognized land base tribe in the US with over 300,000 members. No large-scale floodplain analysis and mapping project has ever been conducted in the Navajo Nation.
The Navajo Housing Authority (NHA) awarded URS a contract to study over 3,000 miles of floodplains to address concerns relative to property damaged by floods and the associated escalation of costs to repair and rebuild these properties. The project provided NHA with custom floodplain maps, depth grid maps, an ESRI GIS database, and a hazard mitigation plan. URS also developed an ESRI ArcGIS Online application (i.e. nhafloodplainstudy.com) to relay important project information, share documents, and monitor project status.
This on-going project is aimed at the collaborative protection of life and NHA properties within the Navajo Nation. NHA plans to use these risk mitigation products to determine suitable locations for new home construction and minimize risk to existing homes and infrastructure.
NHA has found the interactive map and information on their ESRI ArcGIS Online website to be extremely helpful and valuable to track project progress for all stakeholders. The creation of the floodplain boundaries and GIS data were also executed using an ESRI ArcGIS solution. NHA found using ESRI software to be one of the major factors of this project's success. Ultimately, this project will lead NHA, the largest Tribally Designated Housing Entity (TDHE), to greater tribal self-sufficiency for this sovereign Nation.