                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

POWERS AND DUTIES OF DEPARTMENT (§ 10.1-602)

The Department shall:

1. Develop a Virginia Flood Protection Master Plan (the Plan) for the
Commonwealth. This Plan shall be a place-specific plan for mitigating severe and
repetitive flooding and shall, at a minimum, (i) base decision making on the
best-available science; (ii) identify and address socioeconomic inequities and
strive to enhance equity through the adaptation and protection measures by
considering all areas of recurrent flooding; (iii) recognize the importance of
protecting and enhancing natural infrastructure and nature-based approaches to
flood mitigation, when possible; (iv) utilize community and regional scale
planning to the maximum extent possible, seeking region-specific approaches
tailored to the needs of individual communities; and (v) include an
understanding of fiscal realities and focus on cost-effective solutions for the
protection and adaptation of communities, businesses, and critical
infrastructure. The Plan shall include, at a minimum:
			a. An inventory of flood-prone areas;
			b. An inventory of flood protection studies;
			c. A record of flood damages;
			d. Strategies to prevent or mitigate flood damage; and
			e. The collection and distribution of information relating to flooding and
flood plain management.
			The Plan shall be reviewed and updated by the Department on a regular basis,
but at least once every five years, and for each of the items listed in
provisions a through e, the plan shall state when that provision was last
updated and when the next update is planned. The plan shall be maintained in an
online format so as to be easily accessed by other government entities and by
the public. The online plan shall contain links to the most current information
available from other federal, state, and local sources. All agencies of the
Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Department upon request.

2. Serve as the coordinator of all flood protection programs and activities in
the Commonwealth, including the coordination of federal flood protection
programs administered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the United
States Department of Agriculture, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the
United States Geological Survey, the Tennessee Valley Authority, other federal
agencies and local governments.

3. Make available flood and flood damage reduction data to localities for
planning purposes, in order to assure necessary local participation in the
planning process and in the selection of desirable alternatives which will
fulfill the intent of this article. This shall include the development of a data
base to include (i) all flood protection projects implemented by federal
agencies and (ii) the estimated value of property damaged by major floods.

4. Assist localities in their management of flood plain activities in
cooperation with the Department of Housing and Community Development.

5. Carry out the provisions of this article in a manner which will ensure that
the management of flood plains will preserve the capacity of the flood plain to
carry and discharge a hundred year flood.

6. Make, in cooperation with localities, periodic inspections to determine the
effectiveness of local flood plain management programs, including an evaluation
of the enforcement of and compliance with local flood plain management
ordinances, rules and regulations.

7. Coordinate with the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency to
ensure current knowledge of the identification of flood-prone communities and of
the status of applications made by localities to participate in the National
Flood Insurance Program.

8. Establish guidelines which will meet minimum requirements of the National
Flood Insurance Program in furtherance of the policy of the Commonwealth to
assure that all citizens living in flood-prone areas may have the opportunity to
indemnify themselves from flood losses through the purchase of flood insurance
under the regular flood insurance program of the National Flood Insurance Act of
1968 as amended.

9. Subject to the provisions of the Appropriations Act, provide financial and
technical assistance to localities in an amount not to exceed fifty percent of
the nonfederal costs of flood protection projects.

10. Serve as the lead administrator for the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master
Plan and the Virginia Flood Protection Master Plan.

11. Implement the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan and the Virginia Flood
Protection Master Plan.

12. Ensure that the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan and the Virginia
Flood Protection Master Plan are integrated.

HISTORY: 1977, c. 310, § 62.1-44.112; 1981, c. 315; 1987, c. 163; 1988, c. 891;
1989, cc. 468, 497; 2015, cc. 172, 251; 2022, cc. 494, 495.