AN ANALYSIS OF AN OPEN LAND POLICY FOR FLOOD PLAIN MANAGEMENT

An open land approach to flood plain management is the judicious regulation or acquisition of flood plains to preclude incompatible future uses of that land and to promote nonintensive uses such as parks, open space, greenbelts, wildlife preserves, forestry, and agriculture. This research critiques federal policy toward flood plain management, noting the absence of programs which encourage prescriptive zoning and acquisition of flood plains. Through a case study of flood plain management in the Susquehanna River basin of southern New York, the research identifies land use patterns on flood plains that are important to an open land policy; reveals widespread, albeit unmobilized, local support for maintaining flood plains in open land uses through regulation and acquisition; and explores the problem of economically justifying the acquisition of flood plains.;An inventory of land uses on flood plains in southern New York reveals a pattern of change from active agriculture, to inactive agriculture, to developed uses as community size increases. Based on this observation, the smallest communities and rural areas are judged to be the most appropriate candidates for prescriptive zoning; slightly larger communities, and those immediately upstream and downstream from major population centers, are judged to be the most appropriate candidates for flood plain acquisition. Without extra-local incentives encouraging local action to regulate or acquire flood plains in non-urban settings, the potential exists for large increases in future flood damages.;Mailed surveys to heads-of-households in six communities and to community officials in 13 communities show regulatory measures for maintaining flood plains in open land uses to be widely supported and preferred to acquisition. But the acquisition and use of flood plains for parks and open space was viewed as a better long term use of flood plains than flood-proofed homes and businesses. Community leaders indicated high land acquisition costs to be the most important factor influencing their decision not to acquire flood plains. According to extra-local officials, regional efforts to institute an open land strategy faltered because of the lack of active local support and extra-regional financial and technical assistance.;The study concludes that (1) the Unified National Program for Flood Plain Management should be redrafted to reflect, as a minimum, strategies of structural protection, building standards, prescriptive zoning, and acquisition; (2) new legislation for flood plain management should be enacted, similar to the Coastal Zone Management Act (P.L. 92-583), to provide incentives for states and localities to analyze and adopt alternative measures for flood plain management; and (3) comprehensive basin or statewide reviews of opportunities for flood plain acquisi ion should be conducted to furnish a basis for cost sharing and supplemental grants-in-aid.;An overview of flood plain management shows the nation's approach to its flooding problem is changing--the trend being away from reliance on structural protection and towards efforts to influence flood plain use. But policies and programs based on land use adjustments are a major omission in current federal efforts. A major contributing factor to this deficiency is the conceptual framework in the Unified National Program for Flood Plain Management. That framework overemphasizes the means to reduce flood losses, while failing to clarify end uses of flood plains to be sought through federal policies for flood plain management. In its present form, the Unified National Program for Flood Plain Management fails to provide a framework for guiding a fuller range of policies and programs to influence flood plain use, particularly those that might be construed as an open land approach.