Prioritizing Flood Control Planning Needs

An approach to establishing priorities for future flood control planning has been developed and applied to hydrologic subbasins in New Jersey. Data on historical flood losses, flood potential, and current and prior flood control planning efforts were compiled and entered into a flood control data base, accessed through a computer data base management system. The selection of indicator variables, characterizing flood control planning needs, is considered, along with a system of ranking and weighting these variables for assignment of planning priority numbers to the subbasins. This approach is concluded to provide an adequate screening mechanism for establishing an initial list of planning candidates, although more subjective factors must then be used for further evaluation.