Given that nearly every community is established near a water source — a river or lake or on the coast — nearly every community has some risk of flooding.  While much energy and effort have been dedicated to the very real and dangerous threats of hazards such as earthquakes and windstorms — including congressionally mandated national hazard reduction measures such as NEHRP and NWIRP — the efforts dedicated to understanding and mitigating floods within the design community have been more moderate. Delegated for decades to FEMA, USACE, and other large, federal agencies, structural engineers have historically had little influence on flood safety for the built environment — until now.

This month, SEI made significant progress in achieving a long-desired milestone in advancing modern flood resilient design and construction within the building codes. A virtual army of tireless, dedicated members and collaborators have worked for many years to develop provisions that would align flood design methodologies with the risk-based approaches used for other hazards such as seismic and wind. The requirements of ASCE/SEI 7-22 Supplement 2 and ASCE/SEI 24-24 now provide the profession, jurisdictions, and owners with consensus standards to design or elevate structures out of harm’s way. However, the work is not complete with a published standard. Real impact is not truly realized until the crucial step of code adoption puts these standards into the hands of jurisdictions. Today we are one step closer to adoption in large part due to the dedication of many SEI members and collaborators who participate in the code development process. The International Code Council’s code development process includes a several-year cycle of submitting proposals and attending code hearings. It is tedious work, not for the faint of heart. I am ever grateful for the amazing SEI members and collaborators who supported the process this cycle and especially to the mighty team who attended the code hearings and were successful in getting these updated ASCE/SEI standards incorporated into the final ballot for the 2027 I-Codes. We will know the results in several weeks, right in time for spring floods.