Colorado Flood Decision Support System
Client: Colorado Water Conservation Board
Location: Colorado, USA
Period: 2009 – Present
Project Summary
Flood DSS Map Viewer
In 2006, the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Riverside Technology, inc. developed a prototype Flood Decision Support System. As a result of this successful implementation, the Colorado Water Conservation Board has now moved forward with developing a statewide Flood Decision Support System to serve as a clearinghouse of flood information for a variety of users. The final system can be accessed at http://flooddss.state.co.us/.
Project Details
In 2006, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) and Riverside Technology, inc. (Riverside) developed a prototype Flood Decision Support System (DSS) focusing on Larimer County. This prototype was an example website bringing together floodplain, historical flood, and multi-hazard information.
In 2010, CWCB and Riverside partnered to develop a Flood DSS for the State of Colorado.
The Flood DSS:
- Provides a clearinghouse of flood-hazard and flood-related information for use by floodplain administrators, emergency managers, developers, the insurance industry, government agencies, and the public.
- Provides timely and well-organized flood outlook data products for emergency managers.
The following seven major components are integrated in the Flood DSS:
- Floodplain boundaries: this component includes regulatory floodplains from FEMA as well as local floodplain data where available.
- Historical flood information: this component includes location and summary information about historical floods that have occurred.
- Real-time data: this component includes real-time precipitation, snowpack, streamflow, and flood outlook products.
- Community information: this component includes NFIP participation status by community and information about the community rating system.
- Weather modification: this component includes information about cloud seeding activities in the state.
- Restoration projects: this component includes information about watershed restoration projects in the state.
- County and local flood-related data.
The Flood DSS also links to the State’s document retrieval system, giving users easy access to flood-related documents.
In addition to working with the CWCB on the Flood DSS, Riverside has supported the CWCB in developing and maintaining Colorado’s Decision Support Systems (CDSS) since 1993.