Virginia's flood preparedness modeling efforts receive national award

Media inquiries: Please contact Dave Neudeck, [email protected], 804-786-5053.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: June 22, 2026
Contact: Dave Neudeck, Communications and Marketing Director, 804-786-5053, [email protected]

Virginia's flood preparedness modeling efforts receive national award

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At the 50th annual Association of State Floodplain Managers Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation's Office of Resilience Planning received the national Tom Lee Award for excellence in floodplain management for its development, use and public distribution of rainfall-driven flood hazard models.

The award is given annually to a single recipient by the association in recognition of exemplary floodplain management accomplishments by state agencies. The professional society is the nation's foremost organization of floodplain management professionals, representing more than 6,000 members.

Rainfall-driven flood modeling is a recognized data gap in Virginia and across the nation.

Identified as a priority in Virginia's first Coastal Resilience Master Plan, DCR recently completed one of the largest rainfall-driven flood modeling efforts in the country, creating new tools that show where intense rain can cause flooding across 57 cities and counties in coastal Virginia. This project closes a longstanding gap in flood-risk data and provides communities with critical information to plan, prepare and invest more wisely.

Prepared under the direction of Matt Dalon, program manager for the Office of Resilience Planning, and in consultation with stakeholders, the agency's contractor Dewberry developed nearly 2,000 models and conducted more than 300,000 rainfall simulations across coastal Virginia in only four months.

The models estimate the extent and depth of flooding across a range of storm durations and precipitation intervals. Their adaptable design allows them to represent both current and future conditions, as well as future updates to precipitation standards.

DCR incorporated this flood-hazard data and associated risk into the recently released Coastal Resilience Master Plan, Phase II.

Developed using the latest high-resolution topography, land-use data, and soil information, the models help the Commonwealth and its communities strengthen flood awareness and support informed decision-making for planning, stormwater management and emergency management.

Unlike many modeling projects, this data is not stored on inaccessible servers for limited users. Every locality - regardless of resources or technical capacity - can access the data and work with the models to meet their needs. The work products were intentionally developed to align with the principles of being findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. By applying these principles to the pluvial modeling project, DCR has empowered others to fully leverage the Commonwealth's investment.

DCR Director Nikki Rovner said, "The Commonwealth has made a significant commitment, through the preparation and public distribution of this data, to advance our flood resilience initiatives and close the rainfall-driven flooding data gap. We are particularly pleased to be recognized by the leading national professional society."

This is the second award DCR has received for this work. Earlier this year, the project earned both the Grand Award and Pinnacle Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia (ACEC Virginia) as part of its Engineering Excellence Awards program. These awards recognize projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation, technical achievement and public benefit.

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The Department of Conservation and Recreation's Office of Resilience Planning (ORP) is Virginia's primary resource for flood resilience planning. ORP leads state efforts to develop and implement strategies that help the Commonwealth anticipate, prepare for, respond to and recover from flooding.

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