New York State Office of Cyber Security
Geographic Information Systems Clearinghouse
GIS Partnership Summary
Schoharie County's Emergency Management Project
Partnership Purpose and Goal
Schoharie County's Emergency Management Project seeks to reduce the impact of future flooding by bringing a much higher level of accuracy and detail to flooding analysis and prediction. As a result of flooding in 1996 and a Federal Disaster Area declaration, funding became available which the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Schoharie County were able to leverage to enhance emergency management by using digital mapping as a base for a semi-automated flood forecast model. Additional outcomes include better hazard mitigation through land use planning and coordination of emergency decisions including a "reverse 911" system.
Participants and Resource Contributions
- NYPA - Facilitated the project's start and scope expansion, and provided technical expertise;
- Schoharie County - Sought initial project funding, made E-911 resources available ($200,000), and digitized tax maps ($120,000);
- NYSDEC - Contract Management, data development, and additional funding procurement ($231,900);
- FEMA - Original Hazard Mitigation grant ($189,500), funding for Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) development ($250,000);
- NYCDEP
- Funding for NY City watershed protection:
- $9,350 for digitizing
- $25,000 for hardware/software and training
- PAR Technologies - Flood modeling and reverse 911 engineering.
Time Frame
Date Partnership
Began: March 1996
Completion Date: September 2000 (anticipated)
Deliverables
- Countywide E-911 and Reverse 911 in Flood Prone Areas: Spring 2000
- Digital FIRMS: Fall 2000
- Real Property Tax Service and Land Use Planning Hardware, Software and Training
- Digital Orthoimagery, Hydrography, Hypsography, and Digital Elevation Data
- Digitized Tax Parcels
- Flood Models
Brief Summary of Partnership
The floods of 1996 were devastating to Schoharie County. However, from the Federal Disaster declaration came funding for enhancing emergency management by using digital mapping as a base for a semi-automated flood forecast model. New York Power Authority (NYPA) employees met with Schoharie County government officials to help implement a "reverse 911" system that can alert residents and businesses of impending floods. NYPA, which has a hydro-electric project on the Schoharie Creek, knew the resource people who could help make it happen.
NYPA facilitated a NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) - County connection for a GIS mapping test project. DEC agreed to provide high resolution digital aerial imagery, hypsography, hydrography, and digital elevation data, and contract management with the project consultant, PAR Technologies of Utica, NY. Schoharie County had already begun to map the location of each telephone in the county for its Enhanced-911 (E-911) system using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Readings of longitude, latitude and elevation accurate to less than one meter have been taken in the flood prone areas, whereas other areas will have less accurate longitude and latitude readings. PAR will develop the flood models, and design the link between the models and the E-911 system. Further, the digital map data improved by PAR and DEC will bring a higher level of accuracy and detail to flooding analysis and prediction, and enable better hazard mitigation through land use planning and coordination of emergency decisions.
Funds to pay PAR Technologies come from a Hazard Mitigation Grant written following the 1996 floods. Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) interest allowed DEC to request and receive funding for digital development of flood models and Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). Current FIRMS in high risk areas of the County were developed by costly ground surveys conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers. Other municipalities had maps with gray zones drawn from topographic maps. Other funds came from the Memorandum of Agreement between the City of New York and watershed communities which was used for computer hardware, software and training for the land use planning and Real Property Tax Service aspects of the projects. The agreement also provides for the digitization of all tax parcels in the watershed. Schoharie County committed to fund the digitizing of the rest of the County's tax maps.
Currently, the County is still awaiting the digital data and the flood models. It is anticipated that full E-911 service and the reverse-911 system will be operational in the spring of 2000, and the new FIRMs are expected to be available around the fall of 2000.
Additional Information Available
On-line
None
Contact Information
NYS DEC - Division of Water
50 Wolf Rd., Room 388
Albany, NY 12233-3507
Phone: (518) 457-1617
Fax: (518) 485-7786
E-mail: hcpike@gw.dec.state.ny.us
Alicia A. Terry - Schoharie County Planning Director
Schoharie County Planning and Development
RR 3 Box 12, Mineral Springs Road
Cobleskill, NY 12043
Phone: (518) 234-3751
Fax: (518) 234-3951
E-mail: schplan@telenet.net
Information last updated: March 16, 2000