Polk County CVA

CHNEP is providing funding toward the Polk County Comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) to enhance community resiliency in Polk County.

The CVA report, to be completed by Polk County and the Central Florida Regional Planning Council (CFRPC), will identify key local governmental facilities and infrastructure. Then it will assess how vulnerable those County “assets” are to flooding (i.e. increased severe storms including high winds and extreme rainfall) and other climate stressors such as extreme heat. CHNEP is funding CFRPC to conduct additional extreme rainfall flood model scenarios for a 200-year event, a 500-year rainfall event, and two compound events, with the models available for public use after completion. There will also be visual interpretations of the flooding events for public outreach.

Developing the Vulnerability Assessment

An inventory will be taken of critical County and community assets including things like health care facilities, government buildings and libraries/community centers, schools, water/wastewater facilities, public safety facilities (police, fire, etc.), energy facilities, parks and natural areas, as well as roads and evacuation routes. The most up to date information on current and future rainfall flooding will be used to project potential impacts to those critical assets from future flooding, storms, and other events. The projected level of impact to these critical community assets will help the County prioritize critical action areas and plan projects to protect them. The vulnerability assessment report will include maps of critical assets, providing the necessary foundation for the County and its partners to identify funding needs and to implement projects that reduce risks to critical county infrastructure and facilities.

Additional Flood Scenario Modeling

The CHNEP is funding 200 and 500-year rainfall event modeling as well as the two compound events (those with a tropical system added to both the 200 and 500-year events). The 200 and 500-year events are named for their average recurrence interval, meaning that a specific event is predicted to only occur once in that span of years. This can also be thought of in terms of a percent chance of occurring each year; for example, a 200-year event is a flood that has a 0.5% chance of occurring in any given year. However, the frequency of these high rainfall events is increasing. Visual interpretations of these different flood scenarios will be created to illustrate the results of the modeling. All results and visual interpretations will then be presented at public meetings to local governing boards, technical committees, and other relevant elected officials. This additional flood scenario modeling will aid Polk County in determining priorities to increase resiliency and mitigate the impacts of future storms and extreme rainfall events.

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