§ 9.4 Definitions. The following definitions shall apply throughout this regulation. *0.2 percent annual chance flood elevation* means the elevation to which floodwater is anticipated to rise during the 0.2 percent annual chance flood (also known as the 500-year flood).
*0.2 Percent annual chance floodplain* means the area subject to flooding by the 0.2 percent annual chance flood (also known as the 500-year floodplain).
*1 percent annual chance flood elevation* —see the definition of *base flood elevation* in this section.
*1 percent annual chance floodplain* means the area subject to flooding by the 1 percent annual chance flood (also known as the 100-year floodplain or base floodplain).
*Action* means ( 1 ) Acquiring, managing, and disposing of Federal lands and facilities;
( 2 ) Providing federally undertaken, financed, or assisted construction and improvements; and
( 3 ) Conducting Federal activities and programs affecting land use, including, but not limited to, water and related land resources, planning, regulating, and licensing activities.
*Action subject to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS)* means any action where FEMA funds are used for new construction, substantial improvement, or to address substantial damage to a structure or facility.
*Actions affecting or affected by floodplains or wetlands* means actions which have the potential to result in the long- or short-term impacts associated with: ( 1 ) The occupancy or modification of floodplains, and the direct or indirect support of floodplain development, or
( 2 ) The destruction and modification of wetlands and the direct or indirect support of new construction in wetlands.
*Administrator* means the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
*Agency* means the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
*Agency Assistance* means grants for projects or planning activities, loans, and all other forms of financial or technical assistance provided by the Agency.
*Base flood elevation* means the elevation to which floodwater is anticipated to rise during the 1 percent annual chance flood (also known as the base flood or 100-year flood). The terms “base flood elevation,” “1 percent annual change flood elevation,” and “100-year flood elevation” are synonymous and are used interchangeably.
*Coastal high hazard area* means an area of flood hazard extending from offshore to the inland limit of a primary frontal dune along an open coast and any other area subject to high velocity wave action from storms or seismic sources.
*Critical action* means any action for which even a slight chance of flooding is too great. Critical actions include, but are not limited to, those which create or extend the useful life of structures or facilities: ( 1 ) Such as those which produce, use or store highly volatile, flammable, explosive, toxic or water-reactive materials;
( 2 ) Such as hospitals and nursing homes, and housing for the elderly, which are likely to contain occupants who may not be sufficiently mobile to avoid the loss of life or injury during flood and storm events;
( 3 ) Such as emergency operation centers, or data storage centers which contain records or services that may become lost or inoperative during flood and storm events; and
( 4 ) Such as generating plants, and other principal points of utility lines.
*Direct Impacts* means changes in floodplain or wetland values and functions and changes in the risk to lives and property caused or induced by an action or related activity. Impacts are caused whenever these natural values and functions are affected as a direct result of an action. An action which would result in the discharge of polluted storm waters into a floodplain or wetland, for example, would directly affect their natural values and functions. Construction-related activities, such as dredging and filling operations within the floodplain or a wetland would be another example of impacts caused by an action.
*Emergency actions* means emergency work essential to save lives and protect property and public health and safety performed under sections 403 and 502 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 (42 U.S.C. 5170b and 5192).
*Enhance* means to increase, heighten, or improve the natural and beneficial values associated with wetlands.
*Facility* means any man-made or man-placed item other than a structure.
*Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS)* means the Federal flood risk management standard to be incorporated into existing processes used to implement Executive Order 11988, as amended.
*Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) floodplain* means the floodplain established using one of the approaches described in § 9.7(c) of this part.
*Federally funded project* —see the definition of *Action subject to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard* in this section.
*FEMA* means the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
*FEMA Resilience* means the organization within FEMA that includes the Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, the Grants Program Directorate, and the National Preparedness Directorate.
Flood or flooding means the general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from the overflow of inland and/or tidal waters, and/or the unusual and rapid accumulation of runoff of surface waters from any source. *0.2 percent annual chance flood* means the flood which has a 0.2 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also known as the 500-year flood). *1 percent annual chance flood* means the flood which has a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also known as the 100-year flood or base flood). The terms “base flood,” “1 percent annual chance flood,” and “100-year flood” are synonymous and are used interchangeably.
*Floodplain* means any land area that is subject to flooding. The term “floodplain,” by itself, refers to geographic features with undefined boundaries. For the purposes of this part, the FFRMS floodplain shall be established using one of the approaches described in § 9.7(c). *See* the definitions of *0.2 percent annual chance floodplain, 1 percent annual chance floodplain,* and *Federal Flood Risk Management Standard floodplain* in this section.
*Floodproofing* means the modification of individual structures and facilities, their sites, and their contents to protect against structural failure, to keep water out, or to reduce effects of water entry.
*Floodway* means that portion of the floodplain which is effective in carrying flow, within which this carrying capacity must be preserved and where the flood hazard is generally highest, i.e., where water depths and velocities are the greatest. It is that area which provides for the discharge of the base flood so the cumulative increase in water surface elevation is no more than one foot.
*Functionally dependent use* means a use which cannot perform its intended purpose unless it is located or carried out in close proximity to water.
*Indirect Impacts* means an indirect result of an action whenever the action induces or makes possible related activities which effect the natural values and functions of floodplains or wetlands or the risk to lives and property. Such impacts occur whenever these values and functions are potentially affected, either in the short- or long-term, as a result of undertaking an action.
*Minimize* means to reduce to the smallest amount or degree possible.
*Mitigation* means steps necessary to minimize the potentially adverse effects of the proposed action, and to restore and preserve the natural and beneficial floodplain values and to preserve and enhance natural values of wetlands.
*National security* means: ( 1 ) A condition that is provided by either: ( i ) A military or defense advantage over any foreign nation or group of nations;
( ii ) A favorable foreign relations position; or
( iii ) A defense posture capable of successfully resisting hostile or destructive action from within or without, overt or covert.
( 2 ) National security encompasses both national defense and foreign relations of the United States.
*Natural and beneficial values of floodplains and wetlands* means features or resources that provide environmental and societal benefits. Water and biological resources are often referred to as “natural functions of floodplains and wetlands.” These values include, but are not limited to: ( 1 ) Water resource values (storing and conveying floodwaters, maintaining water quality, and groundwater recharge);
( 2 ) Living resource values (providing habitats and enhancing biodiversity for fish, wildlife, and plant resources);
( 3 ) Cultural resource values (providing open space, natural beauty, recreation, scientific study, historic and archaeological resources, and education; and
( 4 ) Cultivated resource values (creating rich soils for agriculture, aquaculture, and forestry).
*Natural features* means characteristics of a particular environment (*e.g.,* barrier islands, sand dunes, wetlands) that are created by physical, geological, biological, and chemical processes and exist in dynamic equilibrium. Natural features are self-sustaining parts of the landscape that require little or no maintenance to continue providing their ecosystem services (functions).
*Nature-based approaches* means the features (sometimes referred to as “green infrastructure”) designed to mimic natural processes and provide specific services such as reducing flood risk and/or improving water quality. Nature-based approaches are created by human design (in concert with and to accommodate natural processes) and generally, but not always, must be maintained in order to reliably provide the intended level of service.
*New construction* means the construction of a new structure or facility or the replacement of a structure or facility which has been totally destroyed. New construction includes permanent installation of temporary housing units. New construction in wetlands includes draining, dredging, channelizing, filling, diking, impounding, and related activities.
*Orders* means Executive Order 11988, Floodplain Management, as amended, and Executive Order 11990, Protection of Wetlands.
*Practicable* means capable of being done within existing constraints. The test of what is practicable depends on the situation and includes consideration of all pertinent factors, such as natural environment, social concerns, economic aspects, legal constraints, and agency authorities.
*Preserve* means to prevent alterations to natural conditions and to maintain the values and functions which operate the floodplains or wetlands in their natural states.
*Regional Administrator* means the Regional Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the Region in which FEMA is acting, or the Disaster Recovery Manager when one is designated.
*Regulatory floodway* means the area regulated by Federal, State, or local requirements to provide for the discharge of the base flood so the cumulative rise in the water surface is no more than a designated amount above the base flood elevation.
*Restore* means to reestablish a setting or environment in which the natural functions of the floodplain can operate.
*Structure* means a walled and roofed building, including a temporary housing unit (manufactured housing) or a gas or liquid storage tank.
*Substantial improvement* means any repair, reconstruction or other improvement of a structure or facility, which has been damaged in excess of, or the cost of which equals or exceeds, 50 percent of the pre-disaster market value of the structure or replacement cost of the facility (including all “public facilities” as defined in the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988) before the repair or improvement is started, or if the structure or facility has been damaged and is proposed to be restored. Substantial improvement includes work to address substantial damage to a structure or facility. If a facility is an essential link in a larger system, the percentage of damage will be based on the cost of repairing the damaged facility relative to the replacement cost of the portion of the system which is operationally dependent on the facility. The term “substantial improvement” does not include any alteration of a structure or facility listed on the National Register of Historic Places or a State Inventory of Historic Places.
*Support of floodplain and wetland development* means to, directly or indirectly, encourage, allow, serve, or otherwise facilitate development in floodplains or wetlands. Development means any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not limited to new construction, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations, or storage of equipment or materials. Direct support results from actions within floodplains or wetlands, and indirect support results from actions outside of floodplains or wetlands.
*Wetlands* means those areas which are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water with a frequency sufficient to support, or that under normal hydrologic conditions does or would support, a prevalence of vegetation or aquatic life typically adapted for life in saturated or seasonally saturated soil conditions, including wetlands areas separated from their natural supply of water as a result of construction activities such as structural flood protection methods or solid-fill road beds, and activities such as mineral extraction and navigation improvements. Examples of wetlands include, but are not limited to, swamps, fresh and salt water marshes, estuaries, bogs, beaches, wet meadows, sloughs, potholes, mud flats, river overflows, and other similar areas. This definition is intended to be consistent with the definition utilized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[45 FR 59526, Sept. 9, 1980, as amended at 47 FR 13149, Mar. 29, 1982; 50 FR 40006, Oct. 1, 1985; 74 FR 15335, Apr. 3, 2009; 89 FR 57038, July 11, 2024]