Prioritization Framework

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2022 Prioritization for Allocation of Funding from the Flood Resilience Trust

The 2022 Prioritization Framework for Allocation of Funding from the Flood Resilience Trust was created in response to the creation of the Flood Resilience Trust, which was intended to act as a funding backstop for any Bond IDs in the 2018 Bond Program with gaps in anticipated partnership funding that had not been realized. Input from the Community Flood Resilience Task Force was incorporated to place greater emphasis on the number of people a Bond ID benefits, remove potential and committed partnership funding as a factor in the framework and recognize benefits from reducing flooding both inside and outside of the 1 percent ACE (100-year) mapped floodplain.

The 2022 framework builds on the original prioritization framework passed in 2019 by:

Replacing three former metrics (Structures Benefitted, Project Efficiency, and Partnership Funding) with a single Project Efficiency metric that is a combination of Project Efficiency using People Benefitted and Project Efficiency using Structures Benefitted.

This change places a greater emphasis on the number of people benefitted by a Bond ID and ensures that all Bond ID sizes and types are rated based on their effectiveness in mitigating flood risk.

Removing partnership funding entirely from Bond ID prioritization.

Although the Flood Control District strives to maximize partnership funding at all levels, including Federal, State, and local partners, use of partnership funding as a prioritization criterion adversely impacts Bond IDs and projects in areas that are not able to meet Federal benefit-cost thresholds used to determine funding eligibility, exacerbating historical inequities in those areas.

Incorporating local subdivision drainage projects into the Framework to provide apples-to-apples comparisons of project scores with channel and stormwater detention projects.

This is accomplished by updating the methodology used to calculate benefits and existing conditions for both traditional channel and stormwater detention projects, as well as local subdivision drainage projects.

Bond Order Language

PDF

Questions and Answers

Q: How will HCFCD implement this prioritization framework?

A: This prioritization framework will be incorporated on the remaining bond projects that have not yet been authorized to start by Harris County Commissioners Court using a weighted criteria system that will group projects into priority quartiles. For specific information on how projects will be prioritized into quartile groups. Review Prioritizing Framework for Implementation of 2018 Bond Projects

Q: When will this prioritization framework take effect?

A: With the approval of the prioritization framework by the Harris County Commissioners Court on August 27, 2019, this framework is now in effect.

Q: Where are the projects located that will be affected by this prioritization framework?

A: The prioritization framework will only apply to projects within Harris County and may not apply to partnerships programs beyond HCFCD’s jurisdiction such as federal/state home buyout projects, subdivision drainage improvement projects, or countywide projects.

Q: Why is HCFCD implementing a prioritization framework now?

A: With the increased number of projects and funding managed by HCFCD as a result of the 2018 Flood Bond, a prioritization framework was needed now more than any other time in the organization’s history to organize and standardize the process of sequencing projects, resources, and time.

Q: Is Harris County going to cancel my projects?

A: No. Every project on the 2018 HCFCD Bond Program list will be completed.

Q: What is the difference between the 2019 Prioritization Framework and the 2022 Prioritization Framework?

A: The 2019 Prioritization Framework for the Implementation of the Harris County Flood Control District 2018 Bond IDs and the subsequent updated 2022 Prioritization Framework for the Allocation of Funds from the Harris County Flood Resilience Trust are tools created to ensure that the 2018 Bond Program is implemented with an equitable, worst-first approach.

Q: How is this framework being used?

A: The 2019 framework was used to identify tiers (or quartiles) of Bond IDs in the 2018 Bond Program that had not yet been initiated, to prioritize the initiation of those Bond IDs and the projects for which they provide funding. The 2022 framework is being used to ensure that available Flood Resilience Trust funds are allocated towards highest-priority Bond IDs with funding gaps first. Based on the actions of Commissioners Court to establish the Flood Resilience Trust, we anticipate that all Bond IDs with current funding gaps will be able to have those gaps closed within the timeframe of the 2018 Bond Program.

Q: How are local subdivision drainage projects incorporated into the 2022 Prioritization framework?

A: The initial prioritization framework passed by Commissioners Court in 2019 did not include local subdivision drainage projects because all Bond IDs for such projects had already been initiated at that time. To include them in the current framework for allocating Flood Resilience Trust funding, three changes have been made:

Subdivision drainage projects frequently mitigate flooding that is outside of the mapped 1% ACE (100-year) floodplain. Therefore, project benefits for those projects are calculated by estimating structures with a reduced risk of flooding during a 1% ACE rainfall event, rather than using the estimated change in the mapped floodplain.
The existing conditions of a subdivision are scored based on a combination of the subdivision’s existing drainage infrastructure (using age and type of drainage infrastructure) and the estimated excess rainfall in a given area during a 100-year rainfall event, which provides an estimate of flood risk outside the mapped floodplain.
Finally, additional scoring criteria have been added to enable subdivision drainage projects to be assigned scores for environmental impacts and potential for multiple benefits.

Additional links

Find additional information about the work of the Flood Control in the list below.

2018 Bond Program

Benefits of Flood Damage Reduction

Flood insurance

Project Life Cycle

Community Services Program

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