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Friday, June 2, 2017

Maryland's Coast Smart Design Guidelines

Just a timely reminder of an important and timely issue sent to institutions of the University System of Maryland today.

The Maryland Coast Smart Design Guidelines address flooding from all sources.  The Coast Smart Council issued its 2016 final report this week.  The program is summarized in a section that begins on page 4 of the report, here (link).

The Brendan Iribe building at the University of Maryland College Park is featured on page 17 of the report. While the project is being constructed outside the 100 year flood plain, its proximity to the Paint Branch and the potential for flooding encouraged the planning team to adopt a number of Coast Smart design elements that will serve the facility well in the future.

Most of you are aware of the 2014 legislation that established the Coast Smart Council and the 2015 bill that established the basis for the Council’s design guidelines for State projects, here (link).

Obviously, the most effective prevention against a potential flooding problem is to locate a new facility (where possible) outside the impacted area.  This should be a critical consideration during the master planning process.  The State also requires that Coast Smart design be considered during the programming process.  The report says:

The language DBM has incorporated into the Facility Program Manual, Part II, page 34, is as follows:  “All facility programs shall comply with the Coast Smart Construction Program under the Coast Smart Council in the Department of Natural Resources, created by House Bill 615-Section 3-1001-3-1004 (2014) to establish Coast Smart Infrastructure siting and design criteria to address sea level rise and coastal flood impacts on capital projects.”

Finally, page 18 of the report includes information and resources for working with communities.  Those of you whose campuses experience somewhat regular flooding may wish to use some of these tools in conjunction with your local governments to address the larger, common problem.

Regardless, I thought the report offered some useful ideas and examples.

[Photo source: Referenced report.] 
 

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