Flood Resilience Plan
Lebanon, IN
In April 2013, Lebanon and the surrounding areas sustained widespread, damaging floods and overtopped roads.
Flood damage has become increasingly more common in the city, with six of the top 10 historical floods on Prairie Creek in Lebanon happening within the past 16 years.
The city tapped the Burke team to explore smart growth strategies to help them improve their flood resilience. Our team created a two-pronged approach to address current issues and to help avoid future issues.
The first part of the approach uses land-use planning policies to direct growth, economic development, and capital improvement projects to safer areas that are less vulnerable to flooding. This will help to prevent the problem from spreading.
The second part of the approach is to implement projects that will protect the people and critical assets that already exist in the vulnerable flood risk areas.
The overall plan challenges local leaders, decision-makers, and stakeholders to think differently about how to grow and develop while at the same time become resilient to the floods that have previously devastated Lebanon.