The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program is going broke. Increased flood strikes in more places, combined with outdated ways of predicting flood risk, are putting property owners at risk and the program itself in over $20 billion of debt. Arizona State University researcher Upmanu Lall was part of a team that recently published a pair of papers to understand what is happening and what needs to be done. … Based on their findings, Lall and his colleagues argue for creating regional catastrophe bonds or secondary insurance to specifically handle hyperclustered events. They also suggest updating how we assess flood risk by including climate trends, population growth in floodplains and infrastructure decay into insurance models.

Other flood planning news:

• East County Magazine (San Diego): Padilla secures over $32 million for seven projects across San Diego County
• Comstock’s magazine (Sacramento, Calif.): Sacramento’s native oak trees become key issue in housing and flood planning