Events - Event View

Hosted by ADWR and AFMA P&P Committee

Learn all of the requirements of administering FEMA floodplains, the basics of reading and interpreting published floodplain information, and community compliance for participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The specific requirements for local floodplain administrators will be covered, including permitting, violations, record keeping, and substantial damage and improvement.

Hosted by WEST Consultants

This intensive, workshop-oriented seminar is designed for engineers and water resources
professionals seeking practical training in hydraulic modeling using HEC-RAS 2025. Led by experts
from WEST Consultants with extensive hands-on experience, participants will learn the fundamental
concepts, workflows, and best practices required to develop and evaluate introductory two
dimensional hydraulic models of rivers and floodplains using the current HEC-RAS 2025 Beta
release.
The seminar combines focused lectures with a practical computer workshop that guide participants
through the principal workflow currently available in RAS 2025 Beta, including project setup and
terrain development to geometry creation, flow data preparation, model execution, and visualization
of results. Emphasis is placed on developing models that are technically sound, computationally
efficient, and appropriate for engineering design and floodplain management applications
(recognizing the present limitations of the Beta release).
HEC-RAS 2025 is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center's (HEC) next
generation hydraulic modeling software, rebuilt from the ground up with a modern user interface
and user experience and new tools for grid development and executing models. Participants will
gain experience the HEC-RAS 2025 Beta model in preparation for the full release.
A basic understanding of open-channel hydraulics and familiarity with Microsoft Windows is
recommended. No prior HEC-RAS experience is required, although previous exposure to hydraulic
modeling will be beneficial.

Hosted by JE Fuller

This multidisciplinary course facilitated by JE Fuller will provide floodplain managers, engineers,
emergency managers, and local government staff with a practical, decision-oriented framework for
managing post-wildfire flood and debris-flow risks. Organized around the progression from initial
response through long-term watershed recovery, the course will demonstrate how administrative
coordination, technical analysis, monitoring, and implementation must work together to support timely
and defensible decisions.
Presenters representing federal, state, county, municipal, consulting, academic, and construction
perspectives will address BAER rapid assessment; post-fire hydrology and flood modeling; debris-flow
modeling and hazards; ALERT systems for rainfall and stream gaging; flood warning and public
communication; and mitigation funding, design, construction, and maintenance. Attention will be given
to using real-time monitoring data to understand watershed response, evaluate model performance,
refine rainfall thresholds, and guide emergency actions. Arizona case studies will illustrate
uncertainty, interagency coordination, mitigation performance, and the practical challenges
encountered during post-fire response and recovery.
The course will conclude with an integrated tabletop exercise in which participants apply the course
framework to develop an initial response, technical assessment, monitoring plan, mitigation approach,
and recovery strategy for a simulated wildfire.

Hosted by Kimley Horn and WEST Consultants

The class will cover best practices when reviewing contracts and common contract challenges, but it will not focus
on drafting entire contracts from scratch. We will discuss some of the more important contract sections to focus on
and why language matters. Discussions will include indemnification, insurance, period of services, and others. We
will approach these evaluations from both the client and consultant’s point of view. In addition, we will also
discuss scope of work basics and how to write a suitable one. We will cover topics such as bad word choices,
disclaimers, schedules, and assumptions.
The class is intended for both professionals just starting out in project management, as well as seasoned
practitioners who may need refreshers or who never had similar training. It will not be just limited to lectures but
will include class exercises and a couple of quick fun rounds of jeopardy.

Hosted by Arizona State University

Watershed modeling is a critical tool for engineers and scientists working in flood risk assessment, infrastructure
design, and water resources planning. In Arizona, practitioners commonly rely on HEC-HMS for event-based
hydrologic simulations following methodologies established by FCDMC and ADOT. While effective, these semi
distributed approaches may not capture the full spatial variability of watershed processes that influence flood
behavior.
This workshop introduces a new generation of watershed modeling tools by comparing HEC-HMS with tRIBS (TIN
based Real-time Integrated Basin Simulator), a fully-distributed, open-source hydrologic model developed over
20+ years of research and now available on GitHub. Participants will work through a real-world case study in the
South Mountain Fan (SMF) watershed in the Phoenix metropolitan area, applying the tRIBS model to the largest
observed streamflow event on August 12, 2014, and two subsequent events within the same summer. Attendees
will gain first-hand insight into the capabilities, limitations, and the value added to consulting and design projects
by applying distributed hydrologic models.
A key feature of this workshop is the use of modern cyberinfrastructure. Participants will use GitHub Codespaces
and Jupyter Notebooks to interact with tRIBS, eliminating the need for complex software installations and
demonstrating how cloud-based tools are changing the landscape of hydrologic modeling.

Hosted by HDR Engineering, Inc.

This class will provide an overview of risk informed decision making (RIDM), including a brief history, how it
compares to past standards-based approaches, how it is implemented for dams and levees, and how
organizations can use RIDM to prioritize needs and make decisions.
Aging infrastructure combined with limited resources often leads to the question: where should we apply
resources first? RIDM is a process that helps evaluate what can go wrong, what is the likelihood, what are
the consequences, what can be done to lower the risk, and whether the remaining risk is tolerable.
The RIDM approach, when used in the context of dam and levee safety, is the process of making decisions
about:
-The safety of a structure
-Necessary actions to reduce risks
-Prioritization of actions for a portfolio of structures
Those entities that use RIDM for their dam and levee safety programs, have found that it provides a
rigorous, systematic, and thorough process that improves the quality of, and support for, dam and levee
safety decisions. After completing this class, attendees will have an understanding of how RIDM can be
implemented for dam and levee safety programs; the definition of risk and how risk is estimated and
portrayed for dams and levees; and the use of RIDM to prioritize projects and reduce overall dam and levee
safety risk.

Hosted by the US Army Corp of Engineers, HEC and LA District

This half-day, hands-on workshop presents an integrated hydrologic and hydraulic modeling approach
for assessing post-wildfire flood and debris-flow hazards. Case studies from the 2025 Eaton and
Palisades Fires in Los Angeles County, California, and the 2021 Telegraph Fire affecting the Town of
Miami in Pinal County, Arizona, will illustrate coordinated, multi-agency emergency hazard
assessment and response.
Recent enhancements to HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS support explicit simulation of debris yield, debris
transport, and non-Newtonian flow behavior associated with mud and debris flows. The workshop will
demonstrate how these tools can be applied together to evaluate post-wildfire watershed response
and downstream hazard conditions.
The workshop will include technical presentations on post-wildfire hydrology, watershed-scale
sediment transport, and debris-flow processes, emphasizing how these processes are represented in
HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS. Focused, hands-on demonstrations will walk through key elements of
developing and applying coupled models, including watershed and burn-area characterization, debris
flow parameterization, model setup, and scenario-based hazard assessment. Exercises will emphasize
practical workflows, configuration concepts, and interpretation of model results within the constraints
of a half-day course. Ideal for engineers, hydrologists, geologists, and emergency managers, basic
HEC-HMS/HEC-RAS experience is recommended.

Schedule a time to meet with Mike Shelton from ADWR to discuss Risk MAP, current or future engineering studies, levees, or other issues in your community.

Contact Mike Shelton at ADWR to schedule an appointment.
meshelton@azwater.gov
or 602-771-8428
Appointments will be held in the Saguaro room.

Please sign up so that we might have an accurate headcount.

Join us at the 2026 Arizona Floodplain Management Association Conference! This registration includes the cost of all sessions and meals on Thursday and Friday. Please separately register for each meal you plan on attending, so we can get an accurate count.
Please also register separately for the Thursday night dinner so we can get an accurate count.

Join us starting at 5:00pm for Happy Hour and Silent Auction bidding. Dinner to begin at approximately 6:00pm, to include a Magician, dinner, silent auction results, and raffle.

Please don't forget to register for Friday so we can get an accurate meal count for breakfast.

*** The Friday Session of the Conference is NOT free. Though only the Wednesday portion of the conference is listed as having a fee, the $475 fee is for both Wednesday and Thursday

Please be on the lookout for announcements related to the Field Trip!