Department of Conservation and Recreation
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Department of Conservation and Recreation
The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Office of Resilience Planning received the national Tom Lee State Award for Excellence in Floodplain Management at the 50th annual Association of State Floodplain Managers Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Working to strengthen statewide flood resilience by coordinating efforts across the Commonwealth, DCR’s Office of Resilience Planning conducts ongoing community outreach and engagement and provides the best available flood data. The office is responsible for developing and implementing the Coastal Resilience Master Plan and the Virginia Flood Protection Master Plan, which guide coordinated statewide strategies to assess flood risk, analyze vulnerabilities and identify priority strategies to reduce flood risk and bolster resilience.
On June 4, 2026, these efforts toward development, use and public distribution of rainfall-driven flood hazard models were recognized.
Founded in 1976, the Association of State Floodplain Managers is the nation’s foremost organization of floodplain management professionals, representing more than 7,000 members. The Tom Lee Award is given annually by this professional society to a single state agency in recognition of exemplary floodplain management accomplishments.
Rainfall-driven flood modeling is a recognized data gap across the nation and identified as a priority in Virginia’s first Coastal Resilience Master Plan. DCR recently completed one of the largest rainfall-driven flood modeling efforts in the country, creating new tools that show where heavy rain can cause flooding across 57 cities and counties in coastal Virginia. Not only does this project close a longstanding gap in flood-risk data, but it also provides communities with critical information to plan, prepare and invest more wisely.
Prepared under the direction of Matt Dalon, program manager for the Office of Resilience Planning, and in consultation with stakeholders, the agency’s contractor Dewberry developed nearly 2,000 models and conducted more than 300,000 rainfall simulations across Virginia in only four months.
The models estimate the extent and depth of flooding across a range of storm durations and precipitation intervals. Their adaptable design allows them to represent both current and future conditions, as well as future updates to precipitation standards.
DCR Director Nikki Rovner expressed the significance of these initiatives and the impact they have on strengthening flood awareness and supporting informed decision-making for communities across the state.
“The Commonwealth has made a significant commitment, through the preparation and public distribution of this data, to advance our flood resilience initiatives and close the rainfall-driven flooding data gap. We are particularly pleased to be recognized by the leading national professional society.”
Unlike many modeling projects, this data is not stored on inaccessible servers for limited users. Every locality – regardless of resources or technical capacity – can access the data and work with the models to meet their needs. DCR has empowered others to fully leverage the Commonwealth’s investment.
The Tom Lee Award is the second award DCR has received for this work. Earlier this year, the project earned both the Grand Award and Pinnacle Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Virginia (ACEC Virginia) as part of its Engineering Excellence Awards program. These awards recognize projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation, technical achievement and public benefit.
To learn more about the Office of Resilience Planning, visit https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/dam-safety-and-floodplains/resilience-planning.
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Dam Safety and Floodplains
