Texas Integrated Flooding Framework (TIFF)

Advancing Compound Flood Resiliency in Texas

Coastal flooding can wreak havoc on our Texas communities, causing billions in damage to the state’s coastal infrastructure and the environment. When multiple flood drivers occur at once or close together, it results in a particularly destructive phenomenon known as compound flooding. In Texas, this often means a combination of storm surge and riverine flooding that amplify each other and lead to greater impacts than when they occur independently.

For Texas to be proactive in state and regional flood planning, it is crucial that our decision-makers understand the complexities of coastal flood risks and have effective tools for mitigation planning at their disposal. To achieve this, the Texas General Land Office, through its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program, funded the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to serve as the lead agency to coordinate a comprehensive flood risk reduction planning project in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Galveston District.

The Texas Integrated Flooding Framework (TIFF) project was established in 2020 to create an integrated framework to equip local, regional, and state entities with vital compound flood risk information and essential planning tools to support comprehensive regional flood planning and mitigation in the coastal zone. The primary objectives of TIFF are to:

1. develop the guidelines and processes for implementing a comprehensive framework to model, visualize, and plan for the risk of flooding in counties affected by Hurricane Harvey;
2. build relationships among agencies to improve coordination and collaboration; and
3. complement the many ongoing efforts (e.g., CHARM, TDIS, RBFS) to enhance flood science, mapping, modeling, warning, response, and planning in Texas.

Mission

Leveraging expertise and resources to bring about the best information to enhance coastal flood risk planning and mitigation.

Vision

Empowering Texans with reliable information to increase flood resiliency.

TIFF is...

• A set of recommendations, guidelines, and frameworks, including recommendations to develop new information, products, or models.
• A coordinated effort to find opportunities to fill gaps in flood science by recommending future work.

TIFF is not

• An effort to produce individual products (i.e., models or datasets).
• Intended to change the scope of work of any current project funded by the TWDB, GLO, or others.

TIFF Partners

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