The mission of the Water Resources Division is to be a reliable resource for floodplain management, flood warning information and hydrology expertise including technical support. Areas of responsibility include, FEMA mapping and levee certification coordination, flood hazard review for areas adjacent to flood control facilities, operating and maintaining the County's Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time (ALERT) system, providing real time storm data, and drainage master plan support.

The Flood Hazard Review Section reviews proposed development to assess the level of flooding hazards from a variety of sources such as streams, channels, basins and lakes, etc.The Section also evaluates what effect the proposed development will have on any adjacent Flood Control District facilities.The Flood Hazard Review provides the District the opportunity to recommend construction methods which might mitigate flood hazards to the proposed development.

The Flood Hazard Review Section also reviews floodplain analyses documents prepared by consultants, both for the District and private developers. This section looks into new technologies that deal with prediction of channel and floodplain flows to see how they fit with historical events.

The Master Planning Section reviews and prepares the Hydrology models for Master Plan of Drainage (MPD) studies and/or Comprehensive Storm Drain Plan (CSDP) studies for large areas. The study areas are usually very large, and therefore are less precise than that which would be required for a specific project. Oftentimes specific projects require a more focused Hydrology study. The main purpose for the MPD and CSDP is to provide a planned network of flood control facilities and to provide a basis for establishing funding mechanisms.

The MPD and CSDP documents are beneficial as guidelines for future flood control facility improvements, planning and coordinating future development activities, and as a basis for developing funding mechanisms. It should be noted that the MPD and CSDP studies are conceptual studies which identify facilities to effectively convey and control storm runoff.

The Hydrology Section collects a variety of climatology data from around the County. Precipitation, stream flow, and temperature comprise most of the available data, though not all of it is accessible online. This data is stored in a specialized database and is used in flood control storm warnings, structure and channel design, runoff calculations, environmental studies, and as supporting evidence in claims and litigations. Well data is no longer being collected in the section, and all our previous ground water data has been turned over to the Water Resources Institute. 

Most of our summarized data is available for downloading. There are more specialized products that can be requested by contacting our office at the number shown below. There is also quite a bit of data that is in our database but is not online that can also be requested.

Ken Eke
Chief
909-387-8213
keke@dpw.sbcounty.gov