ASFPM Offers Collegiate Student Paper Competition in San Antonio!

ASFPM Offers 2nd Annual Collegiate Student Paper Competition in San Antonio!

Abstract Submittal Deadline is March 10, 2012

Every spring the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) conducts an annual technical conference that attracts over 1,000 people for a week-long event that showcases the state-of-the-art in techniques, programs, resources, materials, equipment, accessories, and services to accomplish flood mitigation and other community goals. The 2nd annual collegiate student paper competition will be a part of the program at the 2012 ASFPM Conference May 20-25 in San Antonio, Texas. Teams consisting of one or more students are encouraged to submit abstracts on subjects relating to floodplain or stormwater management at the 2012 conference. The goal of this program is to encourage student engagement in floodplain management topics and to identify talented individuals with the potential to make lasting contributions to the Body of Knowledge of floodplain management.

Eligibility:
Any full-time undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in a floodplain management related field at any college or university is eligible to submit. The related fields include, but are not limited to engineering, geology, geography, planning, and public administration (see below for suggested topics list). Papers may be written by a team of students, but only one scholarship will be awarded to each of the top three teams and only one person will be invited to attend the conference and present the paper.

Submission Process:
Abstracts should be submitted by March 10, 2012 electronically as a PDF file to ASFPM Outreach & Events Manager Diane Brown at diane@floods.org. Abstracts will be reviewed by an ASFPM panel and three semifinalists will be invited to submit a full paper which will be due by May 1, 2011. These three semifinalists will receive up to $1,000 for travel assistance to make their presentations at a special student session during the conference, and they will be judged by an eminent panel of floodplain managers. From these, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be selected and they will receive scholarships of $1,000, $500, and $250 respectively.

Topic Areas of Consideration:
Students are encouraged to submit abstracts on studies related to one or more of the following topics: coastal, Great Lakes, riverine, alluvial fans, estuary issues, higher (than minimum Federal) stormwater control standards, compliance with flood regulations, flood insurance, Community Rating System, post-flood activities, Letters Of (flood) Map Changes (LOMCs), National Flood Insurance Program reform, flood mitigation planning, noteworthy flood mitigation project success, GIS applied to flood risk assessment, recertification of dams and levees, impacts of decertification, dam failure, levee inventory, non-levee embankments, natural and beneficial floodplain functions, environmental/green construction for flood mitigation, flood outreach/education programs, stormwater, watershed modeling, hydrology and hydraulics (H&H), flood hazard data management and tools, LiDAR, floodplain mapping, Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs), local/state mapping programs (including higher standards), floodway standards, geomorphology of floodplains and resultant implications on the built environment, human impacts on floodplains including water quality and ecological factors, Endangered Species Act (ESA) present and anticipated impacts on floodplain management, and Risk MAP.

Faculty Advisors:
Each student is allowed a faculty advisor or advisors. The advisors may provide advice and resources, and may review the papers and presentations prior to their submittal. The advisors may be recognized as a junior author on papers, however the papers should principally be the work of student teams. Faculty advisors for participating teams may not serve on any of the selection or judging panels.

Abstract Criteria:
The body of the abstract must be 500 words or less double-spaced, and should concisely describe the research and expected results from the study. The abstracts will be evaluated based on their significance and applicability to the field of floodplain management, and on the originality of the idea of the abstract. The abstract must be submitted in a PDF file by March 10, 2012, to Diane Brown at diane@floods.org. Students who have competed as semifinalists in the past are ineligible to submit again. Students who submitted an abstract that was not selected may compete again.

Paper Criteria:
If selected as a semifinalist, deadline for submission of the paper is March 1, 2011.

Length of paper is six to eight double-spaced pages, including figures, tables, and references.

The typeface will be 11 point Times New Roman for all parts of the paper. Do not change typeface within the paper.

The line spacing will be double-spaced.

The page margins will be one inch on all sides.

Titles, Authors, Authors’ affiliation should be centered, single-spaced at the top of the first page.

Scoring:
Paper – 70%
Presentation – 30%

For questions regarding the competition criteria, please contact ASFPM Outreach & Events Manager Diane Brown at diane@floods.org or 608-441-3003.