ANSWER

Floodplain
A normally dry land area that is susceptible to being inundated by water from any natural source. This area is usually low land adjacent to a river, stream, watercourse, ocean or lake. (FEMA)

An area that could get flooded due to rising water after a storm. You need to be aware if your site is in a flood plain. See 100-Year Flood and Special Floor Hazard Areas.

Water Table
The uppermost zone of water saturation in the ground (FEMA)

How high the water in the ground rises. Can affect what foundation you use or what, if any, programmatic elements you can place below ground.

Impervious Surface Area
Area that has been sealed and does not allow water to infiltrate, such as roofs, plaza streets and other hard surfaces (HOK)

You’ll see this a lot, ARE uses it synonymously with BAD. Impervious surfaces are directly related to runoff.

Wetland
Environment characterized by shallow or fluctuating water levels and abundant aquatic and marsh plants, Includes marshes, swamps, bayous, bogs, fens, sloughs and ponds. (HOK)

On the ARE this will often be tied to questions about preservation, erosion, runoff.

Gray Water
Domestic wastewater, composed of wash water from kitchen, bathroom and laundry sinks, tubs and washers. Does not include human waste. (HOK)

Generally, if it has soap in it, it’s grey water. Can be harvested and used for irrigation and flushing toilets, probably more stuff as well. Always compared to black water, which is sewage.

Runoff
Surface streams that appear after precipItation and irrigation. A lost resource and contributor to nonpoint source pollution. (HOK)
You’ll have to figure out how to contend with runoff. This is a huge source of pollution for our rivers and streams...rain falls on impervious surfaces, the rain builds up and flows into nearby bodies of water after picking up all the dirt and grease, etc. that was laying on those impervious surfaces.

Dry floodproofing protects a building by making it watertight and reducing the possibility that a building will be inundated with water. A few measures are:

• Continuously impermeable walls
• Flood shields
• Patch non-required openings
• Internal drainage and sump pumps

Wet floodproofing protects a building by modifying the interior so that flood waters that do enter the building cause minimal damage. Wet floodproofing does not attempt to stop water from getting in. A few methods:

• raise utilities and important systems above the predicted flood level
• install flood openings to equalize hydrostatic pressure
• install pumps to remove water after flooding
  

A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year over a 100-year period. That means there is a 1% chance it could happen this year. It does NOT mean that it will only happen once every hundred years. It could happen multiple times. The 100-year flood is also known as the Base Flood, per FEMA.

The Base Flood Elevation is the height to which water can be expected to rise during the Base Flood. This level is used for insurance premiums AND to set building construction requirements, such as the level of the 1st floor.

EXERCISE ANSWER

The park is in zone AE. See center of the map, where the pin drop is. Zone VE is to the right. The Base Flood Elevation for Zone AE is shown as 8 feet, so the first floor must be at or above 8 feet. Living areas are not permitted below the BFE, so 0% of the apartments can be in the basement. Watch the video below.