Levees
A levee is a manmade structure, usually an earthen embankment, designed and constructed in accordance with sound engineering practices to contain, control, or divert the flow of water so as to provide protection from temporary flooding. FEMA will only recognize in its flood hazard and risk mapping effort those levees systems that meet, and continue to meet, minimum design, operation, and maintenance standards that are consistent with the level of protection sought through the comprehensive floodplain management criteria. The 44CFR Part 65.10 describes the type of FEMA needs to recognize, on NFIP maps, that a levee system provides protection from the base flood. During the MapMod process, several procedure memorandums associated with levees have been published.