At the same time, the levee design for a 100-year flood protection
on the east margin may be misleading, given the poor condition
of the geometry of the levees (see Table 5), which may contribute to a
collapse of the levee prior overtopping (e.g. seepage erosion). It must
be noted that floodplain maps throughout the nation are being
updated by FEMA under its Map Modernization Program and in its
new approach, overtopping is not the only cause of failure to be considered
and more weight is planned to be given to slope instability
and erosion stage (Department of Water Resources, DWR., 2010).
Our results are relevant, given the developing stage of the Central Valley
Flood Management Planning Program (FloodSAFE) and the availability
of high resolution LiDAR data. LiDAR are shown to be useful
not only to improve hydrodynamic modeling processes and therefore
flood inundation maps, but to characterize flood defense infrastructures
such as levees, assess their morphometry and identify weakened
tracks.