Q&A
Council Member Zhuang discusses flooding issues and language access for reporting
1:18:37
·
103 sec
Council Member Susan Zhuang raises concerns about flooding in her district and the accuracy of flood reporting, especially for non-English speakers. Commissioner Aggarwala explains DEP's flood mapping process and language access programs.
- DEP uses multiple data sources for flood mapping, not just 311 calls
- 311 is available in multiple languages for flood reporting
- DEP complies with city language access laws for all programs
Susan Zhuang
1:18:37
Thank you.
1:18:38
I actually have similar question.
1:18:39
My district also get flooded and also a lot of time is not being reported also.
1:18:46
So the flooded chart you have in the website is not really reflect the district because there are a lot of people who have flooded because they don't speak English and that they don't know how to report it.
1:19:00
And then do you guys have other language access program?
1:19:04
For the people that don't speak English?
Rohit T Aggarwala
1:19:07
Yes, of course.
1:19:09
DEP, all of all of our programs are covered by the cities, all access laws, and we do comply with those I think it's important to note that our flood maps are not only based on 311 calls.
1:19:22
They are based on our maps of our sewer system, as I mentioned in in a previous hearing, kind of a a digital twin that we've now constructed.
1:19:32
Of our sewer systems so that we can understand water flows.
1:19:35
It's got topographical data in there.
1:19:37
It's got historical waterway, you know, wetlands and and things like that are in there.
1:19:42
So it is not just a question of 311 data that informs those maps.
1:19:47
We do not you know, any model is going to be partially wrong.
1:19:52
I will say, I've been generally pleased when I have visited neighborhoods that what we see on the map conforms to what people say.
1:20:00
There have been occasions when we have updated it because we have found a a pocket of something that didn't appear on our model and didn't appear in 311 data.
1:20:09
But, of course, as you know, 311 is available in multiple languages.
1:20:13
And we do ask people to call 311 when they have flooding so that that can be an input into what we do.
Susan Zhuang
1:20:19
And, also, in my district, we also have a lot of time, have The electricity has blackout, you might distract very often.
