Civil Engineering Association

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy
Author(s): National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Date: 2009
Format: PDF
Language: English
ISBN10: 0309130573
Pages: 136 (9.5 MB)

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy
By Committee on FEMA Flood Maps, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, Mapping Science Committee, National Research Council


* Publisher: National Academies Press
* Number Of Pages: 136
* Publication Date: 2009-05-15
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0309130573
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780309130578



Book Description:

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps portray the height and extent to which flooding is expected to occur, and they form the basis for setting flood insurance premiums and regulating development in the floodplain. As such, they are an important tool for individuals, businesses, communities, and government agencies to understand and deal with flood hazard and flood risk. Improving map accuracy is therefore not an academic question--better maps help everyone.

Making and maintaining an accurate flood map is neither simple nor inexpensive. Even after an investment of more than $1 billion to take flood maps into the digital world, only 21 percent of the population has maps that meet or exceed national flood hazard data quality thresholds. Even when floodplains are mapped with high accuracy, land development and natural changes to the landscape or hydrologic systems create the need for continuous map maintenance and updates.

Mapping the Zone examines the factors that affect flood map accuracy, assesses the benefits and costs of more accurate flood maps, and recommends ways to improve flood mapping, communication, and management of flood-related data.