FEMA Flood Maps

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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.

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Publication information

136 pages · 8.5 x 11 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-13057-3
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-13058-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/12573

Suggested citation

National Research Council. 2009. Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

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David R. Maidment

Dr. David R. Maidment, chair, is the Hussein M. Alharthy Centennial Chair in Civil Engineering and Director of the Center for Research in Water Resources at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has been on the faculty since 1981. He received a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the University of Texas, he was a research scientist at the Ministry of Works and Development in New Zealand, and at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. He was also a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M University. Dr. Maidment’s research focuses on surface water hydrology, particularly in the application of geographic information systems (GIS) to hydrology, and floodplain mapping. He has chaired or been a member of six NRC committees, and chaired the recently completed study on Floodplain Mapping Technologies. Dr. Maidment has received many awards, including the USGS Hydrologic Benchmark Award for contributions to the USGS National Water-Use Information Program in 2002, and the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the application of GIS in Water Resources in 2003. He is a fellow of the International Water Resources Association and a national associate of the National Academies of Science and Engineering.

David S. Brookshire

Dr. David S. Brookshire is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Science Impact Laboratory for Policy and Economics at the University of New Mexico. He is also on the executive board of the center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrologic and Riparian Areas, a NSF Science and Technology Center at the University of Arizona. Dr. Brookshire received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of New Mexico. He has been a contributor to the development of the contingent valuation method for valuing non-market commodities. He specializes in public policy issues related to natural resources, the environment, and natural hazards. Current research interests include seismic risk, urban hazards, demands of industrial and consumer water users, the value of water in non-market settings, western water market structures, the use of GIS process modeling for exploring alternative institutions, and behavioral characteristics of water leasing markets and urban boundary issues relating to the preservation of open space. He is a former member of the NRC Committee on the Economic Benefits of Improved Seismic Monitoring.

J. W. Brown

Mr. J. William Brown is the Assistant City Engineer for the City of Greenville, South Carolina, where he heads the Environmental Engineering Bureau. His responsibilities include serving as the National Floodplain Insurance Program Administrator for the city as well as the Qualified Local Program Administrator for delegation of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Authority for the state of South Carolina. Previous experience includes 10 years with DuPage County, Illinois, as a senior project engineer, where he managed the county’s floodplain mapping program. His duties included coordinating and negotiating technical issues with state and federal agencies, as well as managing all activities related to the county’s Cooperating Technical Partner Agreement with FEMA. Mr. Brown received an M.S. in agricultural engineering from Oklahoma State University and pursued graduate work in biosystems and agricultural engineering and water resources at the University of Minnesota. He is the past chair of the Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management and served on its executive board for six years. Since 2004 he has co-chaired the Mapping and Engineering Standards Committee for the Association of State Floodplain Managers.

John Dorman

Mr. John Dorman is the director of the Geospatial and Technology Management Office in the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management. He is responsible for the development, implementation, and management of all geospatial data, applications, and information technology infrastructure. Mr. Dorman previously served as the statewide planning administrator for the Office of State Budget, Planning, and Management, where he oversaw statewide programmatic and performance planning and budgeting, the North Carolina Geodetic Survey, the State Data Center, and the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. Following Hurricane Floyd in 1999, North Carolina became the first state in the nation to be designated a cooperating technical state under FEMA’s Cooperating Technical Partners program. From this designation, the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program was created and placed under Mr. Dorman’s supervision. In 2005, Mr. Dorman was given responsibility for managing all information technology infrastructure and applications in the Division of Emergency Management. Mr. Dorman is a graduate of North Carolina State University with a degree in political science.

Gerald E. Galloway, Jr.

Dr. Gerald E. Galloway (NAE) is a Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering and an affiliate professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. His 38-year career in the military included positions such as commander of the Army Corps of Engineers District in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and professor and founding head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1990 and retired from active duty in 1995. Dr. Galloway earned his MSE at Princeton and his Ph.D. in geography (specializing in water resources) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A civil engineer, public administrator, and geographer, Dr. Galloway’s current research focuses on the development of U.S. national water policy in general and national floodplain management policy in particular. Prior to joining Maryland, he was Vice President, Geospatial Strategies, for the ES3 Sector of the Titan Corporation. He is a member of the NRC Water Science and Technology Board and the Committee to Review the JSOST U.S. Ocean Research Priorities Plan. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Bisher Imam

Dr. Bisher Imam is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a senior researcher at the Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing at the University of California, Irvine. He received a Ph.D. in watershed hydrology from the University of Arizona. Dr. Imam’s research focuses on (a) use of remote sensing data and GIS to study the impacts of climate variability on water resource availability and hydrologic responses of both urban and natural watersheds, (b) representation of spatial variability of hydrologic properties and processes in hydrologic models, (c) uncertainty analysis in hydrologic models, and (d) bridging the gap between science and applications. Prior to joining UCI, Dr. Imam was the associate director of the Hydrologic Data and Information System (HyDIS) at the University of Arizona, where he led efforts to improve online visualization of and access to remote sensing data within a hydrologically relevant framework. Earlier, he contributed to the development, testing, and evaluation of the Water Quality Decision Support System during his work as a researcher at the USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. He has been a consultant to USAID, UNESCO, and occasionally to private firms on issues related to hydrologic data and modeling.

Wendy Lathrop

Ms. Wendy Lathrop is president of Cadastral Consulting, LLC; a licensed Professional Land Surveyor in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; and a licensed Professional Planner in New Jersey. She is also a certified floodplain manager through the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) and a certified floodplain surveyor through a joint program between North Carolina, FEMA, and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM). Ms. Lathrop received an M.E.S. in environmental studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Her practical experience with the National Flood Insurance Program began with flood hazard mapping in 1974 when the program was still under Housing and Urban Development, and continued with years of field and office work relating to elevation certificates, applications for letters of map change, and land development and planning. Her firm, Cadastral Consulting, LLC, was formed primarily to provide continuing education for surveyors, but now also includes her consulting practice. Ms. Lathrop served as the ACSM representative to the Technical Mapping Advisory Council to FEMA from 1995 through the Council's culmination in 2000, and has served on task forces creating the current and immediate prior versions of the elevation certificate.

David F. Maune

Dr. David F. Maune, Colonel, Retired, is a senior project manager for Dewberry & Davis in Fairfax, Virginia. He has a Ph.D. in geodetic science and photogrammetry from The Ohio State University. Colonel Maune’s career in military mapping, charting, and geodesy began in 1963 and included positions such as director of the Defense Mapping School and commander and director of the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC). After retirement, Dr. Maune joined the private sector, managing projects for FEMA, USGS, NOAA, and numerous states and counties. He was instrumental in FEMA’s transition to use of GPS and lidar technologies and is recognized as an industry leader in the use of lidar data for floodplain mapping and in the independent quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) of lidar data. He wrote FEMA’s standards for aerial mapping and surveying, which include the use of lidar technology in hydraulic modeling. He was the principal author of National Height Modernization Study--Report to Congress, published by the National Geodetic Survey in 1998, and editor and principal author of both the 1st and 2nd editions of Digital Elevation Model Technologies and Applications: the DEM Users Manual, published by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) in 2001 and 2007. He is registered geodetic surveyor, photogrammetric surveyor, and ASPRS certified photogrammetrist. He is also a certified floodplain manager for the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM).

Burrell E. Montz

Dr. Burrell E. Montz is a professor, director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography, and associate director of the Center for Integrated Watershed Studies at Binghamton University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado in Boulder. Dr. Montz has more than 25 years of experience with research in natural hazards, concentrating primarily on flood hazards, floodplain management, and the social science aspects of response and policy development. She has evaluated the effects and effectiveness of various mitigation measures for flooding, including floodplain designation; the flow and use of warning system information by different communities; and the use of GIS to better understand vulnerability to multiple hazards. Dr. Montz served on the NRC Committee to Assess the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service Initiative.

Spencer Rogers

Mr. Spencer Rogers is an extension specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant, where he specializes in hurricane-resistant construction techniques, shoreline erosion, coastal management and marine construction. He is also on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Center for Marine Science, and an adjunct faculty member at the North Carolina State University’s Department of Civil Engineering. He was previously employed by the Florida Bureau of Beaches and Shores. Mr. Rogers has an M.S. in coastal and oceanographic engineering from the University of Florida. He represents marine science and technology on the North Carolina Coastal Resources Advisory Council, which advises the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission on coastal management regulations. Mr. Rogers is a member of FEMA’s Hurricane Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team, North Carolina’s floodplain mapping Cooperating Technical State committee (for which he reviews the coastal maps), and the National Institute of Building Sciences HAZUS Flood and Hurricane committees. He is a member of the National Association of Coastal Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Association of State Floodplain Managers, and the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association.

Karen L. Schuckman

Ms. Karen L. Schuckman is an instructor in geography at The Pennsylvania State University, where she teaches remote sensing and geospatial technology in the online GIS programs offered by the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute. She is also a consultant to URS Corporation in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she provides expert knowledge in remote sensing and photogrammetry -- including floodplain mapping, disaster response and preparedness, critical infrastructure and transportation -- to engineering practice groups. As the Geospatial Technology Leader at URS from 2005 to 2006, Ms. Schuckman supported response, recovery, and mitigation projects for FEMA following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Prior to that, she spent 10 years at the EarthData Group, where she held several positions including geospatial applications director for EarthData Solutions; senior vice-president of EarthData Technologies, and president and general manager of EarthData International of North Carolina. Notable projects led by Ms. Schuckman for EarthData include lidar acquisition for the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, numerous transportation mapping projects for state transportation departments, and technology demonstration projects for NOAA, NASA, and DOT. Prior to joining the private sector, Ms. Schuckman worked for the USGS National Mapping Division, in Menlo Park, California. She is the immediate past-president of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, vice-chair of the NOAA Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing, and a member of the NRC Committee on Floodplain Mapping Technologies. Ms. Schuckman has a B.S. in Meteorology, a Certificate in GIS from the Pennsylvania State University, is an ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist and a licensed Professional Land Surveyor.

Y. P. Sheng

Dr. Y. Peter Sheng has been a professor of coastal and oceanographic engineering at the University of Florida since 1986, where he studies coastal hazards and physical and biogeochemical processes in coastal, estuarine, riverine, and lake waters. He received his Ph.D. in engineering and fluid and thermal sciences from Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Sheng’s main research interests include storm surges, coastal waves, current-wave interaction, bottom boundary layer dynamics, turbulent transport processes, hurricane wind and land interaction, inundation processes, cyberinfrastructure, and numerical modeling and forecasting. One of the models developed by Dr. Sheng, CH3D (Curvilinear-grid Hydrodynamics in 3D)-Storm Surge Modeling System (SSMS), can be used to simulate and forecast hurricane-induced storm surge, wave, and coastal inundation, and has been applied to simulate and forecast the storm surge and inundation in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and the Chesapeake Bay since 2003. From 1998 to 2003, he worked with Pinellas County, Florida, and FEMA to review and update the Flood Insurance Rate Map for the county using this model. Dr. Sheng is a current member of the NRC Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection System. Dr. Sheng is also a member of the South Eastern Coastal Ocean Observing Association (SECOORA) and the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS).

Juan B. Valdes

Dr. Juan B. Valdes is a professor and department head of the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and a professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona. He joined the faculty in 1997 after serving on the faculty of Texas A&M University and Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas. Dr. Valdes received his Ph.D. in water resources from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include stochastic and deterministic hydrology; flood forecasting; analysis, synthesis, and sampling of hydrologic processes; mathematical modeling of natural resources systems; modeling of space-time precipitation; environmental risk assessment; and stochastic modeling of environmental processes. He is on the executive committee of the NSF center for Sustainability of semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA), where he coordinates international research efforts, particularly on drought characterization and forecasting and water resources management in transboundary basins. He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and ASCE, and serves on the board of directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, the scientific advisory committee of the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research, and on panels and advisory boards for AGU, NOAA, and NASA.

Closed

FEMA Flood Maps

August 20 - 21, 2007

Past

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Institution Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

David S. Brookshire
J. William Brown
John Dorman
Bisher Imam
Wendy Lathrop
David R. Maidment
David F. Maune
Burrell E. Montz
Spencer Rogers
Karen L. Schuckman
Y. Peter Sheng
Juan B. Valdes

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

Homework assignments from the June meeting
Outline of the report and writing assignments
Scope and location of case studies
Bias/conflict of interest for David Brookshire and Peter Sheng
Plans for the next meeting (i.e., agenda, speakers)

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

FEMA (20001). Benefit Point Calculations in MNUSS. FEMA: Washington, D.C. pp. 1-21

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

August 29, 2007

Contact

Tonya Fong Yee

202-334-1331
tfongyee@nas.edu

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FEMA Flood Maps

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Suggested citation

Additional Information

Contact

Tonya Fong Yee

Disclaimer

My Academies

FEMA Flood Maps

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Featured publication

Mapping the Zone: Improving Flood Map Accuracy

Description

Contributors

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

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