Improving FEMA's Coastal Risk Assessment through the National Flood Insurance Program: An Historical Overview

Abstract

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through its Mitigation Division. The NFIP is an insurance, mapping, and land use management program that provides the availability of federally backed flood insurance to home and business owners located in communities that participate in the NFIP. FEMA is currently in the middle of a five-year, billion dollar effort to modernize the Nation's Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs). FIRMs are an integral part of the NFIP as they provide information used for setting insurance rates and for land use management purposes. As part of the “Map Modernization” effort, FEMA is revamping the Guidelines and Specifications for Flood Hazard Mapping Partners, including guidelines specific to coastal hazards. This major revision to the coastal Guidelines follows nearly 40 years (beginning with the inception of the NFIP in 1968) of improving the assessment and mapping of coastal hazards as new technologies evolve, coastal processes become better understood, and methods for assessing and mapping the risk become more reliable.