Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) Multi-Year Plan: 2023 – 2027

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Risk Mapping, Assessment, and 

Planning (Risk MAP) Multi-Year Plan: 

2023 – 2027 

March 2023

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Executive Summary

The Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (MAP) program provides flood hazard and flood risk 

information that powers resilient decisions and actions which reduce disaster suffering. Flooding is 

the costliest natural hazard in the United States, causing over $155 billion in property damages over 

the last decade. 

The purpose of this plan is to describe the strategy and direction for the Risk MAP program over the 

next five years. This plan is an update to the 2009 Risk MAP Multiyear Plan that initially defined the 

Risk MAP program. It responds to the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s 2021

recommendations for FEMA to update its multiyear plan for Risk MAP and to establish mechanisms 

for periodically assessing the usefulness of its Risk MAP non-regulatory products.

The plan outlines how Risk MAP will move from the Present Phase, through an Interim Phase where 

FEMA addresses existing gaps in flood resilience processes, to a Future Phase that more effectively

reduces disaster suffering.

FEMA flood maps and the National Flood Insurance Program have helped the nation avoid billions of 

dollars in flood damage over the past 50 years. Since 2009, FEMA has made significant progress 

toward achieving the Risk MAP goals. FEMA also has learned a lot about both what is effective in 

achieving the program goals and what needs to be improved to better address the capability gaps 

that Risk MAP was designed to address. These insights are the basis of shifts in the Risk MAP goals 

and the strategy detailed in the plan.

Table 1: Program Insights

Insights Changes to Strategy

Existing regulatory Flood Insurance Rate 

Maps oversimplify flood hazard and risk.

The program must move beyond updating out-ofdate regulatory maps toward more comprehensive 

flood hazard and risk information.

Increasing stakeholder awareness of flood 

risk is not enough to drive resilient actions.

The program must understand what drives

communities and NFIP customers to take action 

and must deliver audience specific messages.

Building synergies within FEMA Resilience is 

not sufficient for Risk MAP to be most 

effective.

The program will take a customer-centered 

approach to program delivery and expanding 

integration and alignment with key partners.

The Risk MAP goals work together to drive resilient action through customer-centric engagement to 

meet the audience where they are, in the way they want to be engaged. This entails FEMA listening 

to what stakeholders need and delivering messaging and engagement that is designed to reach 

specific stakeholders. This engagement leverages available and accessible foundational hazard and 
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risk data and supports implementation of actionable resilience policies and practices. The 

foundation of this cycle is based on coordination and partnership with other natural hazards risk 

information and management activities.

Summary of Commitments

Goal 1: Address gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data to form a solid 

foundation for flood risk assessments, floodplain management, and actuarial 

soundness of the National Flood Insurance Program.

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

▪ Objective 1: Ensure that the regulatory flood mapping information is current and up to date.

▪ Objective 2: Build national flood modeling framework.

▪ Objective 3: Address unmet statutory requirements.

▪ Objective 4: Deliver products that power a risk informed National Flood Insurance Program 

(NFIP).

Goal 2: Consult with, and empower, communities to measurably reduce

current and future flood risk.

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

▪ Objective 1: Develop national and regional outreach strategies that include shared priorities and 

multi-year plans for advancing equitable risk reduction through outreach and engagement.

▪ Objective 2: Implement strategies for gaining insight that inform a customer-centric approach to 

community engagement, partnerships, and other aspects of program design.

▪ Objective 3: Develop community specific outreach strategies that compel and empower people to 

take action to reduce their risks.

▪ Objective 4: Establish a baseline and measure progress of the impact of engagement activities 

toward advancing equitable risk reduction.
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Goal 3: Lead and support states, local, and tribal communities to effectively 

engage in risk-based mitigation planning resulting in sustainable actions that 

reduce or eliminate risks to life and property from natural hazards. 

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

▪ Objective 1: Communicate the value of hazard mitigation and community planning. 

▪ Objective 2: Engage and partner to build capabilities.

▪ Objective 3: Integrate hazard mitigation into other planning processes.

▪ Objective 4: Demonstrate effective risk reduction through planning. 

Goal 4: Provide a sustainable and modern IT portfolio that optimizes delivery 

of flood hazard and flood risk data, helping customers reduce current and 

future risks to life and property.

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

▪ Objective 1: Establish mechanisms to assess and improve customer experience with Risk MAP 

systems and applications.

▪ Objective 2: Migrate Risk MAP IT systems and applications to the cloud to optimize our existing 

investment in flood hazard data and set the technical foundation for implementing the future of 

Risk MAP.

▪ Objective 3: Initiate development of new applications and services to address unmet statutory 

requirements, replace obsolete software, and meet requirements for the future of Risk MAP.

Goal 5: Support enhanced risk reduction decision-making by aligning Risk 

MAP delivery with the Whole Community through customer-centric 

engagement and products. 

SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES

▪ Objective 1: Build organizational understanding of how stakeholders use and are influenced by 

flood risk information and products. 

▪ Objective 2: Begin to organize Risk MAP in a customer-centric manner that more efficiently and 

effectively drives toward the outcome of a more flood resilient nation. 

▪ Objective 3: Continue evolution and advancement of partnerships that drive and empower risk 

reduction action through structure, engagement, and messaging.
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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... iii

Summary of Commitments ............................................................................................................ iv

Goal 1: Address gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data to form a solid foundation for flood 

risk assessments, floodplain management, and actuarial soundness of the National 

Flood Insurance Program............................................................................................... iv

Goal 2: Consult with, and empower, communities to measurably reduce current and future 

flood risk. ........................................................................................................................ iv

Goal 3: Lead and support states, local, and tribal communities to effectively engage in riskbased mitigation planning resulting in sustainable actions that reduce or eliminate 

risks to life and property from natural hazards............................................................. v

Goal 4: Provide a sustainable and modern IT portfolio that optimizes delivery of flood 

hazard and flood risk data, helping customers reduce current and future risks to life 

and property. ................................................................................................................... v

Goal 5: Support enhanced risk reduction decision-making by aligning Risk MAP delivery with 

the Whole Community through customer-centric engagement and products. ........... v

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1

Implementation Approach ...................................................................................................... 11

Overview 11

1. Goal 1: Address gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data to form a solid foundation for flood 

risk assessments, floodplain management, and actuarial soundness of the National 

Flood Insurance Program. ............................................................................................. 14

1.1. Overview........................................................................................................................ 14

1.2. Objective 1: Ensure that the regulatory flood mapping information is current and up 

to date........................................................................................................................... 17

1.3. Objective 2: Build National Flood Modeling Framework............................................ 19

1.4. Objective 3: Address Unmet Statutory Requirements ............................................... 27

1.5. Objective 4: Deliver Products that Power a Risk-informed NFIP............................... 32

2. Goal 2: Consult with, and empower, communities to measurably reduce current and future 

flood risk. ...................................................................................................................... 34

2.1. Overview........................................................................................................................ 34

2.2. Objective 1: Develop national and regional outreach strategies that include shared 

priorities and multi-year plans for advancing equitable risk reduction through 

outreach and engagement. ......................................................................................... 34
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2.3. Objective 2: Implement strategies for gaining insight that informs a customercentric approach to community engagement, partnerships, and other aspects of 

program design............................................................................................................. 36

2.4. Objective 3: Develop community specific outreach strategies that compel and 

empower people to take action to reduce their risks. ............................................... 38

2.5. Objective 4: Establish a baseline, and measure progress, of the impact of 

engagement activities toward advancing equitable risk reduction. ......................... 39

3. Goal 3: Lead and support states, local and tribal communities to effectively engage in riskbased mitigation planning resulting in sustainable actions that reduce or eliminate 

risks to life and property from natural hazards. ........................................................... 41

3.1. Overview........................................................................................................................ 41

3.2. Objective 1: Communicate Value of Hazard Mitigation and Community Planning .. 42

3.3. Objective 2: Engage and Partner to Build Capabilities .............................................. 43

3.4. Objective 3: Integrate Hazard Mitigation into Other Planning Processes................. 45

3.5. Objective 4: Demonstrate Effective Risk Reduction through Planning..................... 46

4. Goal 4: Provide a sustainable and modern IT portfolio that optimizes delivery of flood 

hazard and flood risk data, helping customers reduce current and future risks to life 

and property. ................................................................................................................. 48

4.1. Overview........................................................................................................................ 48

4.2. Objective 1: Establish mechanisms to assess and improve customer experience 

with Risk MAP systems and applications. .................................................................. 51

4.3. Objective 2: Migrate Risk MAP IT systems and applications to the cloud to optimize 

our existing investment in flood hazard data and set the technical foundation for 

implementing the future of Risk MAP. ........................................................................ 52

4.4. Objective 3: Initiate development of new applications and services to address 

unmet statutory requirements, replace obsolete software, and meet requirements 

for the future of Risk MAP............................................................................................ 54

5. Goal 5: Support enhanced risk reduction decision-making by aligning Risk MAP delivery 

with the Whole Community through customer-centric engagement and products. ..... 57

5.1. Overview........................................................................................................................ 57

5.2. Objective 1: Build organizational understanding of how stakeholders use and are 

influenced by flood risk information and products. ................................................... 58

5.3. Objective 2: Begin to organize Risk MAP in a Customer-Centric manner that more

efficiently and effectively drives toward the outcome of a more flood resilient nation.

....................................................................................................................................... 60

5.4. Objective 3: Continue evolution and advancement of partnerships that drive and 

empower risk reduction action through structure, engagement, and messaging. .. 60
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Appendix A. Glossary ............................................................................................................... 62

Appendix B. Risk Information and Management Strategy ...................................................... 65

Appendix C. National Outreach Strategy ................................................................................. 66

Appendix D: U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Recommendations ..................... 67

Appendix E: Current Interagency Collaborations .................................................................... 68

 

List of Tables and Figures

Table 1: Program Insights........................................................................................................................... iii

Table 2: Risk MAP Goals Comparison (2009 vs 2023).............................................................................3

Table 3: Coverage of Initial Coastal Probabilistic Analysis (Atlantic and Gulf Coasts) ......................... 68

Figure 1: Resilience Risk Information and Management Goals ...............................................................6

Figure 2: Alignment between Risk Information and Management Goals and Risk MAP Goals..............7

Figure 3: Goal 1 Implementation Phases................................................................................................ 14

Figure 4: Overview of Mapped and Unmapped Miles............................................................................. 18

Figure 5: New Modeling Framework to Address Flood Data Gaps ........................................................ 21

Figure 6: Interagency National Modeling Datasets ................................................................................ 24

Figure 7: New Flood Modeling Framework Supports Products for Many Users.................................... 33

Figure 8: Goal 2 Implementation Phases................................................................................................ 34

Figure 9: Goal 3 Implementation Phases................................................................................................ 41

Figure 10: Goal 4 Implementation Phases.............................................................................................. 48

Figure 11: Goal 5 Implementation Phases.............................................................................................. 57
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Introduction

RISK MAPPING, ASSESSMENT, AND PLANNING (RISK MAP) PURPOSE

Flooding is the costliest natural hazard in the United States, causing over $155 billion in property 

damages in the last decade1. Disaster costs are projected to increase as some extreme weather 

events become more frequent and intense due to climate change, and simultaneously the people 

and property at risk increase with demographic changes.

The Risk MAP program delivers quality flood hazard and flood risk information, risk communications, 

and mitigation planning support that power resilient decisions and actions to reduce disaster 

suffering. FEMA flood maps and the National Flood Insurance Program have helped the nation avoid 

billions in flood damage over the past 50 years. Yet, more is needed. 

PROGRAM AUTHORITIES

The key authorities for Risk MAP are defined in the National Flood Insurance Act (and related 

statutes) and the Robert T. Stafford Act, as amended by the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. These 

authorities designate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) a primary provider of flood 

hazard and flood risk information to the nation. Risk MAP forms one of the foundational legs of the 

National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), through its role in providing authoritative flood hazard and 

flood risk data the NFIP relies on and communicating with individuals and communities about their 

flood hazards and risk. The Stafford Act, as amended, authorizes FEMA to implement and lead 

mitigation planning with state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. Risk MAP fulfills these 

authorities in an integrated, customer-centric way to maximize effectiveness.

Risk MAP implements these authorities through collaboration with SLTT entities to reduce losses of 

life and property. Risk MAP provides comprehensive and reliable flood mapping products, risk 

assessment tools, community focused risk communications, and planning support. All of these 

products enable effective local mitigation activities, including those required under the NFIP. 

PURPOSE OF THIS PLAN

The purpose of this plan is to describe the strategy and direction for the Risk MAP program over the 

next five years (2023-2027). The plan outlines the program goals, major objectives for the next few 

years, and the key strategies to achieve these goals and objectives. At a high level, this plan links the 

Risk MAP mission and authorities to the goals, measures, and major activities that FEMA will 

implement to achieve the program goals and fulfill the program mission.

1 Association of State Floodplain Managers. 2020. Flood Mapping for the Nation: A Cost Analysis for Completing and 

Maintaining the Nation’s NFIP Flood Map Inventory. Madison, WI
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This plan is an update to the 2009 Risk MAP Multiyear Plan that initially defined the Risk MAP 

program goals and described the program strategy to achieve those goals. It responds to the 

recommendation from the GAO for FEMA to “update its multiyear plan for the Risk MAP program to 

identify program goals, objectives, activities, performance measures, and time frames for its various 

efforts to address challenges in reflecting current and future flood hazards and to transition to a 

future program” (See Appendix D). It is also intended to provide other stakeholders with current 

information about the Risk MAP program and future plans.

RISK MAP ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Since 2009, FEMA has made significant progress toward the Risk MAP goals. Risk MAP achieved the 

primary program target of 80 percent New, Validated, or Updated Engineering (NVUE). NVUE 

measures whether the available regulatory flood hazard information reflects current conditions. The 

program has enhanced communication and engagement activities across the Risk MAP lifecycle. 

Furthermore, Risk MAP continues to deliver national support for natural hazards mitigation planning. 

The percent of the U.S. population covered by a current mitigation strategy has increased from 80

percent at the end of September 2009 to 85 percent in September 2022, meaning tens of millions 

more Americans are covered under current hazard mitigation plans. Engagement by tribal 

governments in mitigation planning has more than tripled over the same time period, from 75 to 238 

Federally recognized Tribes. Risk MAP has substantially enhanced its information technology 

platform. Additionally, Risk MAP has achieved significant synergies across related programs within 

FEMA Resilience.

RISK MAP EVOLUTION

Since the start of Risk MAP in 2009, FEMA has learned a lot about both what is effective in achieving 

program goals and what needs to be improved to better address capability gaps.

The program was created in 2009 to address these gaps:

Gap 1. Lack of available flood data; 

Gap 2. Lack of a quantifiable relationship between flood risk communications and 

reductions in flood vulnerability;

Gap 3. Lack of coordination in SLTT mitigation planning efforts;

Gap 4. Technical debt and aging IT systems; and 

Gap 5. Limited alignment of program delivery.

Despite the progress of the program, the same fundamental capability gaps that existed in 2009

remain. However, through the delivery of Risk MAP, FEMA has developed an improved understanding 

of how to address these gaps.

The key insights that influence the path forward described in this plan are:

▪ Gap 1: The binary depiction of a single representative flood hazard scenario on the regulatory 

Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) is oversimplified. FEMA must provide comprehensive flood 
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hazard and flood risk information which reflects flooding of all types and severity for both the 

present and the future.

▪ Gap 2: Increasing stakeholder awareness is not enough to drive resilient actions. FEMA must 

implement targeted, customer-centric flood risk management communications grounded in 

evidence of what drives communities and individuals to take resilient actions.

▪ Gap 3: FEMA must continue to support the natural hazard mitigation planning efforts of SLTT 

governments integrated with other community planning frameworks, including land use planning 

and community development.

▪ Gap 4: FEMA must incrementally transform its existing information technology portfolio to a 

modern architecture that sustains program delivery, supports future developments in flood 

hazard and risk analysis, and makes the resulting information easily accessible.

▪ Gap 5: Building synergies within FEMA Resilience is not sufficient. For Risk MAP to be most 

effective at building flood resilience nationally, FEMA must shift to a customer-centric approach 

by understanding what truly motivates resilient action and aligning efforts with those of other 

organizations doing relevant work.

RISK MAP GOALS

Based on the key program insights above, FEMA has made some small but important shifts in the 

Risk MAP Goals.

Table 2: Risk MAP Goals Comparison (2009 vs 2023)

Risk MAP Goals

2009 2023

Goal 1

Address gaps in flood hazard data to form a solid 

foundation for flood risk assessments, floodplain 

management, and actuarial soundness of the 

National Flood Insurance Program.

Address gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data

to form a solid foundation for flood risk 

assessments, floodplain management, and 

actuarial soundness of the National Flood 

Insurance Program.
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Risk MAP Goals

Goal 1 focuses on delivering flood hazard and risk information needed by the NFIP and the Nation to 

support flood risk management. The key insight is that FEMA needs to move beyond the binary 

depiction of flood hazard on the FIRMs to provide more comprehensive graduated flood hazard and 

risk information. This change is driven by statutory changes, the goal of a risk informed NFIP, and a 

customer centered approach to equipping and compelling people to take action to increase flood 

resilience. Goal 1 was updated to specifically include flood risk in addition to hazard and the focus is 

on moving beyond updating out-of-date regulatory maps from 2009 toward more comprehensive 

flood hazard and risk information.

Goal 2

Ensure that a measurable increase of the 

public’s awareness and understanding of risk 

management results in a measurable reduction 

of current and future vulnerability to flooding.

Consult with, and empower, communities to 

measurably reduce current and future flood risk. 

Goal 2 focuses on using outreach and communication to drive flood resilient actions. FEMA 

recognizes that simply delivering data or raising awareness does not always lead to action. Risk MAP 

continues to explore how to use the foundation of reliable flood data and risk communications to 

better drive resilience and how to measure the impact. Goal 2 was updated to remove increasing 

awareness as the main mechanism for driving resilient actions.

Goal 3

Lead and support states, local and tribal 

communities to effectively engage in risk-based 

mitigation planning resulting in sustainable 

actions that reduce or eliminate risks to life and 

property from natural hazards.

Lead and support states, local and tribal 

communities to effectively engage in risk-based 

mitigation planning resulting in sustainable 

actions that reduce or eliminate risks to life and 

property from natural hazards.

Goal 3 continues to focus on supporting SLTT governments’ understanding of strategies to reduce 

natural hazard risks that enable implementation of resilient actions through hazard mitigation 

planning and other community planning activities. No changes have been made to Goal 3

Goal 4

Provide an enhanced digital platform that 

improves management of limited Risk MAP 

resources, stewards information produced by 

Risk MAP, and improves communication and 

sharing of risk data and related products to all 

levels of government and the public.

Provide a sustainable and modern IT portfolio 

that optimizes the distribution and 

communication of flood hazard and flood risk 

data to help customers reduce current and 

future risks to life and property. 

Goal 4 describes how FEMA continues to develop and incrementally transform the technology 

foundation for Risk MAP. Risk MAP will build and sustain robust IT capabilities that support 

development, management, sharing, and communication of flood hazard and risk information and 

support hazard mitigation planning nationally. Goal 4 was altered slightly to emphasize the 

importance of sustainable modernization and the need for multiple platforms (i.e., a portfolio) to 

address the full spectrum of Risk MAP’s IT use cases.

Goal 5
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Risk MAP Goals

Align Risk Analysis programs and develop 

synergies to enhance decision-making 

capabilities through effective risk communication 

and management.

Support enhanced risk reduction decisionmaking by aligning Risk MAP delivery with the 

Whole Community through customer-centric 

engagement and products. 

Goal 5 describes how Risk MAP seeks to integrate program delivery. Building synergy within FEMA 

activities is not enough. FEMA also needs to align its work with the Whole Community. Better 

alignment with other organizations will improve decision making and drive more resilient outcomes. 

Goal 5 was updated to focus on a customer-centered approach to program delivery and expand 

alignment with key partners. 

OTHER STRATEGIC LINKAGES

Risk MAP is a component of how FEMA Resilience works to increase the Nation’s resilience to all 

hazards. Over the past few years, FEMA Resilience has developed a strategy for risk information and 

risk management. This strategy supports Goal 3 to promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared 

nation of the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan

The Resilience risk information and management goals are:

A. Consult with communities to act on their present and emerging resilience opportunities;

B. Translate knowledge into actionable resilience policies and practices;

C. Be the trusted source of comprehensive flood hazard and risk information;

D. Equip communities with accessible solutions to meet their multi-hazard risk information 

needs; and

E. Invest in strategic partnership networks that expand our reach to increase the Nation’s 

resiliency.

While these strategies are broader in scope than Risk MAP, the goals derive from the same basic 

concepts. This approach aims to drive resilient action with customer centric public engagement

where FEMA listens to what stakeholders need and delivers messages designed to reach specific 

stakeholders. This engagement leverages reliable foundational data on hazard and risk, made 

available and accessible through well designed solutions, and supports implementation of

actionable resilience policies and practices. Risk MAP is delivered in coordination with other natural 

hazards risk information and management activities (Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Resilience Risk Information and Management Goals

The Risk MAP goals are closely aligned with this approach. Risk MAP functions in coordination with 

other Resilience programs supporting this strategy to deliver data, risk analysis, risk 

communications, and adaptable risk management tools, policies, and practices to equip and compel 

people and the Nation to reduce disaster suffering for all. While the goals are not an exact match 

one-for-one, the same key themes are embodied in both (Figure 2).
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Figure 2: Alignment between Risk Information and Management Goals and Risk MAP Goals

RISK MAP PHASES

This plan describes how FEMA intends to use the key insights developed since 2009 to adapt the 

Risk MAP strategy and tactics and improve program delivery. The objectives for each goal describe 

the major milestones FEMA will accomplish as it moves from the Present Phase of the program, 

through a period of adjustment in the Interim Phase, to achieve the vision for the Future Phase.

Present Phase

Risk MAP is primarily focused on producing regulatory flood maps. The flood hazard and flood risk 

information available is not sufficient to support risk-based decisions for the present and future. 

Furthermore, the way FEMA communicates flood hazard and flood risk is not impactful enough. SLTT 

hazard mitigation planning does not, by itself, lead SLTTs in taking the most effective actions to 

reduce risk. FEMA’s Risk MAP IT systems do not support customer needs adequately, nor do they 

support the Risk MAP program internal operations as they should. Across the board, FEMA’s delivery 

of Risk MAP is not sufficiently customer-centric and does not fully take advantage of other activities 

that support SLTT flood risk management. 
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Interim Phase

FEMA must move beyond the current binary regulatory flood maps toward a more sophisticated, 

customer-centric approach to comprehensive flood hazard and flood risk information delivery. Over 

the next five years, FEMA will begin to produce more comprehensive flood data by building a new 

flood hazard and flood risk framework, develop a consistent communications approach refined for 

specific audiences, improve integration of hazard mitigation planning with other community planning 

activities, design a modern IT system architecture and incrementally transform the existing IT 

portfolio to implement this vision, and increase its understanding of both what motivates action to 

increase flood resilience as well as how customers currently receive flood risk management data and 

messages. 

Future Phase

In the future, Risk MAP will build flood resilience with customer-centric delivery of comprehensive, 

graduated flood hazard and risk information and flood resilience messages supported by modern IT 

systems. Delivery of Risk MAP will be integrated with partners serving complementary roles in risk 

communication and risk management. Hazard mitigation planning will be integrated with other 

community planning activities. Risk MAP will have improved ability to measure program 

effectiveness. Through these efforts Risk MAP will help build flood resilience nationally and reduce 

disaster suffering. The implementation of the future phase is outside the timeframe of this plan. 

Achievement of the future phase will depend on what FEMA learns during the interim phase and 

program funding.

EQUITY

Through the Justice40 Initiative, the Federal Government is prioritizing equity by focusing program 

benefits on disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, or overburdened by 

pollution. Equity is also one of the 3 main goals in the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan, with Goal 1 

to instill equity as a foundation of emergency management. The portfolio of NFIP programs 

collectively supports the efforts of reducing the effect of natural hazards across the Nation. These 

programs support regulatory mapping, community engagement, technical and financial assistance to 

the SLTT governments, including special districts and authorities (such as dam and levee 

owners/operators) that constitute the complex network of jurisdictions that serve the Nation’s 

collective communities. Risk MAP provides a credible, risk informed foundation for these programs 

by producing the flood hazard and flood risk data to guide decision-making with respect to risk 

informed land development, zoning, permitting, new construction and redevelopment as well as to 

inform the purchase of flood insurance. Further, through mitigation planning, SLTTs engage 

vulnerable populations and underserved communities in a process designed to identify risks and 

develop implementable strategies to increase resilience.

The benefits Risk MAP yields are the products of data. That data benefits the Nation as a whole, as 

documented in several studies tying program data to building codes, mitigation efforts, and the NFIP. 

As documented by these studies, Risk MAP data guides a responsible public discourse related to the 

manner government officials manage communities. 
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As an enabler of mitigation action, Risk MAP is working with other FEMA Justice40 programs and the 

NFIP to gather information about what data is needed to drive shared outcomes in implementing 

Justice40. Understanding these needs to support communities will inform Risk MAPs distribution, 

product, and engagement. 

Risk MAP was selected as one of four programs to be part of the ‘pilot program’ for FEMAs 

contribution towards the Justice 40 initiative to increase benefits to disadvantaged communities. In 

2022, FEMA conducted an analysis of planned and ongoing work and determined data does not 

indicate a selection bias nationally. Risk MAP has been actively working for years to provide flood 

data for unmapped stream miles (see Goal 1, Objective 3). Over 50% of the currently unmapped 

stream miles with base level engineering data available or in progress are in disadvantaged 

communities. FEMA has the ability to provide advisory information without introducing a requirement 

of flood insurance on disadvantaged communities but where appropriate these new analyses will 

also be used for regulatory updates.

However, FEMA also determined that how data is delivered is as important as what data is delivered 

and where the data is delivered for disadvantaged communities.

Accounting for a broader range of needs and approaches when delivering Risk MAP can help build 

trusting relationships with underserved and disadvantaged communities. Any combination of factors 

can restrict access to standard outreach practices and limit someone's ability to prepare for, weather 

and recover from a disaster event. 

The Risk MAP program must learn the obstacles communities face with hazard risk mitigation and 

apply what is learned to program delivery and tailoring solutions that respond to each communities' 

unique needs. Helping to remove barriers and making resources more widely available will help to 

advance inclusive community engagement practices that lead to equitable outcomes.

In addition, the Technical Mapping Advisory Council will complete their annual report with 

recommendations in the following areas:

▪ Ways for the program to overcome these obstacles that disadvantaged communities face in 

understanding their risk and acting to reduce their risk and better meet the needs of these 

communities.

▪ How Risk MAP can identify and limit the potential negative impact and unintended 

consequences that might result from Risk MAP products and program delivery.

▪ How Risk MAP can improve stakeholder engagements with disadvantaged/underserved 

communities; and

▪ How the agency might use statistical data and analysis regarding social vulnerability and 

underserved populations; and how that data and analysis should inform future annual 

investment decisions for Risk MAP. 
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Upon receipt and evaluation of these recommendations along with information on the needs of other 

FEMA Justice40 programs, Risk MAP will take steps to meet the flood risk data needs of 

disadvantaged communities and the FEMA programs that support them.

For FY23 Risk MAP projects are identified for current year funding using data from Coordinated 

Needs Management Strategy database and the Mapping Information Platform. The project data are 

intersected with the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool data to determine those 

disadvantaged communities within the project footprint. The total dollars allocated for these projects 

are proportionally attributed towards the FEMA Investment in disadvantaged communities as 

determined by the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.

The results of this analysis will help shape future investments in flood risk data, to equitably support 

communities across the country.

CONTINUOUS LEARNING

As FEMA implements Risk MAP, it continues to focus on improving program strategies and tactics to 

maximize successful outcomes. FEMA will do this through performance measurement and collecting 

data (evidence) around the impact of our program delivery (Results Framework) that will help us 

evaluate our program. It will enable FEMA to identify the relative effectiveness of activities and our 

program (in achieving targets) and provide evidence for prioritization decisions and undertaking 

strategic adaptive management. The 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan emphasizes equity,

environmental justice, and climate resilience, which are at the heart of these efforts.
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Implementation Approach

Overview

Risk MAP has made significant progress in advancing the goals established in 2009 and is evolving 

while continuing to focus on these goals. This section discusses the current implementation 

approach, including updated objectives, for the Risk MAP Goals.

Risk MAP’s approach seeks to drive resilient action with reliable foundational data on flood hazard 

and risk, made available and accessible through well designed solutions that are guided and 

supported by customer-centric engagement and national policies and practices for natural hazard 

mitigation planning. All these elements are delivered in partnership with other natural hazards risk 

information and management activities.

With investments through FY20 in flood map projects, FEMA reached the primary program target of 

80 percent NVUE. Since then, the Risk MAP priorities have been:

▪ Maintaining NVUE;

▪ Completing the large number of flood risk projects that have been initiated to address the NVUE 

gaps;

▪ Addressing the unmapped areas of the country and developing the methodologies to meet other 

unmet statutory requirements;

▪ Investing in its IT capabilities; and

▪ Developing approaches to better address national gaps in flood hazard data and communicate 

that data in more impactful ways through the Future of Flood Risk Data exploration efforts.

Over the next five years, FEMA is making several key updates to the Risk MAP approach based on 

what has been learned during the implementation of Risk MAP since 2009. FEMA will move beyond 

oversimplified regulatory maps and begin producing comprehensive flood hazard and flood risk 

information. Then, FEMA will use a better understanding of what motivates action on flood resilience

to implement a consistent communications approach refined for specific audiences and aligned with 

current flood risk management messaging formats.

The work over the next five years will be the bridge from the present program phase to the future 

phase. The phases provide a way to organize the changes to the Risk MAP program described in this 

plan. The shifts between phases will be gradually and at times the program will have characteristics 

of more than one phase. The implementation of the future phase is outside the timeframe of this 

plan. Achievement of the future phase will depend on what FEMA learns during the interim phase 

and program funding.
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The graphic below describes the overall program state in each phase, with details for each goal. The 

implementation approach outlines the objectives for each goal that will enable Risk MAP to move 

from the present to the future. Each goal includes a similar graphic providing a more detailed

description of the program characteristics and activities for each phase specific to that goal.
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Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) Multi-Year Plan: 2023 – 2027

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1. Goal 1: Address gaps in flood hazard and flood risk

data to form a solid foundation for flood risk 

assessments, floodplain management, and actuarial 

soundness of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Figure 3: Goal 1 Implementation Phases

1.1. Overview

Under Goal 1, Risk MAP has been focused on addressing the gap of existing outdated flood hazard 

data in order to reach the 80 percent NVUE target. However, FEMA reached this target early, and 

now that all the work is underway to address the existing backlog of outdated information, FEMA has 

begun to reorient its flood mapping approach toward addressing additional flood data gaps. This 

shift will allow FEMA to develop and deliver more comprehensive flood hazard and risk information. 

To address this gap, Risk MAP will implement the methodologies and strategy developed through the 

Future of Flood Risk Data (FFRD) exploration work. This exploration effort will define a new national 

flood hazard and risk analysis framework to be built through Risk MAP and delivered through a 

modernized IT capability. This comprehensive framework is needed to:

▪ support risk-based insurance rates;

▪ portray a graduated view of flood hazards and risk;
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▪ provide communities a solid, consistent base on which they can build more detailed local flood 

analyses;

▪ provide a national framework to address the unmet statutory mapping requirements; and 

▪ ensure flexible capability to support future products that drive a risk informed NFIP. 

FEMA will introduce new flood hazard and risk products to meet customer and partner needs. FEMA 

will also continue to provide and maintain regulatory determinations of special flood hazard areas 

and base flood elevations for the current NFIP that comprise the FIRMs. Over the long term, 

maintenance of these traditional regulatory products will shift to the new framework.

As FEMA expands the non-regulatory products available that depict more comprehensive, graduated 

flood hazard and risk, these will become the authoritative national information on flood hazard and 

risk. Use of FIRMs will be focused on compliance with NFIP minimum requirements.

There are four objectives under Goal 1.

OBJECTIVE 1: ENSURE THAT THE REGULATORY FLOOD MAPPING INFORMATION IS

CURRENT AND UP TO DATE

FIRMs are used for two primary regulatory purposes – designating the minimum area where 

mandatory insurance purchase requirements apply and defining minimum floodplain management 

requirements. The official determinations of special flood hazard areas and base flood elevations

shown on the FIRM represent a single scenario, a best estimate of areas with a 1-percent-annualchance flood. FEMA has made significant investments through Risk MAP in addressing outdated 

FIRMs. Risk MAP will continue to maintain FIRMs and ensure that the projects started to address 

outdated FIRMs are completed.

OBJECTIVE 2: BUILD NATIONAL FLOOD MODELING FRAMEWORK

The FIRM provides quality flood hazard information that builds flood hazard awareness and supports

NFIP minimum requirements, but the special flood hazard area does not reflect how flood hazards 

may change in the future or support planning needs for floods smaller or larger than the 1-percentannual-chance. This approach of using one specific flood estimate as the minimum NFIP criteria for 

insurance and floodplain management was appropriate to the science and technology of the time

when it was implemented and has produced huge benefits. Today, however, more comprehensive 

information is needed to support a risk informed NFIP and to support resilient flood actions 

nationally. This has been clearly demonstrated by updates to NFIP insurance rates. The rating 

analysis showed that flood risk and flood loss in many locations is not fully captured by the 

traditional flood study methods and models used to create FIRMs. Properties that have similar 

exposure to the base flood on the FIRM have significantly different total flood risk. It also showed 

that protecting a property against the base flood sometimes leaves that property vulnerable to very 

high flood risk. For example, there are areas behind levees or coastal areas where homes built in 

compliance with the minimum standards based on the 1-percentannual-chance event may be 
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subject to total loss from an event that overtops the levee or a direct hit from a hurricane. Modern

technology can support a much more comprehensive understanding of flood hazard and risk than 

was possible when the NFIP minimum standards and FIRMs were designed.

Future flood hazard and risk analysis needs to depict flood hazard and risk much more 

comprehensively, considering multiple flooding causes and providing a graduated view of the 

associated hazard and risk rather than a single hazard threshold like the special flood hazard area. 

FEMA intends to build a modern flood hazard and risk modeling framework that will support 

comprehensive flood hazard and risk information.

OBJECTIVE 3: ADDRESS UNMET STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS

This modernized flood hazard and risk modeling framework will allow FEMA to address statutory 

requirements that have been unmet to date. These requirements will be elements of the 

comprehensive flood hazard and flood risk data produced including completing coverage of 

unmapped areas and the 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplain, developing future condition 

scenario products, and identifying areas of residual risk, inundation areas, and level of protection

associated with levees, dams and other flood control structures. These efforts will require close 

coordination with federal partners during development. 

OBJECTIVE 4: DELIVER PRODUCTS THAT POWER A RISK INFORMED NFIP

This modernized flood hazard and risk modeling framework will also allow FEMA to deliver products, 

tools, and information that power a risk informed NFIP and flood resilient decisions and actions. 

Some new products will be available quickly, but the details of future products, tools, and 

information needed will change over time. As the NFIP evolves to be more risk based and Risk MAP 

is better aligned with what truly drives resilient action, the products and tools needed will evolve. 

FEMA is designing the modernized flood hazard and risk modeling framework to support whatever 

future products and tools are needed.

GOAL 1 STRATEGIC LINKAGES

These efforts on Risk MAP Goal 1 are directly aligned with Goal C of the FEMA Resilience risk 

information and management strategy: Be the trusted source of comprehensive flood hazard and 

risk information. Under the NFIP, FEMA has a unique role to produce flood hazard and risk 

information for the nation. FEMA Resilience supports people and the nation with products, tools, and 

information to take actions to reduce disaster suffering across many perils. But, for flooding, FEMA 

has a specific mandate to maintain an ongoing program to produce flood hazard and risk 

information. Risk MAP Goal 1 and Resilience risk information and management Goal C are both 

focused on this mission.

As described above, the Risk MAP Goals are mutually supportive. Risk MAP Goal 1 relies on Goal 2 

and Goal 4 to help deliver the information stakeholders need in accessible ways and relies on Goal 5 

to understand what customers really need and how to best align program delivery with the 

customers’ needs.
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1.2. Objective 1: Ensure that the regulatory flood mapping information is

current and up to date

MAINTAIN NVUE

Risk MAP achieved its target of ensuring that 80 percent of the nation’s flood hazards, as mapped 

for the NFIP, are valid and meet the NVUE standard two years before its 2022 target date. Risk MAP 

must now maintain the regulatory inventory of stream and coastal miles so that flood hazard 

information continues to meet current program standards as change occurs. This objective applies to 

the existing inventory of regulatory mapped miles that are subject to the NVUE assessment process 

and, as such, represents both a continuation of on-going work and maintenance of previous 

investments in flood risk information. 

FEMA is required by statute to assess on a five-year cycle the need to revise and update all 

floodplain areas and flood risk zones identified, delineated, or established on regulatory flood maps. 

This assessment is important because communities are required to use these maps to administer 

their floodplain management requirements and lenders use them to determine when insurance is 

mandatory for covered mortgages. Problems with the effective FIRMs create difficulties for 

communities and homeowners required to use them.

Over time, manmade development and natural processes can alter the land and hydraulic 

characteristics for a given area, resulting in changes to the flood risk. Revisions to the delineated 

floodplains are initiated and prioritized based upon multiple factors, including the identification of 

instances where FIRM data no longer reflects the current risks in flood prone areas.

FEMA has a mature process for tracking the regulatory map inventory in the Coordinated Needs 

Management Strategy database that Regions, Cooperating Technical Partners, and mapping 

providers access for programmatic decision making. In addition to tracking cyclical NVUE validation 

reviews, the Coordinated Needs Management Strategy system allows community officials and FEMA 

personnel to analyze and track the validity of flood studies to inform community resilience actions 

and identify inventory update needs.

Using the inventory of flooding sources in the Coordinated Needs Management Strategy System, 

FEMA established a baseline of flooding sources using three categories:

1. The existing regulatory map inventory is comprised of 1.1 million miles of flooding sources.

2. 1.3 million miles are in areas of potential population growth and FEMA has a mandate to map 

these miles. These are referred to as unmapped miles.

3. The remaining 1.1 million miles lie on Federal lands and do not need to be mapped on regulatory 

FIRMs.
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Figure 4: Overview of Mapped and Unmapped Miles

The NVUE measure and Coordinated Needs Management Strategy System are effective for tracking 

the current regulatory inventory. However, as Risk MAP addresses the gaps in flood hazard and risk 

information with comprehensive regulatory and non-regulatory flood hazard inventory, more 

comprehensive tracking is needed. The Coordinated Needs Management Strategy System has 

already begun tracking some non-regulatory products. FEMA’s further tracking will likely include 

expanding from managing the inventory around rivers and coastline to managing areas that have 

comprehensive information and expanded assessment and validation procedures.

The program will maintain NVUE as a measure of the percentage of regulatory flood hazards that are 

new, have been updated, or are deemed to be still valid. NVUE is a ratio of all valid regulatory miles 

divided by the total miles in FEMA’s regulatory inventory. Ongoing projects, including those that 

address the unmapped inventory, will sometimes add more miles to the regulatory inventory

impacting the calculation. This is discussed further under Objective 3.

FINISH ONGOING PROJECTS

The total number of projects in progress varies based on the pace of project completion and 

initiation. It is the program’s goal to reduce the number of ongoing projects. Currently, there are 

approximately 1,100 ongoing Risk MAP projects that were initiated prior to FY21 to support 

achieving 80 percent NVUE. NVUE is measured at project initiation and projects take multiple years 

to complete. These 1,100 projects contributed to the achievement of the 80 percent NVUE metric in 

FY2020 and this objective is focused on completing them. These projects will produce regulatory 

flood hazard data products that are formally adopted by NFIP-participating communities. To maintain 

the focus on closing out this important work, FEMA plans to establish a new program measure 

focused on the completion of this group of projects.
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The duration of each project from initiation to completion is about six to eight years, due to 

regulatory and statutory requirements. This process includes discovery outreach to stakeholders, 

development of new/updated flood modeling, the creation of preliminary flood maps, a community 

comment and appeals procedure, map revisions (if necessary), further community comments and 

appeal periods (if necessary), and, ultimately, a community’s adoption of a regulatory FIRM. The 

program will continue to follow this process to manage the lifecycle of these regulatory projects from 

initiation to completion.

Risk MAP utilizes three applications, hosted by the Risk Analysis and Management general support 

system, to track the progress of projects: the Mapping Information Platform Studies Workflow, the 

SharePoint-based Key Decision Point process, and the previously discussed Coordinated Needs 

Management Strategy System. The program uses the Mapping Information Platform to track the map 

production process. The Key Decision Point process contains the six distinct phases of the flood 

study procedure. In each phase, FEMA must review and evaluate the progress of the studies, 

technical components, impacts, and schedules. FEMA then decides to either move forward with or 

end the project. The Coordinated Needs Management Strategy System aggregates existing digital 

map data to inventory and manage flood map update issues and to support FIRM revision and 

production planning activities. Risk MAP will continue to use these tools to track the progress of its 

projects when they are initially delivered to the community in preliminary format, when the statutory 

90-day appeal period is underway, and when the community receives its Letter of Final 

Determination prior to adoption of a regulatory map.

1.3. Objective 2: Build National Flood Modeling Framework 

To better address the gaps in existing flood hazard and flood risk information and support for a risk 

informed NFIP, a comprehensive flood modeling framework is needed. The new framework will

support risk-based insurance rates. It will support moving beyond the binary in/out focus of the 

legacy FIRMs and support a comprehensive, graduated view of hazard and risk. It will provide

communities a solid, consistent base on which they can build more detailed local flood analyses, as 

well as a national framework to address the unmet statutory mapping requirements like future flood 

conditions. Finally, it will provide flexible capability to support additional products that drive a risk 

informed NFIP. 

This comprehensive framework is needed to achieve FEMA’s strategic goal of a risk informed NFIP. 

The transition from the legacy NFIP insurance rating methods to the current rating system was the 

first major step, but not the last. The new insurance rates show the potential for a risk informed NFIP 

to drive better decision making and increased flood resilience by aligning the cost of insurance much 

more closely to the true risk of flood loss than before. The development and implementation of the 

new rates also highlighted many of the limitations of the legacy NFIP structure. To effectively support 

this new rating approach and other changes needed for a risk informed program, a new 

comprehensive flood hazard and flood risk framework is needed. FEMA will develop a new program 

measure that focuses on comprehensive, national coverage of flood information to measure 

progress on these efforts.
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This message has been echoed by many stakeholders, including the Technical Map Advisory Council,

a federal advisory committee established to review and make recommendations to FEMA on matters 

related to the national flood mapping program. The Technical Map Advisory Council’s members 

include various stakeholders in the mapping process including representatives from other federal 

agencies, Cooperating Technical Partner representatives, surveyors, and state floodplain managers. 

In the Technical Map Advisory Council 2020 Annual Report they said “A structure-based, graduated 

flood-hazard and food-risk approach greatly advances the ability to understand food hazards and 

communicate food risks, which is vital to protecting lives and property. The models upon which 

graduated food risk depictions and other food-risk products rely require detailed and accurate data 

representations of the real world. These models, and the underlying data, are undergoing 

empowering technical transformations that will benefit FEMA in the FFRD initiative.”

GAPS IN FLOOD HAZARD AND FLOOD RISK INFORMATION

The legacy insurance rates, floodplain management regulations, and current FIRMs were developed, 

based on the science and technology of the time, to be mutually reinforcing and usable by insurance 

agents and community officials who helped to implement the program. The legacy FIRMs primarily 

depict special flood hazard areas and associated base flood elevations based on a specific 1-

percent-annual-chance flood estimate. Only looking at a single hazard scenario does not provide

reliable information about total risk. Today’s science and technology will allow the NFIP to implement 

new flood risk analysis and mapping approaches that support the risk-based insurance rates and 

support a risk informed NFIP.

While there is often other flood hazard and risk information on the FIRMs many stakeholders still 

perceive the FIRMs as saying there is no risk outside of the special flood hazard area. This happens

even though one of the core principles for the NFIP is to establish minimum criteria where national 

policy mandates specific requirements in place of community or individual choices. The NFIP does 

not require buildings to avoid all flood risk nor to require every building with flood risk to be insured. 

This binary perception of flood risk was reinforced by the old rating method where nearly all 

properties outside the special flood hazard area paid the same premium rates and by land use 

requirements that usually did not apply if you demonstrated you were outside of the special flood 

hazard area. Flood hazard and risk products need to communicate flood hazard and risk information 

everywhere, not just in the 1-percent- or 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplains. FEMA needs to 

provide information that communicates the variation in hazard and risk from the high-risk locations 

in the heart of the special flood hazard area to areas where the chances of flood impacts are very 

low, though rarely, if ever, non-existent. FEMA must present a graduated view of flood hazard and 

risk. 

The special flood hazard area only represents one specific flood scenario. It is calculated assuming a 

1-percent-annual-chance flood driven primarily by overflow from rivers and streams or storm surge 

and waves along the coast. The current maps do not attempt to identify flood hazards and risks from 

other flood causes such as pluvial flooding that results from the accumulation of heavy rainfall in flat 

or low spots outside of the usual stream network. More flood types, flood frequencies, and spatial 
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coverage are needed to manage flood risk. FEMA must present a more comprehensive view of 

possible floods. 

Statutory requirements enacted in the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012 (BW-12) and the Homeowner 

Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (HFIAA) also require new analysis throughout the country to 

address unmapped areas, provide 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplain information everywhere

mapped, provide future conditions flood risk information and residual risk, inundation, and level of 

protection associated with levees, dams and other flood control structures. These requirements are 

addressed under Objective 3 of this goal. FEMA needs a new modeling framework to efficiently meet 

these new requirements with nationally consistent products. 

Figure 5: New Modeling Framework to Address Flood Data Gaps 

ADDRESSING THE FLOOD HAZARD AND RISK INFORMATION GAPS

To meet all these needs and to have a solid foundation for flood hazard analysis and flood risk 

management for the future, a new framework is needed. It might be feasible to address one or two 

of these gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data by building on and extending the current flood 

hazard analyses. But that is not a feasible way to address them all. The following elements will be 

required:

2D Modeling

2-dimensional (2D) modeling is the best approach to account for a wider variety of flood modes (e.g.,

fluvial, pluvial, coastal) and better characterize the flood hazard and risk across the entire 

landscape. 2D modeling is already the foundation of coastal flood risk analysis. 
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This approach was impractical in the past, but data suitable for a 2D model development is far more 

available than in the past for the interior of the nation. This shift in data availability continues to 

make 2D an easier option to automate and update as data sets are updated. Support for 2D 

modeling in the core products from the United States Army Corps Hydrologic Engineering Center has 

also enabled this approach and FEMA is working with the Hydrologic Engineering Center to update 

their models as needed to support the vision of a new 2D probabilistic modeling framework. This will 

help reduce computational and program costs. 

FEMA has already been making investments in 2D engineering to develop initial information for 

unmapped areas and potential updates to mapped inventory in several Regions. In FY23, FEMA will 

continue to invest in large scale 2D models that can be used as the base for both deterministic 

regulatory products and graduated, probabilistic flood hazard assessments. 

Over the next several years, Risk MAP will be phasing out new 1D (one-dimensional) deterministic 

analysis for the interior of the nation in nearly all cases. 1D deterministic modeling only supports

legacy regulatory products and will likely need to be replaced in the future with the new framework 

based on 2D models. In the interim FEMA will better define the requirements for developing 2D 

models and deriving regulatory products from the 2D models.

A Probabilistic Approach

As mentioned above, a limitation of the current analyses is the somewhat simplified approach to 

modeling inland hazards. FEMA flood hazard modeling has historically used a deterministic modeling 

approach to produce a single best estimate of the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event to align with 

the NFIP legacy insurance rating and regulatory requirements. But this approach provides little 

information about the uncertainty in this estimate and can be very sensitive to assumptions or 

estimates needed for the analysis.

Flood modeling requires the combination of complex computational systems. These systems can 

compound uncertainty in ways that are challenging to assess, and a single best estimate result does 

not provide enough information about the range of possible solutions. Probabilistic modeling 

methods use statistical relationships to help understand the variability and uncertainty in a flood risk 

estimate. Transitioning from a traditional deterministic flood hazard analysis to robust probabilistic 

analysis will result in more reliable results that more comprehensively characterize the range of 

possible outcomes.

That does not mean public facing information must be complex. Probabilistic information can 

empower simple, graduated products. The results can still provide an estimate of the 1-percentannual-chance event, other specific probabilities, or other easy ways to understand flood risk 

information. The same analysis can also give a robust analysis of total risk.

While FEMA’s coastal mapping products have been similar to inland products in depicting a binary 

view of the hazard, the analysis methodologies have been more similar to this future vision because 
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of the state of the science in coastal flood hazard modeling versus inland modeling. This provides an 

existing foundation in the eastern U.S. to start building the new framework.

Work is underway to deliver comprehensive probabilistic hazard and risk information within the 

future national framework for the entire Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico U.S. coastlines. FEMA and the 

United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have developed baseline data with methodologies to 

produce comprehensive probabilistic hazard information and have initiated full scale production of 

these framework data for the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico coastlines in the United States. The

expectation is that these data will be available in 2025. This work will provide a shared interagency

coastal flood hazard framework used to derive flood risk data for each agencies’ requirements. 

For the interior of the nation, the shift to probabilistic methodologies still needs to occur and is a 

focus of current efforts. FEMA needs to work across the Federal government over the next five years 

to address science and data gaps.

An Interagency Framework

FEMA is working to build the flood modeling framework collectively as an interagency effort. The new 

flood hazard and risk modeling framework will be built with shared baseline data sets and a 

collection of shared framework models. USACE and FEMA are using this approach to develop the 

framework coastal analyses for the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico mentioned above. 
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The framework FEMA requires must include flood hazard and risk, but it would help enable science 

agencies to understand broader water resource issues for current conditions and future climate 

scenarios. A non-exhaustive example of this type of framework and specific interagency collaboration 

are below for fluvial and pluvial flood hazards.

Figure 6: Interagency National Modeling Datasets

FEMA has been advocating for this interagency approach through water resources interagency 

coordination groups, through ongoing work agreements with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and at 

the staff level on individual projects. More detail on current interagency collaborations is provided in 

Appendix E.

Risk Assessment Capability

The flood mapping program historically has just mapped flood hazards. Understanding how those 

hazards can affect people and property, however, is important to resilience planning, risk 

management, and (risk communication) communication of risk. The Natural Hazards Risk 

Assessment Program, using authorities under Section 216 of the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance 

Reform Act of 2012 (42 U.S.C. 4101b) provides a framework for establishing a common 

understanding of risk assessment data for all hazards that are flood-related. The Natural Hazards 

Risk Assessment Program uses hazard identification and consequence data to provide risk 

assessment capabilities and methodologies to SLTT partners. Ensuring that the best science and 

most relevant data is being leveraged for risk assessment and loss modelling activities is 

foundational to maintaining credibility and providing risk information that can lead to resilient 

decision-making.
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Probabilistic flood hazard assessments, derived from an interagency framework, will provide detailed 

information on the probability and magnitude for different flood hazards (e.g., surge, riverine, pluvial, 

waves). FEMA will go beyond just mapping the hazard to build a flood risk assessment capability, 

rooted in site-specific analysis. Foundational to the risk assessment capability for FEMA will be the 

access to flood hazard information, as discussed above, in concert with the ability to leverage

infrastructure (site-specific) information, such as a national structure inventory, and damage 

functions that estimate how infrastructure responds to different flood conditions. Open science 

approaches rooted in transparent, accessible, inclusive, and reproducible data and methodologies

will drive the development of our framework outlined in Objective 2 and products, tools, and 

resources outlined in Objective 4.

The Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Program’s activities over the next five years will support the 

Risk MAP program to power a risk informed NFIP by: 

▪ Supporting the development of credible and relevant risk assessment and loss modelling 

methodologies;

▪ Continuing research and data development activities to further advance climate change

adaptation, social equity, and risk data accessibility initiatives;

▪ Continuing support of the National Risk Index, which provides FEMA programs, other Federal 

agencies, and SLTT partners with a quantitative tool that can be used to examine the 

intersection of natural hazard risk and social equity for the implementation of FEMA programs

and efforts to advance resilience;

▪ Support maintenance of Community Disaster Resilience Zones. Community Disaster Resilience 

Zones aim to build and strengthen community resilience across the nation by driving federal, 

public, and private resources to the most at-risk and in-need communities. The Community 

Disaster Resilience Zones Act uses FEMA’s National Risk Index the Climate and Economic Justice 

Screening Tool to identify the most at-risk and in-need communities to identify resilience zones. 

Designated zones will be prioritized for targeted federal support, such as increased cost-share 

for resilience and mitigation projects, lessening the financial burden on communities to perform 

resilience-related activities.

▪ Supporting the transition of the National Risk Index program funding to the Disaster Relief Fund 

(DRF) as outlined in the Community Disaster Resilience Zones Act of 2022;

▪ Continuing investments in the transformation of FEMA’s loss estimation software (Hazus) to an 

open science environment (OpenHazus) that will provide stakeholders with freely accessible and 

credible risk assessment methodologies and risk assessment models and approaches, allowing 

for a more robust collaboration with the risk assessment community; and

▪ Providing risk assessment guidance, tools, standards, best practices, to ensure FEMA 

programmatic integration. 
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Regulatory and Non-Regulatory Data

Risk MAP will expand the production of non-regulatory products which supplement regulatory 

products. The regulatory FIRMs are constrained in many ways that limit their usefulness as flood 

hazard and flood risk communication tools. FEMA will introduce new non-regulatory, comprehensive, 

and graduated flood hazard and flood risk data products that will serve as the primary public flood 

hazard and risk communications tools. Limiting the regulatory review and approval processes to the 

compulsory special flood hazard area and base flood elevation data will allow FEMA to deliver other 

products more quickly, flexibly, and cost effectively.

The flood mapping program was created to develop data on special flood hazard areas and base 

flood elevations as official determinations by the FEMA Administrator to define the regulatory 

minimums for the NFIP. The original mandate for the mapping program also included establishing

flood risk zone data and providing data to support the estimate of rates of flood caused losses. Over 

the years, Congress has expanded the scope of the mapping program multiple times to mandate 

analysis, mapping, and sharing of a wide variety of additional flood hazard and flood risk data and 

related information beyond official determinations of special flood hazard areas and base flood 

elevations.

The NFIP statutes include extensive coordination and due process procedures for the development 

and finalization of regulatory special flood hazard area and base flood elevation determinations

shown on FIRMs. Because of the compulsory nature of these determinations and the mandates they 

impose on communities and individual property owners for land use and insurance purchase, these 

process safeguards are essential to preserving property owners’ rights. However, the safeguards

typically add years to the time it takes to deliver final determinations and updated FIRMs. While the 

processes are integral to preserving the rights of those impacted by the FIRMs, they often have the 

effect of limiting the availability of flood hazard and risk information that could benefit many

stakeholders. Historically, FEMA has followed this full regulatory process to develop and publish all 

flood hazard and risk information. This process resulted in the publication of FIRMs and more 

recently the publication of FIRMs and the National Flood Hazard Layer. 

To meet the mandate to provide regulatory determinations of special flood hazard areas and base 

flood elevations and maximize availability of a wide variety of flood hazard and risk information, 

FEMA plans to deliberately separate the delivery of regulatory determinations from the delivery of 

other non-regulatory flood hazard and flood risk information. FEMA will continue to update FIRMs 

and the National Flood Hazard Layer with new official special flood hazard area and base flood 

elevation determinations where appropriate, but FEMA will also expand sharing of flood hazard and 

risk information through parallel non-regulatory2 channels to maximize information availability. FEMA 

and its state partners have already been using this approach to share early drafts of flood hazard 

2 FEMA generally describes these supplemental flood hazard and risk products that are not official determinations as “nonregulatory” because they are not used as part of the NFIP mandatory minimum requirements although some communities 

may choose to use them in local zoning.
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and risk information before deciding whether these analyses will eventually be refined and issued as 

official determinations. 

Sharing flood hazard and flood risk information through non-regulatory channels is a key element of 

FEMA’s plan to address the flood hazard data gaps described above. Many of the unmet statutory 

requirements discussed under Objective 3 call for expanded flood hazard and flood risk information 

beyond official determinations. FEMA intends to make most of this information available through 

these alternative channels. This will increase the availability of reliable flood hazard and risk 

information, reduce the time it takes to make updated information available, and provide more 

flexibility to deliver the information in ways that are community and customer focused. Community 

actions would therefore be more effective at equipping and compelling people to take actions to 

reduce their risk in support of Goal 2 and Goal 5. Regulatory special flood hazard area and base 

flood elevation determinations will still be available through FIRMs and the National Flood Hazard 

Layer, but the primary source of flood hazard and risk information from FEMA will shift from those 

regulatory products to the newer, more comprehensive non-regulatory products. Through this 

approach, Risk MAP will be positioned to support the NFIP as it progresses along its risk informed 

transformation effort.

SUMMARY

This new national flood modeling framework will better address the gaps in existing flood hazard and 

flood risk information. The framework will support a risk informed approach to flood risk 

management for the NFIP. NFIP insurance rating, floodplain management regulations, flood 

mitigation grants and FIRMs were designed to be mutually reinforcing in support of managing and 

reducing the nation’s flood risk. The modernization of insurance rating is a significant first step 

forward toward a risk informed NFIP. A new national flood hazard and risk analysis framework is 

needed to achieve this vision.

1.4. Objective 3: Address Unmet Statutory Requirements

Several additional statutory flood hazard and flood risk analysis and mapping requirements have 

been enacted in NFIP reform bills, including the Biggert-Waters Act of 2012 (BW-12) and the 

Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (HFIAA). These Acts introduced the 

requirement for FEMA to analyze and map flood hazards for areas of possible population growth, in

addition to analyzing and mapping currently populated areas. The law requires FEMA to analyze and 

map:

▪ the 500-year [0.2-percent-annual-chance] floodplain for all these areas, in addition to the 100-

year [1-percent-annual-chance] floodplain;

▪ future flood conditions;

▪ areas of residual risk, including areas protected by levees, dams, and other flood control 

structures;
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▪ areas of inundation due to failure of levees, dams, or other flood control structures;

▪ the level of protection provided by flood control structures and non-structural flood mitigation 

features; and

▪ areas protected by non-structural flood mitigation features.

These requirements address some of the gaps in flood hazard data that the Risk MAP program is 

designed to address. These recent statutory changes also included many communication and 

outreach requirements to help increase the public’s awareness and understanding of flood risk 

management. Risk MAP prioritized achieving the NVUE target while developing approaches to 

address these requirements. Since reaching the NVUE target, FEMA has prioritized addressing the 

unmapped inventory and plans to address all these requirements through the comprehensive flood 

hazard and flood risk information FEMA will produce.

FEMA has begun projects to address unmapped areas and expand coverage of 0.2-percent-annualchance floodplains and is developing methodologies that will support all these requirements. FEMA 

is beginning to shift the Risk MAP mapping approach from the legacy approach to the new 

framework described in Objective 2. The new approach will support mapping future flood conditions, 

analysis of levees, dams, flood control structures and non-structural flood mitigation features, 

remaining work to address unmapped areas and 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplains in addition 

to the broader gaps in flood hazard and flood risk data.

UNMAPPED AREAS AND NATIONAL COVERAGE FOR 0.2-PERCENT-ANNUAL-CHANCE 

FLOODPLAIN:

In looking at populated areas and areas of possible population growth, FEMA is evaluating its current 

inventory against national flooding source inventories. Approximately 1.3 million of the 3.5 million 

miles of flooding sources in the United States are riverine miles of potential flood risk with a drainage

area of one or more square miles on non-Federal lands that are not currently mapped on a FIRM.

These are referred to as “unmapped miles”. Additionally, some areas of the country do not have 0.2-

percent-annual-chance floodplains available. Mapping unmapped areas and the 0.2-percent- annualchance floodplain are both requirements under BW-12. 

In order to meet the requirements, address the unique mapping needs of communities around the 

United States, and determine how to best allocate federal resources to those communities, FEMA 

intends to develop a national flood hazard baseline. This baseline will include unmapped areas and 

0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplain through the investments in 2D modeling and a national flood 

modeling framework. As FEMA looks to its future investments, it will balance current program needs 

such as maintaining NVUE and completing ongoing projects with building the national coverage 

framework. The benefit of continuing to invest in 2D modeling while the framework design is refined

is that these investments can support the development of regulatory products, non-regulatory 

information, 0.2-percent-annual-chance floodplains, unmapped areas, and the future framework. 
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FEMA will develop criteria to determine whether new flood hazard and flood risk data developed are

most appropriate for production as a FIRM or an alternate mechanism, such as a digital display of 

non-regulatory information. As discussed in Objective 2, the non-regulatory approach will make more 

data available more quickly where it is appropriate in these unmapped areas. A better understanding 

of capability gaps, through community engagement and the more detailed evaluation of the technical 

criteria to understand a threshold of need, will also allow the Risk MAP program to tailor technical 

assistance to the needs of the communities using the data. 

FEMA has already made progress in mapping the 1.3 million miles of unmapped inventory of flooding 

sources, with nearly one-third of the unmapped inventory since 2021 currently in data production. 

This will be a component of how FEMA measures progress in the future.

ANALYZING LEVEES, DAMS, OTHER FLOOD CONTROL STRUCTURES AND NON-STRUCTURAL 

FLOOD MITIGATION FEATURES

Per statute, FEMA must analyze and identify the residual risk, inundation areas, and level of 

protection (flood risk reduction) associated with levees, dams, and other flood control structures, as 

well as identify similar information for non-structural flood mitigation features.

The primary challenge to implementing these statutory requirements has been the lack of 

consistently available data across the nation. FEMA and USACE have made progress to implement 

these requirements by collaborating to develop a consistent nationwide levee dataset in the National 

Levee Database (NLD) and to evaluate and develop methods to estimate flood risk in areas behind 

levees. 

Through this collaboration, FEMA has been working with USACE to utilize and refine levee data in the 

NLD and Levee Screening Tool (LST), both maintained by USACE. The NLD is the federally recognized

source for levee information in the nation, as authorized by Congress, and is a dynamic database 

that is continually updated to add or refine levee data from federal agencies, states, tribes, 

territories, and local sources. The LST is a risk assessment tool used by USACE to efficiently 

characterize levee risk based on available information about hazards, conditions and performance of 

a levee and the potential consequences of flooding. FEMA intends to partner with USACE to use the 

LST to develop flood risk information and inundation areas for all levees in the nation, as funding 

allows.

Similar progress is anticipated to be made for dams via ongoing and planned federal, state, tribal, 

territorial, and local coordination to maintain and enhance data in the National Inventory of Dams 

under the authorities of BW-12 and the National Dam Safety Program. The National Inventory of 

Dams is the federally recognized data source for dam information and is maintained primarily by 

states and federal agencies such as USACE. FEMA and USACE are exploring the feasibility of 

developing a Dam Screening Tool, similar to the LST, to develop flood risk information and 

inundation areas associated with dams across the nation in order to meet statutory requirements, as 

funding allows.
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It should be noted that there is no existing national dataset for “other flood control structures” or 

“non-structural flood mitigation features.” However, through the implementation of the Risk MAP 

flood study process, FEMA routinely identifies and includes the impacts of these structures and 

features as part of hydrologic and hydraulic analyses and the resulting flood hazard mapping, as 

appropriate.

The new framework described under Objective 2 will provide nationally consistent multi-frequency 

current and future conditions flood hazard and flood risk information to support analyses of all these

various structures and features.

Under the current paradigm of regulatory products, the oversimplification of flood hazards on FIRMs 

is often most acute where flood control structures are designed to protect against (reduce risk from)

the base flood scenario, particularly for communities seeking FEMA accreditation for their levees on 

a FIRM. Levee accreditation has inadvertently prompted communities to focus on designing or 

improving their levee systems to meet the minimum requirements set forth in 44 CFR 65.10, which 

is tied to the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event but is not a design or safety standard. Instead, 

levee design should be based on each community’s unique flood risk, which is informed by the

consequences that may occur when a particular levee fails or is overtopped. The depiction of flood 

hazards around these structures on FIRMs is often misleading and does not represent the total flood

risk and possible consequences for other potential flooding scenarios.

As part of building the new national flood modeling framework, FEMA will continue to work closely 

with USACE to enhance national datasets and develop consistent methodologies to identify areas of 

residual flood risk and inundation due to failure of levees and dams. FEMA and USACE routinely 

collaborate through the implementation of Risk MAP, the National Levee Safety Program, and 

National Dam Safety Program (NDSP) authorities to jointly develop and manage flood hazard and

flood risk information associated with levees, dams, and other flood control structures.

FEMA and USACE will continue to improve key levee data elements needed to refine risk assessment 

methodologies and are actively planning to work together to identify and assess dams, in 

conjunction with the National Dam Safety Program. The use of authoritative data sources allows 

FEMA to consistently evaluate flooding within a watershed and collaborate with federal partners to 

achieve each organization’s mission more efficiently. Leveraging these data sources within the 

national flood modeling framework will allow FEMA to more efficiently identify residual risk, areas of 

inundation and level of protection associated with levees, dams, and other flood control structures,

while also advancing related national flood risk management objectives in tandem.

ANALYZING FUTURE FLOOD CONDITIONS

Risk MAP will develop data showing future flood hazard and risk based on estimates of future 

conditions. These data will complement the regulatory flood data and new, more comprehensive 

products showing current conditions flood hazard and flood risk. To achieve this, FEMA has been 

working with other federal agencies and key stakeholders to determine the best approaches within 

the proposed national flood model framework. FEMA has collaborated with the Flood Resilience 
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Interagency Working Group’s Science Subgroup as well as the Technical Map Advisory Council. Both

groups have independently assessed the state of the science for future flood conditions and the 

approaches of flood modeling planned for the new national flood modeling framework, and both

have endorsed the approach. The Technical Map Advisory Council’s Future Conditions Risk 

Assessment and Modeling Report (2015) recommended that FEMA develop non-regulatory products 

that reflect information about future conditions. These recommendations were updated (2021) to 

reflect the Technical Map Advisory Council’s recommendation that FEMA transition to a graduated 

flood risk framework (objective 2) with probabilistic methodologies to support analyzing future 

conditions.

The Flood Resilience Interagency Working Group, created under the National Climate Task Force, 

created a Science Subgroup in 2021 to review and update the best-available, actionable science for 

analyzing future flood conditions. The Science Subgroup recommends “Climate-Informed Science” 

approaches3, which use the best-available, actionable methods to evaluate future changes in 

flooding, which FEMA envisions developing through the new national flood modeling framework. The

new framework described in Objective 2 will provide the ability to extend the current conditions 

analyses to estimate future flood hazards. Through the national modeling framework, changes in 

water-resource management (dams, levees, mitigation features), changes in land-use (impervious 

cover, post-fire, vegetative migrations), and changes to precipitation, sea levels, storm intensity and 

other factors impacted by climate change can be evaluated to support both scenario-based 

calculations and future flood hazard and flood risk information development.

The Risk MAP program does not intend to develop independent estimates of future changes to 

precipitation, sea level rise, storm intensity and frequency or other conditions affecting flooding; 

these estimates will be used from other Federal agencies and/or other authoritative sources. FEMA

is focusing on building the flood hazard analysis framework. The new framework will allow these 

estimates to be incorporated to produce various future flood hazard scenarios. The initial products 

with these expanded capabilities are expected to be available by 2025 for the Northeast, Atlantic, 

and Gulf coasts and will provide future flood hazard data incorporating potential sea level rise 

scenarios. 

As previously mentioned, FEMA is also working with the Interagency on several other projects related 

to future climate. FEMA has evaluated pilots on long-term erosion for production of national products 

and is collaborating with USACE on advancing future lake scenarios for the Great Lakes. To support 

advances in hydrologic and hydraulic methods to estimate future conditions, FEMA has begun work 

with both USACE and USGS to address storm typing that will allow evaluation of future flood forcing 

scenarios. 

3 https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Federal-Flood-Risk-Management-Standard-ClimateInformed-Science-Approach-CISA-State-of-the-Science-Report.pdf
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In the interim, FEMA will produce flood hazard data, based on its current conditions flood hazard 

inventory, that depict the floodplain and flood elevation requirements for the Federal Flood Risk 

Management Standard. The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard is a flood standard that 

applies to federally funded buildings and projects. The Federal Flood Risk Management Standard

requires higher levels of flood resilience than the National Flood Insurance Program minimum 

standards to provide greater flood resilience against current and future flooding.

These products will help communicate possible future scenarios to property owners and support the 

implementation of the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard policy. As the more realistic, 

science based future conditions products from FEMA become available, they should provide 

actionable data for the Climate Informed Science Approach under Federal Flood Risk Management 

Standard.

1.5. Objective 4: Deliver Products that Power a Risk-informed NFIP

The future flood hazard and risk modeling framework will allow FEMA to deliver products, tools, and 

information that power a risk informed NFIP and flood resilient decisions and actions for current and 

future flood conditions. Building on credible underlying data, FEMA will deliver products to make 

flood hazard and flood risk information easily accessible to a wide variety of stakeholders. These 

products will expand well beyond the limited view of flood hazard depicted on the regulatory FIRMs.

The Risk MAP vision described in this plan is comprehensive, graduated flood hazard and risk 

information to support a risk informed NFIP. The details of future products, tools, and information 

that are most effective for stakeholders will be further defined and change over time. One key 

element of Goal 5 of this plan is to develop improved, evidence-based information about what drives 

people to take resilient actions. Under Goal 2, FEMA also intends to better understand the unique 

characteristics of communities and refine the delivery of Risk MAP messages, tools, and information 

to fit the specific recipients. This learning will help to guide the design and development of future 

products and tools. The modern base of a comprehensive flood hazard and risk framework will

provide reliable national data for professionals to use and build on and will also allow FEMA to 

produce customer centric national products and tools that drive resilient flood actions as well as 

customized local solutions.
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Figure 7: New Flood Modeling Framework Supports Products for Many Users

One of the foundational changes FEMA is committed to is providing structure specific (site-specific) 

graduated flood hazard and flood risk data. This is a fundamental shift away from the legacy 

regulatory flood maps and a past emphasis on analyzing and mapping the magnitude of a specific 

hazard scenario (i.e., 1-percent-annual-chance flood estimate). FEMA will provide products showing 

comprehensive flood hazard data for possible flooding scenarios. FEMA will also provide flood risk 

assessment capabilities at the individual structure level (site-specific).

Risk management and resilience planning need to begin with credible and readily available risk 

information (both the probability of a hazard occurring and the potential impacts). The Risk MAP 

Program will provide cutting-edge flood risk assessment tools, datasets, and methodological 

guidance that power a risk informed NFIP and effective community resilience planning. This supports

resilient actions to reduce disaster suffering by ensuring that all communities have the risk 

information they need to make data driven decisions through FEMA’s risk reduction programs 

(Mitigation Planning, Risk MAP, Hazard Mitigation Assistance, NFIP, Building Resilient Infrastructure 

and Communities (BRIC), catastrophic planning, etc.). Credible risk assessment information is also 

important to delivering programs with equity and responsiveness to our changing climate. 
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2. Goal 2: Consult with, and empower, communities to 

measurably reduce current and future flood risk.

Figure 8: Goal 2 Implementation Phases

2.1. Overview

To achieve Goal 2, Risk MAP will develop and deliver on national and regional outreach strategies. 

These strategies will be customer-centric, in conjunction with the framework outlined under Goal 5.

Risk MAP will also create and implement processes to gain insights about communities so that 

delivery can be tailored to meet their specific needs. Risk MAP will maximize and measure the 

effectiveness of program communications and engagement by delivering on a vision for Risk MAP’s 

role within the complex network that is risk information. This will be done, in part, by gaining and 

leveraging a broad understanding of what customers and communities need and what drives, 

motivates, and enables of resilient action for those stakeholders.

Risk MAP Goal 2 supports Goal A of the FEMA Resilience risk information and management 

strategy: Consult with communities to act on their present and emerging resilience opportunities.

2.2. Objective 1: Develop national and regional outreach strategies that 

include shared priorities and multi-year plans for advancing equitable 

risk reduction through outreach and engagement.

The National Outreach Strategy (NOS) and Risk MAP Regional Outreach Strategies (ROS) help Risk 

MAP organize around FEMA strategic doctrine and use community outreach, strategic 
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communications, and partnership engagement to support and enable communities. The Risk MAP 

NOS includes specific emphasis on three focus areas and three foundational principles.

Focus areas are elements of the Risk MAP NOS that align with critical programmatic priorities and 

require concerted effort and attention to achieve longer-term objectives. They include:

▪ Incorporating climate adaptation and future conditions into communications and engagement 

strategies;

▪ Integrating equity into service delivery; and

▪ Engaging partners to drive resilient outcomes.

Foundational principles are key elements of effective communications and should be considered 

fundamental to all outreach and engagement. They include:

▪ Strategic communication is integrated into all program and project planning and execution;

▪ All outreach and engagement strategies and tools are designed to meet audience needs; and

▪ Outcomes are tracked and measured through a robust research and measurement framework.

Through the NOS and ROS, Risk MAP can: 

▪ Intentionally plan and execute results-oriented projects and initiatives;

▪ Effectively manage staffing and resource requirements’

▪ Identify knowledge and capacity gaps;

▪ Plan with clear roles and responsibilities in mind;

▪ Foster better collaboration across programs, branches, and divisions;

▪ Add structure and cohesion to organizational change management; and

▪ Benchmark, monitor, and measure results, impacts, and outcomes of projects and initiatives.

Establishing a NOS is key to driving aligned outcomes and levels of effort that better support the 

intent of Risk MAP and this goal. These strategies were developed, and are revised, in an iterative 

manner to foster alignment and to identify themes, opportunities for collaboration, and needs for 

support. This improves the consistency of outreach and engagement across the country while better 

leveraging work across regions. Lastly, the development and implementation of these various 

strategies foster alignment in support of Agency, Administration, and Congressional priorities and

legislation, as well as stakeholder feedback. The connectivity between the NOS and ROSs will 
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continue as each strategy is updated, the NOS twice per year and each ROS annually. This iteration 

allows for the incorporation of best practices and lessons learned and evolution based on progress.

National strategy efforts will include defining how Risk MAP can increase the effectiveness of key 

strategies like delivering structure specific flood risk information through OpenHazus, providing a 

more comprehensive view of flood hazards through regulatory and non-regulatory data and tools, 

and supporting SLTT government hazard mitigation planning.

Each ROS aligns to the NOS while allowing for regional-specific focus areas that are responsive to 

their stakeholders’ needs and priorities. These strategies were developed by, and with, HQ and 

Regional staff to cultivate alignment and feedback. This approach will be repeated in accordance 

with their respective update cycles. Further, the process improves consistency in outreach and 

engagement across regions.

The National Outreach Strategy and Regional Outreach Strategies support each of the risk 

information and management goals, but are particularly aligned to the risk information and 

management strategy objective A1: work with regional staff and programs in FIMA and Resilience 

that employ community engagement and identify common outcomes and shared priorities. This 

objective also informs engagement and resource development under goals 3, 4, and 5, serving as 

the foundational understanding of customer needs and enabling requirements. This objective is also 

informed by Goals 1, 3, 4, and 5 as their priorities and activities influence how current and future 

NOS and ROS versions prioritize activities. 

Objectives 2 and 4 of this goal create a cycle of insights and iterative learning that informs future 

versions of the NOS and ROSs. By understanding the customer and evaluating impact of current 

programs, Risk MAP will be able to update and revise NOS and ROS strategies and priorities to be 

more customer-centric and increase effectiveness. Objective 3 of this goal builds on the appropriate 

ROS, which is already building upon the NOS, to ensure tailored yet consistent engagement for each 

community.

2.3. Objective 2: Implement strategies for gaining insight that informs a 

customer-centric approach to community engagement, partnerships, 

and other aspects of program design.

Customer-centric work is a focus for the entire agency. Insights gathered from work conducted under 

this objective will prepare FEMA staff, contractors, and partners to work with the customer in mind, 

to understand the community they’re engaging with, and to design communications and programs 

that equip and empower communities by meeting them where they are. 

Collecting quantitative and qualitative information about communities will also help establish a 

baseline of the community’s knowledge about and attitude toward flooding so that FEMA can 

understand whether they are increasing awareness and action, as described in Objective 4.
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In addition to the insights listed below, Risk MAP is developing a Customer eXperience (CX) 

framework to better learn about the customer journey, pain points, and desired outcomes to better 

align and deliver the program in a way that is easier to interact with and more effective at increasing 

understanding and reducing risk. The CX framework is under development while Risk MAP onboards 

CX capability and capacity to meet the emerging needs of these activities and the OMB A-11 Section 

280 Managing Customer Experience and Improve Service Delivery requirements regarding how 

federal agencies should manage, measure, and report customer experience.

Examples of the relevant and valuable customer insights that will be collected include:

▪ Community structure and demographics;

▪ Mindset and community personality;

▪ Potential partners and other influencers;

▪ Equity and social vulnerability factors;

▪ Community priorities;

▪ Areas of risk;

▪ Past resilience-related efforts; and

▪ Current community resilience capacity.

These insights will be garnered from data collected from:

▪ Traditional and social media analyses;

▪ Consumer behavior databases;

▪ Existing secondary research studies;

▪ Community input;

▪ Regulatory and non-regulatory hazard risk databases/tools;

▪ Building code databases;

▪ Primary research; and

▪ Surveys and other direct feedback mechanisms,

This objective provides the insights necessary to connect the NOS and ROS developed in Objective 1 

to tailored community-level outreach strategies as laid out in Objective 3 of this goal. This drives 

consistent outreach by relying on the NOS and ROSs while considering the community-specific needs 
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and opportunities. An effective CX program also supports all goals in this plan by serving to evaluate 

effectiveness and inform how best to create and deliver the data, platforms, and plans that result in 

reduced current and future flood risk.

2.4. Objective 3: Develop community specific outreach strategies that 

compel and empower people to take action to reduce their risks.

Developing community-specific outreach strategies that equip, motivate, and empower communities 

to act starts with a better understanding of the community – who they are, where they are, and what 

they need. These strategies must and will be informed by the continually gathered insights from 

Objective 2. As FEMA works to embrace a customer-centric approach to community engagement, 

partnerships, and other aspects of program design, it will be important to develop tools that align 

insights and engagement strategies across risk information and management activities to reach the 

agency’s broader goals. Community Engagement Strategies and Plans (CESPs) will align communityspecific engagements to the NOS and ROS and serve as a resilience roadmap for each individual 

community. These Community Engagement Strategies and Plans will include elements of the 

following:

▪ Data and insights for a comprehensive assessment of key research findings about the 

community and its risk understanding and capacity to act;

▪ Mitigation objectives that are informed by the data and insights gathered about a community and 

aligned to the priorities outlined in the ROS. They provide a lens for helping to decide where and 

how to allocate resources in that community;

▪ A strategic timeline to lay out the long-term vision for that community and steps for achieving 

community ownership of their resilience efforts;

▪ Audience map and messaging that shows the landscape of audiences in the community, who to 

target, and messages that will resonate with those specific audiences;

▪ An engagement plan that provides a comprehensive outline for the activities (capacity building, 

partnerships, equity-building strategies) FEMA plans to collaborate on in a community during the 

year; and

▪ Plans for measurement and iterative improvement for assessing the success and progress of the 

overall objectives.

As Risk MAP continues to build out its research and measurement framework, it will continue to 

iterate, evaluate, and improve all forms of Risk MAP delivery and the organization’s role in reducing 

current and future vulnerability to flooding.

This objective is the tailored application of the NOS and ROS of Objective 1, informed by the insights 

gained in Objective 2. This approach ensures that each strategy is community-specific in a way that 

best compels and empowers risk reduction action by tailoring outreach, engagement, and 
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partnership strategies to the unique characteristics of the community. These community-specific 

strategies will help the data, platform, and plans to be developed and applied in ways that maximizes 

effectiveness. This will also inform the partnerships necessary and the program design that is laid 

out in Objective 2.

2.5. Objective 4: Establish a baseline, and measure progress, of the impact 

of engagement activities toward advancing equitable risk reduction.

A measurement framework is vital for an effective customer centric approach to program design and 

allows the program to:

▪ Develop key performance indicators that align to desired program outcomes and evaluate the 

effectiveness of ongoing activities, as well as the design and implementation of new

programmatic activities;

▪ “Right-size” metric collection, pulling from established data sources along with direct community 

feedback, making a community's time spent collecting and contributing data less onerous and 

rewarding it with valuable insights and learnings at the local and national level;

▪ Leverage community-level data to develop, evaluate, and iterate programs, providing insights 

into which programs are most effective at moving NOS and ROS objectives forward and the 

conditions that supported it; and

▪ Develop tools and dashboards that combine data with a library of strategic next steps to help 

performance metrics lead to insights and those insights lead to actionable change.

As the measurement framework is developed, FEMA will adhere to the following guiding principles:

▪ Tying together qualitative and quantitative performance feedback will yield the richest and most 

informative assessment and insights;

▪ Being consistent with data collection will allow insights to be gained on the local and national 

levels; and

▪ Allowing communities who are trying new tactics to provide additional performance metrics and 

benchmark against other initiatives working toward the same goals will increase the learnings 

and success for all.

To truly obtain a nationwide view of progress, it will be critical to have a clearly defined methodology 

for comparing strategies across communities. The methodology and measurement system laid out in 

this objective will learn from the application of the outreach strategies in Objective 3 to identify 

effective approaches that can be replicated and how best to apply them. It also will inform updates 

to the NOS and ROSs in Objective 1 to ensure that the regional and national approaches are in line 

with customer needs and ensure investment in the most effective strategies. The measurement 

activities here will also complement the CX program laid out in Objective 3 to similarly support the 
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other goals of this plan by evaluating effectiveness and inform how best to create and deliver the 

data, platforms, and plans that advance risk reduction.
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3. Goal 3: Lead and support states, local and tribal 

communities to effectively engage in risk-based 

mitigation planning resulting in sustainable actions 

that reduce or eliminate risks to life and property 

from natural hazards. 

Figure 9: Goal 3 Implementation Phases

3.1. Overview

Goal 3 aligns closely with Goal B of the FEMA Resilience risk information and management strategy: 

Translate knowledge into actionable resilience policies and practices. This goal moves mitigation 

planning beyond information sharing and communication to emphasize implementation of hazard 

mitigation plans and their mitigation actions by providing support to SLTTs to assess their risk and 

develop actionable activities to mitigate those risks. 

Mitigation planning is the typical entry point for SLTTs and their communities to become engaged 

with the risk reduction process. It serves a crucial role in Risk MAP using flood risk data to inform

hazard identification and risk assessment information essential to drive implementation of effective 

strategies and actions. At the National Mitigation Planning Program’s inception, the focus of its 

regulations and policies was to encourage SLTTs to engage in a planning process to inform decisions 

about mitigation investments. As the National Mitigation Planning Program has matured, the focus 

has expanded to include support for building SLTT capabilities, integrating mitigation into other 

community planning efforts and partnerships, and implementing hazard mitigation plans using a 

wide range of public and private resources.
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3.2. Objective 1: Communicate Value of Hazard Mitigation and Community 

Planning

ASSIST SLTTS TO DEVELOP OR UPDATE, ADOPT, AND IMPLEMENT APPROVED HAZARD 

MITIGATION PLANS.

On October 30, 2000, the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 amended the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 

Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) providing the primary legal basis for mitigation 

planning that sets forth requirements and procedures for SLTT governments to develop a hazard 

mitigation plan as a condition for receiving certain types of FEMA non-emergency disaster 

assistance.

In recent years, additional laws4 have been passed that help to shape hazard mitigation planning 

policy. Over these two decades, tremendous progress has been made allowing SLTTs with approved 

mitigation plans access to FEMA assistance programs, including Public Assistance Categories C-G, 

Fire Management Assistance Grants, Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) including Hazard 

Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), HMGP – Post Fire, and Flood Mitigation Assistance, as well as the 

Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Rehabilitation of High Hazard Potential 

Dams grant programs.

FEMA’s Headquarters staff develop and maintain regulations, policy, products, and training. Regional 

staff provide training, technical assistance, and build partnerships with SLTTs engaged in and 

supporting mitigation planning. As of January 1, 2023, all 50 states, five territories, and the District 

of Columbia have approved mitigation plans. Additionally, over 24,000 local and 240 tribal 

governments have current mitigation plans. 85 percent of all Americans live in communities with 

current mitigation plans.

COMMUNICATE THE VALUE OF MITIGATION PLANNING THROUGH THE RISK MAP 

OUTREACH STRATEGY.

Risk MAP emphasizes the value of mitigation and community planning as part of an overarching 

outreach strategy. SLTT governments that engage in effective planning for natural hazards receive 

benefits that are both fiscal (reduction of property damage and insurance premiums) and 

community-oriented (more resilient structures, prevention of business and education interruptions, 

enhanced public safety, increased equity, and improved public spaces).

Of critical importance to the continuing success of mitigation planning is the ability to communicate 

this value to its partners. The design and implementation of a communication plan provides 

standards and protocol to promote consistent messaging through a variety of tools. One example is 

the development and deployment of the story map, Mitigation Planning Success Stories, which 

4Including the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act (SRIA) of 2013, the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (Revised 2012, 

2014), and the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act of 2016
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showcases mitigation planning “best practices.” Risk MAP will continue to support mitigation and 

community planning communication and outreach efforts, including communicating examples so 

that communities can apply lessons to their own jurisdictions and planning efforts. Mitigation 

planning outreach and communication goals focus on:

▪ Increasing awareness of the value and benefits of hazard mitigation and community planning;

▪ Demonstrating the value of mitigation planning beyond statutory, regulatory and policy 

requirements;

▪ Ensuring greater consistency in messaging; and 

▪ Delivering messages and communication products to targeted stakeholders on topics that 

promote FEMA’s hazard mitigation and planning goals and best practices.

3.3. Objective 2: Engage and Partner to Build Capabilities

BUILD RESILIENCE PLANNING PARTNERSHIPS AND CAPABILITIES TO SUPPORT EARLY 

AND OFTEN ENGAGEMENT WITH COMMUNITIES.

FEMA partners with other Federal agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental 

organizations to advance Resilience objectives. By leveraging the subject matter expertise, 

professional networks and other programs administered by partners, FEMA can extend the reach of 

its messaging, training, and technical assistance. Risk MAP will assess and grow partnerships that 

advance resilience, mitigation, and community planning initiatives and promote risk reduction 

through planning.

The implementation of effective mitigation strategies is predicated upon building the capabilities of 

staff supporting mitigation and community planning, including FEMA, SLTTs, and contractors. FEMA

supports mitigation planning with both the development and delivery of formal foundational and 

advanced training courses on mitigation planning. Foundational courses are essential to establishing 

knowledge and consistency of practice for mitigation plan development, integration, and 

implementation. Advanced training uses targeted approaches to build on foundational training 

content. In addition, internal capability building is a necessary first step before FEMA staff can 

support SLTT partners. FEMA staff need the right knowledge, skills, and awareness of the Program 

messaging and resources before they can provide effective training and technical assistance.

The Program has developed a portfolio of foundational training courses that are delivered under our 

continued partnership with the FEMA Emergency Management Institute (EMI). More information on 

these courses is available from Mitigation Planning Training | FEMA.gov.
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CONDUCT ANNUAL MITIGATION PROGRAM CONSULTATIONS AND ENHANCED STATE 

VALIDATIONS.

The National Mitigation Planning Program will continue to lead FEMA’s delivery of Mitigation Program 

Consultation meetings with each state annually. For “enhanced” states, an annual Enhanced State 

Validation meeting is required to review grants management capabilities. The Mitigation Program 

Consultations have evolved since 2015 when first introduced to include a growing range of 

stakeholders that collectively assess the state mitigation program. FEMA will annually evaluate the 

Consultations and Validations and utilize the results to inform program capability building needs. The 

requirements for both meetings are found in the State Mitigation Planning Policy Guide (FP 302-094-

2, April 19, 2022).

IMPROVE IMPLEMENTATION OF MITIGATION PLANNING THROUGH TECHNICAL 

ASSISTANCE.

To reliably support local and tribal partners and their capabilities, FEMA is committed to building 

mechanisms for technical assistance. FEMA requires communities to engage in a community-wide 

mitigation planning process to identify and assess risks and adopt a mitigation plan to reduce those 

risks, while considering equity and climate change. Currently, approximately 24,000 local 

governments and over 240 Tribal governments have approved mitigation plans. Although planning is 

an ideal opportunity for communities to assess equity and climate change challenges, mitigation 

plans are an opportunity to do a better job at informing and directing funding from a wide range of 

public and private sources to disadvantaged and underserved communities and vulnerable 

populations. FEMA is not currently staffed to provide direct technical assistance for mitigation 

planning to all SLTT governments that lack the capability or capacity to address resilience through 

their community planning efforts. However, FEMA will explore opportunities to develop and deliver 

support for a variety of technical assistance approaches that serve disadvantaged communities and 

create tailored, comprehensive resilience strategies, leverage data analytics and promote 

partnerships. Incorporating Mitigation Planning Technical Assistance into Risk MAP Projects 

(fema.gov) continues to be available to support communities.

Technical assistance delivery complements training and represents both formal and informal 

protocols and products to deliver tailored content to SLTTs. Due in part to staff turnover and other 

factors, training and technical assistance is needed on a regular basis to ensure that SLTTs

understand the mitigation planning requirements well in advance of hazard mitigation plan review

and approval. This includes identification of gaps in course content and curriculum and maintaining 

currency through necessary updates in delivery methods (e.g., on-demand). FEMA continues to 

explore collaboration with partner programs that are updating courses related to mitigation planning 

(HMA, EMI, Hazus, FEMA Qualification System, National Disaster Preparedness Training Center at the 

University of Hawaii, etc.) and other federal and non-federal partners that can help support the 

Program’s priorities (Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Housing and Urban 

Development, Coastal States Organization, NOAA, National Park Service, etc.)

The regions are expanding, refining, and targeting technical assistance to advance implementation. 

Region 3 established the mitigation Plan Implementation and Grants Development (PIGD) workshop 
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that engages a wide range of jurisdictional attendees, focused on collaboration with states to help 

SLTTs apply for grants and to transform their hazard mitigation ideas into actionable mitigation 

projects. It is a model being adopted by other regions. Region 1 continues its mitigation planning

Skill Share conferences to creatively engage state staff in mitigation plan review, approval, policy, 

and implementation. Region 1 is expanding the concept to tribal partners. Region 9 is expanding its 

plan review workshops and has established a dedicated unit to support implementation. Other 

regions have conducted land use solutions workshops and regional webinars. FEMA plans to 

continue this transformation by extending the principles of foundational courses to place-based and 

tailored delivery of support that is more responsive to community priorities.

FEMA will continue to integrate efforts to support identifying and reaching vulnerable populations 

and underserved communities as new authorities are passed, such as the Community Disaster 

Resilience Zones Act of 2022. While the National Mitigation Planning Program is not part of the 

Justice40 Initiative, assessment of hazard mitigation plan status for underserved communities has 

been preliminarily conducted based on available data standards. More information on plan status 

can be found on the interactive FEMA Hazard Mitigation Plan Status map. The updated state and 

local mitigation planning policies, State Mitigation Planning Policy Guide (FP 302-094-2, April 19, 

2022) and Local Mitigation Planning Policy Guide (FP-206-21-0002, April 19, 2022), guide 

engagement of vulnerable populations and underserved communities as part of the planning 

process.

In addition, through the use and continued investment of the National Risk Index, the Natural 

Hazards Risk Assessment Program will provide FEMA programs and SLTT partners with a 

quantitative tool that can be used to examine the intersection of natural hazard risk and social equity 

for the implementation of its programs. Also, investment in the transformation of FEMA’s loss 

estimation software (Hazus) to an open-source web environment (OpenHazus) will provide SLTTs 

with a lower barrier of entry to credible risk assessment methodologies, results, and analysis, while 

allowing for more robust collaboration with the wider risk assessment community.

3.4. Objective 3: Integrate Hazard Mitigation into Other Planning Processes 

SUPPORT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS THAT REQUIRE A HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN AS A 

CONDITION OF ELIGIBILITY.

The National Mitigation Planning Program continues to support FEMA assistance programs with a 

hazard mitigation plan requirement as one condition of eligibility. Activities related to program 

delivery include partnership and outreach, technical assistance, direct technical assistance, training, 

mitigation plan review and approvals, and national policy and guidance development. Over the next 

five years, plans affecting every state and U.S. territory, the District of Columbia, 240 tribes, and 

more than 24,000 jurisdictions, will expire if SLTTs do not engage in the update process. Resources 

will be required at every level of government to update these plans. FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation 

Assistance programs provide many SLTTs these resources through hazard mitigation planning 

grants.
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PROMOTE THE INTEGRATION OF MITIGATION PLANNING INTO RELATED SLTT PLANNING.

Consistently over the last decade, more than 80 percent of the nation’s population have lived in local 

and tribal jurisdictions with approved mitigation plans. However, mitigation plans, often developed by 

local emergency managers, frequently do not include input from land use, zoning, or development 

officials, nor do they coordinate with other community planning processes that impact land use and 

other development decisions. Risk MAP provides a suite of land use decision-making tools for 

communities, and will inform communities of the benefits of integrating hazard mitigation into 

ongoing SLTT planning processes and plans, e.g., comprehensive, land use, capital improvement, 

economic development, transportation, etc. 

FEMA partners with non-governmental organizations that promote hazard mitigation through 

community development. For example, the National Mitigation Planning Program continues to work 

with the American Planning Association (APA). FEMA’s partnership with APA provides a dissemination 

point to over 40,000 planning officials nationally. In the long term, this strategy will continue to 

evolve to target other professional organizations, as well as advancing professional curriculums via

universities with planning programs.

COORDINATE WITH OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES TO IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES TO REDUCE 

DUPLICATIVE PLANNING PROCESSES AND IMPROVE EFFICIENCIES.

Other federal agencies administer programs or initiatives for SLTT governments related to hazards or 

natural resource planning. For example, coastal zone management through the National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration, watershed planning through the Environmental Protection Agency, 

and wildfire management through the Bureau of Land Management all contain land use elements 

that may align with the planning processes set forth under FEMA’s Mitigation Planning Program. 

FEMA will identify synergies and work toward cooperation with these organizations and efforts.

3.5. Objective 4: Demonstrate Effective Risk Reduction through Planning

MAINTAIN AND IMPROVE THE MITIGATION PLANNING PORTAL DATABASE USED TO 

MANAGE, ANALYZE, AND REPORT STATUS OF MITIGATION PLANS.

Risk MAP will support the maintenance and improvement of the Mitigation Planning Portal (MPP), 

which will provide the ability to store, track, and manage hazard mitigation plan status and plan 

review workflow, as well as support reporting of progress on program evaluation measures and 

metrics. Risk MAP will show plan data geographically through a geographic information system (GIS) 

generated map of the nation displaying all approved mitigation plans, made available via the FEMA 

website (Hazard Mitigation Plan Status | FEMA.gov). The MPP data may be exported and combined 

with other data to evaluate program delivery and progress in engaging underserved communities 

and other applications.
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SUPPORT EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HAZARD MITIGATION PLANNING IN 

REDUCING RISK.

The measurement and documentation of the effectiveness of mitigation planning is critical to the 

National Mitigation Planning Program, as well as Risk MAP. Currently, FEMA reports the population 

and number of approved hazard mitigation plans but does not have an established mechanism to 

demonstrate the effectiveness of the plan itself; this measurement takes place on an ad hoc basis. 

Progress will be made through the systematic evaluation of the elements of a hazard mitigation plan, 

which will provide insight regarding the effectiveness of the planning process, risk assessments, 

mitigation strategies, and implementation strategy. This can be aided by technical improvements 

such as the automation of the Plan Review Tool and tracking of mitigation actions, possibly as part of 

the MPP. The program continues its efforts to measure and report on planning effectiveness 

particularly for local mitigation plans.
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4. Goal 4: Provide a sustainable and modern IT 

portfolio that optimizes delivery of flood hazard and 

flood risk data, helping customers reduce current 

and future risks to life and property.

Figure 10: Goal 4 Implementation Phases

4.1. Overview

Information Technology touches nearly every facet of the Risk MAP mission and directly affects the 

quality, availability, and accessibility of the flood hazard, flood risk, and mitigation planning 

information produced by the Risk MAP Program. The current Risk MAP IT portfolio consists of 

multiple systems, platforms, and software, to include:

▪ Risk Analysis and Management (RAM) on-premise (i.e. non-cloud) general support system, which 

supports:

o 38 active applications (e.g., Mapping Information Platform, Map Service Center, Coordinated 

Needs Management Strategy System, National Risk Index, eLOMA, Online LOMC, Automated 

Map Production, National Flood Hazard Layer, Hazus Loss Library, Flood Hazard and Risk 

Data Viewer, Mitigation Planning Portal, Floodmaps File Exchange);

o 500+ TB data;

o 1,000+ PIV-authenticated users; and

o 200,000+ public user accounts.

▪ Federal Insurance Customer Relationship Management (FICRM) platform:
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o 100+ Flood Mapping and Insurance eXchange (FMIX) contact center agents; and

o Risk MAP IT Help Desk and Hazus Help Desk ticket management

▪ Hazards GeoPlatform (HGP):

o 265+ FEMA, SLTT, and Cooperating Technical Partner users

▪ Desktop software and mobile applications:

o Hazus desktop software;

o Engineering models (e.g., WHAFIS, RunUp);

o Floodwalk mobile application; and

o Immersed virtual reality application.

Risk MAP inherited systems and applications from the Map Modernization program (i.e., pre-2009) 

and continued to extend the codebase to meet Risk MAP program needs. The Risk MAP IT portfolio 

evolved organically over a ten-year period, from 2009 to 2019. During this period, the capabilities of 

Risk MAP’s initial digital platform (i.e., Mapping Information Platform and the Map Service Center) 

were modified and extended to adapt to changing engineering guidelines and standards, automate 

manual processes, and accommodate new technologies. Many of these changes were ad-hoc in 

nature and did not account for long-term maintenance costs.

In 2017, the Risk MAP program identified system degradation as the program’s single biggest risk 

and began steadily increasing the resources dedicated to IT management, operations, and 

maintenance. From 2017 to 2020, the increased resources were largely consumed by vulnerability 

remediation efforts needed to secure the system and keep it online. System stability and 

performance continued to suffer during this time, and the gap between customer expectations and 

system capabilities grew. In late 2020, FEMA redoubled its efforts address these issues through 

reorganization, increased federal and contractor staffing levels, SAFe Agile software development 

practices, and reallocation of funding to support increased IT expenditure.

As a result of this investment, the Risk MAP IT portfolio’s posture has transformed from “reactive and 

under-resourced” to “capable and ready for strategic change.” The Program has corralled multiple 

systems, dozens of applications, and several pieces of software into a cohesive portfolio. And the 

largest system, RAM, is ready to undergo an incremental and iterative architectural transition from 

monoliths toward microservices that is needed to improve system performance and support the 

future Risk MAP program requirements.

To continue this transformation and deliver on FEMA’s Strategic Plan, the Risk MAP program is 

pursuing three objectives over the next five years:
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▪ Objective 1: Establish mechanisms to assess and improve customer experience with Risk MAP 

systems and applications.

o To empower disaster-resilient decisions and actions, all IT management decisions must be 

grounded in a clear understanding of the program’s highest priority customers and how they 

experience information and interactions related to flood hazard, flood risk, and mitigation 

planning information. This insight will enable FEMA to rapidly identify the most important 

service gaps, streamline existing capabilities and IT investments, integrate information silos, 

optimize our IT infrastructure, and extend new or different service offerings to fill the 

identified gaps. 

▪ Objective 2: Migrate Risk MAP IT systems and applications to the cloud and lay the technical 

foundation for future modernization.

o The Risk MAP program’s ability to operate with the agility and scalability necessary for the 

program’s data-intensive future has been limited by a combination of tightly coupled 

applications, on-premises IT infrastructure, and insufficient management capacity. To 

address these constraints, Risk MAP IT is pursuing a strategy of continuous, adaptive 

maintenance to create a more flexible system architecture and scalable hosting 

environment(s). Major elements of this adaptive maintenance strategy include: migrating the 

RAM general support system to FEMA’s Enterprise Cloud (FEC); rationalizing the existing Risk 

MAP IT application portfolio; introducing application performance monitoring capabilities and 

expanding the use of automated testing; incrementally transforming Risk MAP’s legacy 

systems and applications from monolithic structures to a modern technology stack with a 

service-oriented architecture; and introducing API management capabilities. 

▪ Objective 3: Initiate development of new applications and services to address unmet statutory 

requirements, replace obsolete software, and meet requirements for the future of Risk MAP.

o RAM-Cloud will offer a flexible, moderate-risk hosting environment that can scale to meet 

changing program needs. Architectural changes made under Objective 2 will make it easier 

to develop, deploy, and host new applications in the RAM-Cloud environment. These changes 

will also enable increased data sharing with end users and partners in other federal 

agencies, SLTTs, the private sector, non-profits, and academia. At least two projects to 

support the new modeling framework will take advantage of RAM-Cloud’s new features: 

OpenHazus and the model library. Additional IT development projects are expected to result 

from Risk MAP’s creation of a results framework and analysis of our stakeholder ecosystem 

and customer journey. These projects will be specified and on-boarded as requirements are 

solidified. 
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4.2. Objective 1: Establish mechanisms to assess and improve customer 

experience with Risk MAP systems and applications.

This objective supports the CX activities initiated under Goal 2, Objective 2 and applies the results of 

those activities to ongoing IT development, operations, and maintenance to reduce barriers to 

effective use of Risk MAP products and services. A few of the mechanisms for assessing and 

improving Customer Experience with Risk MAP systems and applications include: 

SUPPORT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS WITH APPLICATION USER ACTIVITY 

METRICS

Customer research is essential to understanding the gap between the existing and ideal customer 

journey and overall customer experience. The Risk MAP program is adding user behavioral data 

collection tools (e.g., Google Analytics) to its public-facing applications to gather aggregate, 

anonymous data about how customers interact with individual web pages and the efficiency and 

effectiveness of their movement throughout the web application. Additionally, the Risk MAP program 

is exploring options for gathering attitudinal metrics about usability and overall satisfaction with 

customers’ interactions with the Program’s products and services. As the CX framework evolves and 

desired customer journeys and experiences are specified, the Risk MAP Program will also look for 

opportunities to support data collection for Key Performance Indicators. 

PUBLISH AND MAINTAIN A DESIGN SYSTEM LIBRARY

Creating and maintaining a design system library improves all customer journeys that intersect with a 

Risk MAP web application by creating consistent User Interface components. The Risk MAP program 

is using the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) 3.0 as the basis for a design system library that has 

been tailored to meet the needs of Risk MAP customers. This design system library will be 

incrementally incorporated into the existing Risk MAP IT portfolio during routine operations and 

maintenance activities. In addition to creating a seamless user experience across Risk MAP 

applications, adoption of the design system library enables faster design and development timelines 

and reduces technical debt by making it easier to maintain applications’ user interfaces. The design 

system library also makes it easier to engage multiple IT development vendors simultaneously, which 

encourages competition and innovation, without negatively impacting the end-user’s experience. 

INCORPORATE RESULTS OF CUSTOMER JOURNEY ANALYSIS INTO PORTFOLIO AND 

PRODUCT ROADMAPS

Most Risk MAP customers will encounter a Risk MAP web application, data service, or piece of 

desktop software as part of their customer journey. As the Risk MAP program’s CX capabilities grow 

and desired customer experiences and journeys have been specified, the Risk MAP program will 

expand its use of Design Thinking and other customer-centric user interface/user experience (UI/UX)

design techniques to update existing product roadmaps and make plans to introduce new products, 

where needed. These plans shape the Program’s development, operations, and maintenance 

backlogs and help steadily transform the Risk MAP IT portfolio from the as-is to the ideal state. 
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4.3. Objective 2: Migrate Risk MAP IT systems and applications to the cloud 

to optimize our existing investment in flood hazard data and set the 

technical foundation for implementing the future of Risk MAP.

IMPLEMENT ADAPTIVE MAINTENANCE STRATEGY

Risk MAP operates in a dynamic environment where changes in engineering methodologies, 

information technologies, climate science, land-use, and climate are constant. To maintain 

operational relevance, Risk MAP’s IT portfolio must continuously adapt and evolve. The program 

refers to these necessary changes and enhancements as “adaptive maintenance.” These changes 

are a type of IT operations and maintenance activity that enable the non-IT portion of the program to 

continue operating at full capability and capacity. These adaptive maintenance projects are typically 

larger efforts to address obsolescence, architecture transition, UI/UX strategy alignment, and 

responses to congressional mandates and Executive Orders. In addition to sustaining performance 

levels, these projects eliminate the need for high-risk, “modernization” efforts that force a hard 

cutover to a new, replacement system. FEMA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer maintains 

oversight of these projects through the System Engineering Lifecycle process. The remaining topics 

discussed under Objective 2 are examples of strategically important operations and maintenance 

activities, including a few adaptive maintenance projects.

MIGRATE THE RISK ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO FEMA ENTERPRISE CLOUD

In CY2023, Risk MAP is migrating its large general support system, RAM, to FEMA’s Enterprise Cloud 

environment. This adaptive maintenance project is largely a lift and shift migration; application 

functionality will not change while the underlying hardware is replaced by “infrastructure as code.” 

This change is essential to resolving a long-standing security risk, improving system stability and 

performance, and preparing to support the new modeling framework requirements. After migrating to 

the cloud, the system will be more resilient – using Amazon Web Services Availability Zones to keep 

the system online in the event of a disaster. Tiered data storage and the ability to scale-on-demand 

are expected to introduce cost savings while also ensuring the system can handle spikes in demand 

for system resources and house increasingly large datasets produced by the new modeling 

framework. Finally, the program is adding a staging environment, which mirrors the Production 

environment, to the RAM-Cloud system boundary. This new environment and system architecture 

supports high-fidelity testing and enables the Program to release changes into production quickly 

and without interruption -- experimenting with canary releases (i.e., releasing changes to a small 

subset of users) and working toward blue/green deployments (i.e., roll out software updates without 

downtime). 

RATIONALIZE THE EXISTING RISK MAP IT PORTFOLIO 

The Risk MAP Program is conducting an in-depth analysis of its portfolio during the first half of CY23 

to determine which applications should be kept, replaced, retired, or refactored. This effort will 

create an inventory of IT-supported Risk MAP use cases and assess the business value, technical fit, 

and total cost of ownership for each item in the Risk MAP IT portfolio. The findings are expected to 
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help the program eliminate redundancies, lower costs, and maximize efficient maintenance of 

existing capabilities while also creating digital platforms that can be modified to support the 

modeling framework data requirements. 

INTRODUCE APPLICATION PERFORMANCE MONITORING AND EXPAND AUTOMATED 

TESTING

Before making large changes to the RAM system architecture, the Risk MAP Program will implement 

an Application Performance Monitoring tool and continue efforts to increase automated testing. 

These activities will reduce the risks associated with refactoring, rewriting, or replacing portions of 

the RAM system in the future by enabling a proactive risk management posture. 

Application Performance Monitoring tools alert the team to what is in the process of failing – helping 

system administrators and developers spot problems before they cascade throughout the system. 

These tools provide a critical safety net when deploying larger changes. Without application 

performance monitoring, performance issues are often identifiable only after the application has 

failed in a visible way.

Automated testing is a key component of continuous integration and continuous delivery, a software 

development best practice. Testing helps validate that new or refactored code functions as intended 

and doesn’t break existing code and functionality. The Risk MAP program is steadily expanding its 

code coverage -- a measure of the quantity (percentage) of the codebase with a corresponding unit 

test -- to improve the utility and effectiveness of automated testing and increase the speed and 

reliability of software deployments.

DECOMPOSE MONOLITHS INTO SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE 

Using insights gained from the Risk MAP IT Portfolio Analysis and domain-driven modeling, the 

program will undertake an adaptive maintenance project to incrementally transform the Risk 

Analysis and Management system’s architecture. The effort will move from monoliths to a serviceoriented architecture with microservices, where practical. Code will be refactored or replaced as 

needed to improve system performance and increase ease of maintenance. The goal is to enable 

quick changes to system functionality without having to change the entire surrounding system. 

INTRODUCE API MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES

The Risk MAP program currently makes the National Flood Hazard Layer dataset available through a 

web-viewer and several public web Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These publicly 

available data services are used by private companies, academics, and others who wish to bypass 

FEMA’s Mapping Information Platform and Map Service Center web application interfaces and pull 

FEMA’s authoritative data directly into their own software program. 

FEMA will introduce an API management capability to understand, support, and optimize the 

experience of different types of customers who rely on Risk MAP APIs to access the program’s 

authoritative data. Calls to Risk MAP’s public APIs are currently handled on a first-come, first-served 
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basis. While there is endpoint security, we do not require authentication or authorization to use the 

service. This approach supports open data objectives; however, the absence of an API management 

solution means that FEMA does not know, definitively, who is consuming these services or the extent 

to which these customers rely on FEMA’s data. As a result, we cannot establish different service level 

expectations for various user types and use that differentiated service level to effectively manage 

planned and unplanned service disruptions. This capability is needed to support the Program’s 

desire for improved Customer Experience.

An established API management process is part of a larger API governance strategy; both are needed 

to effectively design, develop, deploy, consume and deprecate APIs. As the program moves toward a 

service-oriented architecture and the Risk MAP Programs’ APIs multiply and evolve, an API 

management capability will become increasingly important to ensure that each API is secure, 

performing as expected, and meeting customer needs. 

4.4. Objective 3: Initiate development of new applications and services to 

address unmet statutory requirements, replace obsolete software, and 

meet requirements for the future of Risk MAP.

The adaptive maintenance activities outlined in Goal 4, Objective 2 enable the Risk MAP Program to 

sustain operations until ongoing projects are finished. They also lay the technical foundation for the 

introduction of new applications and services that are needed to address unmet statutory 

requirements, replace obsolete software, and meet requirements for the future of the Risk MAP 

program. Depending upon the magnitude of the changes required and their impact on Risk MAP’s 

present-day Concept of Operations, the activities described in Goal 4, Objective 3 may cross the 

threshold of programmatic and technical “modernization.” More analysis is required, however, 

before this determination can be made.

NEW FLOOD MODELING FRAMEWORK AND UNMET STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS

As discussed under Goal 1, Objective 2 FEMA will build a comprehensive flood modeling framework. 

The new framework will support risk-based insurance rates, products that go beyond the binary 

in/out focus of the legacy FIRMs and portray a comprehensive, graduated view of hazard and risk. 

This flood modeling framework will provide communities a solid, consistent base on which they can 

build more detailed local flood analyses, provide FEMA a national base to address the unmet 

statutory mapping requirements and provide flexible capability to support future products. 

The Flood Modeling Framework described in Goal 1, Objective 2 uses highly automated probabilistic 

analyses that require the ability to run a model thousands of times using integrated datasets from 

multiple government agencies, and the ability to store and analyze the results. To support this 

analysis, the Program must have the ability to store engineering models, model results, and related 

data. It must also be able to share models, model results and data with partners to support the joint 

development of this new framework. Unmet statutory requirements will be satisfied by analyzing 

outputs of the flood modeling framework; technology requirements are shared with Goal 1, Objective 

2. The initial capabilities required for Goal 1, Objective 2 and Objective 3 include: 
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1. Increase data storage by orders of magnitude;

2. Provide a structured format and standardized method for accessing models and datasets that 

enable highly automated probabilistic analyses;

3. Support better two-way data sharing/access with Federal and SLTT partners through 

standardized data interfaces and other mechanisms; and

4. Facilitate end-users’ and partners’ access to models, data, and analyses to support direct-service 

requirements and encourage innovative distribution of flood hazard and risk information.

The RAM-Cloud environment described in Goal 4, Objective 2 will store the models and model inputs 

managed by FEMA as well as model outputs. This environment offers the scalability and data 

recovery capabilities needed for FEMA’s contribution to the flood modeling framework.

MODEL LIBRARY

One of the keys to an interagency approach to building the new modeling framework is a “model 

library,” a shared system for cataloging, discovering, and accessing models across agencies. The 

model library does not function as a storage system or data repository, but as a visualization tool and 

organizational schema to index model locations. Using the model library, users will be able to upload, 

catalog, and access catalogued models. Users will also be able to analyze the models, use the

models for computation, and annotate the models based on their findings. The model library 

facilitates interagency model discovery and access and creates opportunities for collaboration and 

data sharing between agencies and, potentially, other organizations. 

OPENHAZUS

FEMA’s Hazus software delivers standardized tools and data for estimating risks from earthquakes, 

floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Currently, Hazus software is distributed as a GIS-based desktop 

application that runs within the proprietary Environmental System Research Institute (Esri) ArcGIS 

Desktop platform. Hazus will reach end-of-life in January 2024, when Esri deprecates ArcGIS 

Desktop. Rather than migrate Hazus to a newer desktop solution, FEMA seeks to eliminate Hazus’ 

cost barrier by replacing the desktop software with a web-based application that prioritizes opensource software components. OpenHazus is also being designed to support a broad array of 

stakeholders and community users, from scientific modelers to emergency managers and informed 

citizens. 

OpenHazus will provide analytical, visualization, and repository functions for loss modeling and risk 

assessment stakeholders. Specifically, the OpenHazus web-based platform will:

1. Provide transparent and accessible risk assessment tools for a broad range of risk management 

stakeholders;

2. Ensure OpenHazus is reliable, scalable, and state-of-the-art; and

3. Update OpenHazus functionality with the latest established science.
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The OpenHazus application is being designed to assist planners and analysts in making decisions 

based on possible structural, economic, and social loss in a particular geography due to natural 

hazard. The future OpenHazus solution must be flexible enough to accommodate various risk 

assessment stakeholder preferences and restrictions and must also allow for effective user 

interaction in an iterative problem-solving environment. To accomplish this, OpenHazus functionality 

will include spatial decision support -- interactive, web-based decision-making assistance by solving 

semi-structured spatial problems. OpenHazus will also offer capabilities to support open science by 

making data, spatial and non-spatial models, and the OpenHazus software itself, broadly available 

through a user-friendly interface.

OpenHazus will be developed with a bias toward free and open-source software. In addition to 

eliminating cost barriers, using free and open-source software makes it easier to leverage the 

untapped expertise of the nationwide risk modeling community consistent with the open science 

concept. Specifically Risk MAP and Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Program are exploring the 

feasibility of allowing advanced users to develop customized versions of risk assessment analytical 

processes and integrating them into the official OpenHazus architecture. Finally, by developing 

OpenHazus using free and open-source software, FEMA also expects to increase trust in model 

outcomes by creating transparency around Hazus’ highly requested data and methodology. 

Risk MAP IT will continue to conduct architecture, design, and general project planning for 

OpenHazus throughout FY2023, in preparation for the start of development in early FY2024.
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5. Goal 5: Support enhanced risk reduction decisionmaking by aligning Risk MAP delivery with the Whole 

Community through customer-centric engagement 

and products.

Figure 11: Goal 5 Implementation Phases

5.1. Overview

With this goal, Risk MAP focuses on how FEMA can better understand the complex flood hazard and 

risk information network and how that network interacts with the overall natural hazard risk 

management network. Understanding the flood hazard and risk information network is critical to 

understanding how best Risk MAP can drive risk reduction and where partnerships and empowering 

stakeholders is required. We will use this information to align risk information and risk management 

programs in a customer-centric approach to delivering Risk MAP outreach, community engagement, 

mitigation planning support, data, products, and tools to communities. To accomplish this, we will 

prioritize current and new partnerships inside and outside of the government.

Risk MAP Goal 5 aligns with Goal E of the FEMA Resilience risk information and management 

strategy: Invest in strategic partnership networks that expand our reach to increase the Nation’s 

resiliency. This goal serves to maximize the effectiveness of the other four goals of this plan by 

ensuring Risk MAP is appropriately positioned and informed as it develops and delivers data, 

consults with, supports, and empowers communities, leads risk-based mitigation planning, and 

provides a modern digital platform. This goal identifies where Risk MAP can have the greatest 

impact, where partners can be more effective or better suited to a critical component of driving risk 

reduction, and where gaps may exist that partnerships can address.
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5.2. Objective 1: Build organizational understanding of how stakeholders 

use and are influenced by flood risk information and products. 

As communities’ needs continue to evolve and new organizations step up to fill their needs, Risk 

MAP must be effectively positioned to support this changing landscape. 

Risk MAP has clear goals, as laid out in this plan, and a regulatory mission that it must continue to 

meet. In addition to those activities, Risk MAP must answer several key questions related to reducing 

current and future flood risk:

 

▪ Stakeholder Ecosystem: 

o What other organizations seek to influence community and individual decision-making

through flood risk information and hazard mitigation planning? 

o How are they better situated than Risk MAP to be impactful? 

o What challenges are they facing and how might Risk MAP partner with them to increase the

impact of their programs? 

o What gaps remain between the present state of the Risk MAP program, the services provided 

by other stakeholders, and stakeholder needs? 

 

▪ Customer Journey – Decision Making:

o How are communities, individuals, and developers making decisions today? 

o What data sources are most trusted? 

o What information and data are not currently available to decision makers, or not available in 

an easily digestible format? 

o How can information be presented to ensure it is reaching decision-makers, is 

comprehensible, and has the greatest possible impact? 

Answers to these questions will support Risk MAP’s shift to a customer-centric approach to delivering 

outreach, community engagement, mitigation planning support, data, products, and tools to 

communities. 

This end state will be realized over the next several years as we take the following concrete steps: 

▪ Develop a results framework; 

▪ Perform an assessment of the universe of flood hazard and flood risk data and products;

▪ Map existing customers and customer interactions;
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▪ Build customer and stakeholder personas;

▪ Identify the products communities and individuals currently use and actually need;

▪ Understand what complementary products exist outside of Risk MAP;

▪ Assess gaps in the current flood hazard and flood risk data products and make 

recommendations for improvement;

▪ Increase data accessibility;

▪ Develop partner profiles to understand how partnerships can support the process; and

▪ Create an approach to maximize economies of scale across the whole ecosystem.

MEASURING USE OF FLOOD RISK PRODUCTS: A NATIONAL SURVEY

As part of the initial assessment of flood hazard and flood risk products, FEMA is developing a 

national survey of NFIP communities where FEMA's non-regulatory flood risk products have been 

developed and delivered. This survey will be sent to those communities’ executives and floodplain 

managers to assess the utility of FEMA’s flood risk products’ ease of use, efficacy of use to take 

mitigation actions to reduce future flood losses, and how new or adjusted flood risk products may 

help meet unmet needs.

The community survey will serve as the initial mechanism to assess the utility of the flood risk 

products, with the intent to conduct a new survey every three to five years. While the initial 

assessment mechanism is qualitative rather than quantitative, future assessments will include a 

quantitative measure to measure communities’ flood resilience within a certain time period after 

receiving flood risk products. A continuous feedback process with communities regarding flood risk 

products will be created during the Risk Map lifecycle for all communities.

The survey addresses the GAO’s Recommendation 2 from October 2021 to develop a framework to 

measure successful uses of the flood risk products by communities to increase their flood 

resilience (see Appendix D for more information).

The survey will be developed in FY2023 and fielded in the first half of FY2024. Results will guide 

future improvements to existing flood risk products, inform new products, and a framework to 

measure flood risk products impacts. This information will improve FEMA’s capacity to provide data 

in support of community flood resilience.
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5.3. Objective 2: Begin to organize Risk MAP in a Customer-Centric manner 

that more efficiently and effectively drives toward the outcome of a 

more flood resilient nation. 

This will allow Risk MAP to design, develop, and deliver tools, resources and networks that drive 

individuals and groups to: 

▪ Take ownership over community resilience;

▪ Build skills in resilience topic areas and community organizing;

▪ Increase demand for action at the SLTT level on policies that increase resilience (e.g., higher 

building codes, stronger development ordinances, smart growth); and

▪ Re-frame topics of risk and reduction in terms of larger community and national goals and 

objectives, changing the conversation and increasing relevance to all community members.

To effectively empower stakeholders and partners, Risk MAP will identify opportunities for 

collaboration and potential customer-centric revision of program design. This process will include 

evaluation of what other Resilience or FEMA programs customers may need as part of their decisionmaking and action to reduce risk, better connecting them with information and resources inside 

FEMA and potentially in collaboration with external partners. The focus will be on better supporting 

customers and stakeholders throughout the life of their resilience journey to ensure they have 

access to the necessary information and resources.

5.4. Objective 3: Continue evolution and advancement of partnerships that 

drive and empower risk reduction action through structure, 

engagement, and messaging.

Using the framework and strategy identified under objective 2, FEMA will prioritize the most effective 

partnerships for empowering and compelling resilient action. These partnerships will expand the 

capacity of Risk MAP to reach stakeholders by leveraging the capacity and efforts of these partners 

and increase the effectiveness of Risk MAP messages and information by delivering them through 

trusted and connected messengers.

FEMA will also foster partnerships and information sharing by convening key participants in the risk 

information, risk management ecosystems to collaborate and share strategies, information, and 

messages.

Using the customer-centered framework from objective 2 and the partnership strategy from objective 

3 will help Risk MAP develop appropriate roles for all levels of government and the private sector to 

participate in the flood risk information and flood risk management ecosystem to maximize resilient 

actions in the nation. Instituting clear and appropriate roles for FEMA and others allows FEMA to 

focus on the core mission and authorities of Risk MAP and leverage partnerships to fill in key gaps.

The work FEMA has been doing to use the results-based programming methodology to map out the 
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causes for low flood resilience and the theory of change for how to increase resilience will help to 

prioritize and guide the development of these roles.

Leveraging the insights and activities of the prior two objectives, Risk MAP will evaluate and pursue a 

wide array of potential partnerships, including those that support: data and product development,

risk communications, engagement, CX, and planning, all of which are needed in resilient decisionmaking and risk reduction action. Filling gaps and presenting consolidated data and products are 

instrumental parts to both a customer-centric program but also to connecting more fields, forums, 

and organizations that can advance risk reduction. In support of these partnerships, Risk MAP will 

also leverage the flood information and resource ecosystem to identify non-traditional stakeholders 

and partners that can be engaged directly or indirectly and empowered with data and products to 

reduce risk.
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Appendix A. Glossary

Term Definition

Base Flood Elevation (BFE) The elevation of the water surface resulting from a 

flood that has a 1-percent-chance of equaling or 

exceeding that level in any given year.

Binary depiction Description of how the National Flood Insurance 

Program displays the special flood hazard area, 

which can give the impression that a location 

either has flood risk or has no flood risk.

Coordinated Needs Management Strategy 

(CNMS)

The system that FEMA uses to track that status of 

the program flood map and model inventory.

Cooperating Technical Partners Program 

(CTP)

A collaborative program with state, local, tribal, 

and territorial entities that supports Risk MAP by 

delivering quality flood data that increases public 

awareness and leads to reduced flood risk.

Federal Flood Risk Management Standard 

(FFMRS)

A flood standard that applies to federally-funded 

buildings and projects. FFRMS requires higher 

levels of flood resilience than the National Flood 

Insurance Program minimum standards to provide 

greater flood resilience against current and future 

flooding.

Future of Flood Risk Data (FFRD) The Future of Flood Risk Data is an initiative to 

better address national gaps in flood hazard data 

and to communicate that data in more impactful

ways. FFRD describes the exploration and learning 

efforts to evolve Risk MAP in support of a risk 

informed National Flood Insurance Program.

Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) Official map of a community on which FEMA 

delineates the determinations of Special Flood 

Hazard Areas (SFHAs) and Base Flood Elevations 

(BFEs).

Flood Risk Products (FRPs) Non-regulatory flood hazard and risk products 

produced by Risk MAP that supplement regulatory 

flood hazard information.
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Term Definition

Hazus Program The Hazus Program provides standardized tools 

and data for estimating risk from earthquakes, 

floods, tsunamis, and hurricanes. Hazus models 

combine expertise from many disciplines to create 

actionable risk information that increases 

community resilience. Hazus software is 

distributed as a GIS-based desktop application. 

National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) Continuously updated geospatial database that 

contains effective National Flood Insurance 

Program flood hazard data.

Natural Hazards Risk Assessment Program 

(NHRAP)

Program that creates a multi-hazard view of risk 

which combines the likelihood and consequences 

of natural hazards with community risk factors to 

provide a holistic view of community risk.

Non-regulatory product FEMA flood hazard and risk products that go 

beyond the determinations of special flood hazard 

areas and base flood elevations.

National Risk Index (NRI) A dataset and online tool to help illustrate the 

United States communities’ risk of 18 natural 

hazards.

New, Validated, or Updated Engineering 

(NVUE)

NVUE measures whether the available regulatory 

flood hazard information reflects current 

conditions. 

OpenHazus Online application that will provide a lower barrier 

of entry to credible risk assessment 

methodologies, results, and analysis while allowing 

for robust collaboration. Will replace the existing 

Hazus GIS-based desktop application. 

Risk Analysis and Management System 

(RAM)

The RAM system comprises the majority of the IT 

capabilities and applications that support Risk 

MAP.

Resilience Ability to adapt to changing conditions and 

withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due 

to emergencies.

Resilient Action Decisions, projects or other activities that increase 

resilience.

Regulatory product Products that provide the official determinations of 

SHFAs and base flood elevations for National Flood 

Insurance Program.
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Term Definition

Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) The land in the floodplain subject to a 1 percent or 

greater chance of flooding in any given year.

Systems Engineering Life Cycle (SELC) A governance process used to monitor and 

approve Federal IT projects.

US Army Corps of Engineers, Hydrologic 

Engineering Center (USACE-HEC)

The Hydrologic Engineering Center supports the 

USACE Civil Works water resources and water 

management responsibilities by increasing 

technical capability in hydrologic engineering and 

water resources planning and management. 

USACE-HEC products, technical methods 

documents, computer software and user’s 

manuals, are widely used for flood hazard and risk 

analysis.
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Appendix B. Risk Information and 

Management Strategy
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Appendix C. National Outreach 

Strategy
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Appendix D: U.S. Government 

Accountability Office (GAO) 

Recommendations

In October 2021, GAO released a report5 looking at FEMA’s regulatory and non-regulatory flood 

mapping activities. The GAO provided 3 recommendations:

Recommendation 1: The Administrator of FEMA should update its multiyear plan for the Risk 

MAP program to identify program goals, objectives, activities, performance measures, and 

time frames for its various efforts to address challenges in reflecting current and future flood 

hazards and to transition to a future program.

Recommendation 2: The Administrator of FEMA should establish mechanisms for periodically 

assessing the usefulness of its Risk MAP nonregulatory products for communities in 

increasing their flood resilience. Such mechanisms could include tracking increases in 

building standards among those communities that use nonregulatory products or conducting 

periodic loss avoidance studies. 

Recommendation 3: The Administrator of FEMA should consider ways to leverage and 

integrate available flood risk data, such as through statistical analyses, into its annual 

process for prioritizing flood mapping investments. Such available data sources include its 

Risk MAP's inventory of [Flood Insurance Rate Map] FIRM mapping projects and FEMA's 

national disaster risk assessment tools. 

With this plan, FEMA has addressed each of these recommendations. The plan itself addresses 

Recommendation 1 by updating the multiyear plan for Risk MAP. Recommendation 2 is addressed 

within this plan, which describes the processes that FEMA is implementing to assess the usefulness 

of the non-regulatory products it produces. These assessments will be part of comprehensive 

listening and learning efforts described under Goal 5 and throughout the plan. These efforts are 

intended to better understand customer needs, deliver adaptable products and information specific 

to those evolving needs, and measure the effectiveness of FEMA’s flood hazard and risk information 

and messages. Recommendation 3 was addressed in 2022 with the development of new Risk MAP 

standards and guidance addressing annual prioritization of flood mapping investments.

5 FEMA Flood Maps: Better Planning and Analysis Needed to Address Current and Future Flood Hazards | U.S. GAO GAO-22-

104079
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Appendix E: Current Interagency

Collaborations

Interagency Framework Development 

FEMA is working with agencies across the Federal government to develop its flood modeling 

framework and advance agencies’ diverse array of water resource management objectives. FEMA is 

a member of the Integrated Water Resources Science and Services interagency consortium. FEMA 

uses these platforms to advocate for a coordinated interagency approach to flood hazard modeling 

and analysis. Risk MAP personnel also represent the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. 

Global Change Research Program, which can deliver the science needed to advance Risk MAP’s 

strategy around modeling future conditions.

At the project level, FEMA and USACE are developing a method to catalog and share models online to 

facilitate interagency collaboration. This decentralized platform of models will support coordinated 

science approaches while enabling Agency specific products. As part of the agreement with USACE to 

develop methodologies for building the new modeling framework, FEMA is also working with USACE 

to design and scope the development of a hypothetical storms database to support probabilistic 

flood risk assessments, develop a model library, improve 2D modeling capabilities for pluvial flood 

risk, develop data and probabilistic flood risk assessment methodology for levees and dams in order 

to identify areas of residual risk and inundation due to overtopping and/or failure of levees and 

dams.

Coastal Flood Modeling

FEMA and USACE have developed baseline data with methodologies to produce comprehensive 

probabilistic hazard information and have initiated full scale production of these framework data for 

the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico coastlines in the United States. The expectation is that these 

data will be available in 2025. This work began with a major investment at the start of Risk MAP to 

update the regulatory coastal analyses for the entire populated coastline and has continued over the 

past several years working with USACE. This work will provide a shared interagency coastal flood 

hazard framework used to derive flood risk data for each agencies’ requirements. This initial phase 

will provide new flood analysis for a significant portion of the nation that is at high risk of flooding 

and where future flooding is being directly impacted by sea level rise.

Table 3: Coverage of Initial Coastal Probabilistic Analysis (Atlantic and Gulf Coasts)

Estimated 

Structures 

Estimated 

Population 

NFIP 

Participating 

Communities 

CRS Participating 

Communities 

Total 17,255,673 52,879,121 2,218 612
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Estimated 

Structures 

Estimated 

Population 

NFIP 

Participating 

Communities 

CRS Participating 

Communities 

AL 207,031 461,105 31 5

CT 301,658 1,188,886 68 12

DC 53,772 530,427 1 0

DE 292,795 687,333 48 10

FL 6,296,034 15,873,941 350 234

GA 251,260 597,361 58 16

LA 1,014,994 2,695,474 126 31

MA 768,489 2,779,972 118 19

MD 603,229 1,619,129 78 12

ME 3,486 4,404 157 5

MS 171,897 395,836 19 14

NC 742,034 1,462,515 187 72

NH 17 37 10 0

NJ 763,750 2,567,686 288 70

NY 1,833,828 9,364,968 202 6

PA 334,498 1,181,477 40 1

PR 309,183 2,079,220 50 0

RI 226,525 755,144 30 11

SC 639,751 1,474,007 84 36

TX 1,779,781 5,267,197 190 37

VA 658,733 2,133,764 80 21

VI 2,928 58540 3 0

In future fiscal years, FEMA will continue to develop coastal probabilistic products for the other parts 

of the United States, including the Great Lakes and Pacific Ocean in coordination with other agencies 

such as USACE, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the USGS (United 

States Geological Survey). This will require an expanded consideration of coastal flood hazards to 

include impacts of tsunamis, coastal erosion, bluffs, and some of the hazards unique to areas like 

Alaska. Due to some of the processes associated with coastal flood hazards in these other 

geographic areas, more work will be required to ensure an appropriate modeling and statistical 

framework in these areas. In the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico this 

framework exists and provided foundation for the ongoing work. Investments in coastal hazards 

information in Alaska requires further coordination in upcoming years with state agencies and other 

federal agencies to identify needs.

Inland Flood Modeling

For the interior of the nation, the shift to probabilistic methodologies still needs to occur and is a 

focus of current efforts. FEMA needs to work across the Federal government over the next five years 

to address science and data gaps. To enable the transition, FEMA has an agreement with USACE to 

develop standard operating procedures (SOP) for probabilistic methodologies for hydrology and 
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hydraulics to support pluvial and fluvial flood risk calculations for the interior of the nation. FEMA is 

also collaborating with USGS, NOAA, and other agencies on shared national approaches and 

enhancements to foundational data to support these approaches.

Subject Matter Experts at USACE, USGS and FEMA must improve methods for estimating flood 

recurrence intervals. Staff have agreed that an improved understanding of the frequency of floods is 

critical information for effective risk communication, planning, and mitigation. This will require 

further coordination with NOAA in future years to assess what datasets and methods help provide 

more causal information on flood forcing.