State of Rhode Island: Emergency Management Agency
Skip to content | Skip to navigation | Skip to other related content
Flood Hazard Mapping
Why are maps a part of the National Flood Insurance Program?
The National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 directed the federal government to identify all flood prone areas within the United States and establish risk zones within those areas. The maps identifying the flood prone areas would then form the basis for the federally back flood insurance rates. Hence, the official name of these maps: Flood Insurance Rate Maps (although most people simply know of them as FIRMs). As part of the NFIP, the federal government provides FIRMs and flood insurance to communities that agree to regulate development in high risk flood areas.
What are FIRMs and what do they depict?
FIRMs are graphical depictions of flood hazard areas. Therefore, the FIRMs could be called flood hazard maps. They should NOT be called flood maps, as they do NOT depict the limits of any past or future flood and therefore are not “flood maps.” The areas designated on FIRMs represent areas with a higher risk of flooding. Areas that are not in those zones can still flood! The FIRMs depict areas modeled to be subject to a higher risk of flood hazards. The FIRMs depict areas subject to additional regulations because of the flood hazards, the “regulated floodplain.”
Adapted from ‘A Plea to Floodplain Managers’ from NYSFSMA News, Newsletter of the New YorkState Floodplain and Stormwater Managers Association, Summer 2009
To Learn More About Flood Hazard Maps:
What's Happening with Flood Hazard Maps?
Transition to Digital/Map Modernization