FEMA's Flood Insurance Study Report (FIS) - Understanding and Utilizing This Resource - a PDH Online Course for Engineers and Surveyors

FEMA's Flood Insurance Study Report (FIS) - Understanding and Utilizing This Resource

Course Outline

Depicting a parcel's flood zone is often required on surveys and development plans, and the feasibility of development with attendant costs as well as insurance requirements and premiums depend on a correct determination of the flood zone for any parcel of land with its present or proposed improvements. FISs are the foundation that Flood Maps are built on. The inquiring minds will enjoy the learning experience provided by this well prepared tutorial.

Many who use FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) do not fully comprehend the uses and limitations of FIRMs or the added benefits and increased precision available through the Flood Insurance Study when determining Base Flood Elevations in a floodplain. Whether you're a professional who's asked to determine a Base Flood Elevation for a particular location in the floodplain, a hydrologist, engineer, planner, architect of involved in one of the many professions related to development, the course will broaden your understanding and equip you to know your way around the Flood Insurance Study.

A great deal can hinge on the correct identification and use of flood map data and the accurate scaling of parcels overlaid on these maps, with the potential for serious consequences when errors or misstatements are made. This tutorial provides the guidance necessary to perform this calculation - and, more accurately than can be accomplished by only using the Flood Map (FIRM).

This course is intended to bring understanding, eliminate confusion and equip those who consult Flood Insurance Studies with confidence in their use and application. And, you don't need to understand the more technical or advanced portions of the FIS to benefit through its use.

This course includes a multiple choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

Users of Flood Insurance Studies will gain a better appreciation for the work that goes into their preparation and will better understand the FIS's practical applications and benefits. Those with a knowledge of hydrology will better equip themselves to employ this useful resource, and those without this knowledge will know what portions of the FIS are useful to their practice.

At the conclusion of this coursework:

You will have learned what information is included in the FIS;
Your knowledge will enable you to make wise decisions to reduce the risk from potential flood hazards;
You'll know how to use the FIS data in conjunction with the Flood Insurance Rate Maps;
You'll know the analyses used to prepare the FIS and the Flood Insurance Rate Map;
You'll know what information in the FIS is useful to you to supplement your use of the FIRM;
You will know your way around the eight sections and supporting data found in a FIS;
You'll know how to determine if an area identified as a flooding source was studied by detailed methods of analysis, and the geographical limits of the study. And you'll know the names of the streams studied by detailed methods and the upstream and downstream limits of the study;
You'll know how to determine the same information for flooding sources studied by approximate methods of analysis;
You'll learn where in the FIS to find the sources of data used in the hydrologic analyses, the methods of analyses, and the table summarizing the discharges;
For coastal areas, you'll learn where to find the explanation of the numerous factors included in the final determination of the coastal flood hazard area;
You'll know where in the report the vertical datum is noted;
For areas where wave height analyses are made, you'll find in-depth information on what goes into the analyses, including a discussion of wave height elevations and what conditions impact these determinations;
You'll find which section of the FIS discloses the scales, contour intervals and dates of topographic maps used to delineate the floodplains on the FIRMs;
You'll learn the section that defines the floodway and explains how it is used for floodplain management;
You'll know what section to go to for a listing of streams having floodways and how floodways were determined;
You'll learn what section identifies and defines all zones shown on the effective FIRM;
You'll know how to locate FEMA's regional office and the Community Map Repository (the local office that keeps a copy of the FIS);
You'll learn why flood profiles (rather than the cross sections shown on the FIRM) should be used to determine a more precise Base Flood Elevation for a specific location in the floodplain;
In conclusion, you'll know what sections of a FIS are for you - for your purposes and effective for your use. Whether you're a hydrologist, a surveyor, a civil engineer, a developer, real estate agent, insurance professional or just plain thirsty for knowledge, you'll benefit from this tutorial.

Intended Audience

This course benefits land surveyors, planners, engineers, architects, insurance and real estate professionals, community officials, assessors, persons serving on regulatory boards, private citizens, buyers of any property, investors in real estate and lenders.

Benefit to Attendees

Whether this course is the student's introduction to FEMA FISs or a study meant to broaden a current user's understanding, the FEMA FIS tutorial is a well-crafted, thoughtful and professionally presented educational experience. It will expand your professional capability and knowledge.

Through experiencing this tutorial and completing the quiz, you'll gain a fuller understanding of Flood Insurance Study Reports (FIRMs) - their use, proper application, and you'll discover the vast source of information contained in these reports.

Course Instructor

Your instructor for this course is a Licensed Land Surveyor who's obtained professional registration in eight states and served as assistant construction superintendent, teacher, writer, civil technician, site planner, land surveying department head, plus created and managed the construction layout division of a large construction management firm, founded and operated a successful construction layout business and a separate land surveying business, and served as the employee of civil, surveying, and architectural firms, developers and state government. His career began in 1963.

The idea of assembling this continuing education course came through experiencing the FEMA-FIS tutorial first-hand with a sincere desire to learn - and deriving both pleasure and significant benefit from the exercise. I realized that others might gain as much as I did - and fulfill continuing education requirements in the process.

Course Introduction

Your instructor often quotes the old saying, "You get out of something what you put into it." When continuing education requirements were first required in New Hampshire, your instructor overheard an old geezer (a guy about the age I'm at now) say, "I'm only here for the credits."

Hearing that saddened me at the time, and remembering it still does. While the centerpiece of this course is the FEMA-FIS tutorial. It provides an opportunity to learn and solidify understanding through well thought out and professionally prepared graphics and a sensitive use of technology - combined to produce a pleasant learning experience that's both efficient and effective.

But the quiz questions are a vital part of your learning experience. They're designed to reinforce the learning gained through the tutorial and to focus attention on important points. The quiz is not separate from the course content or the learning experience, but an integral part of it. This course was developed with the hope you'll benefit from it as much as your instructor has through its creation - that you'll put into it sufficiently to be proud of what you get out of it. The gentleman who was "only there for the credits" couldn't possibly have left for home that evening feeling very good about himself. I encourage you to take every opportunity to learn - or even to review - as a special blessing. After all, it is!

It may be helpful to realize that a FEMA tutorial is, among other things, a vocabulary lesson. A wise person has said, "Classification is the key to learning."

FEMA loves abbreviations! They introduce terms or names and reduce them to abbreviations in a flash: FEMA, FIRM, BFE, NFIP, FIS, SFHA, and on and on. May I suggest that if you're not already familiar with them, you take the time to memorize terms and abbreviations as they are introduced? This will greatly aid in gaining the most from the material.
The tutorial also allows you to "look up" meanings through links and/or a glossary. More than most courses, this tutorial requires that you bite the bullet and fiercely determine that you WILL learn all these terms with their meanings. The greatest benefit will come from clicking on all the many places that open additional slides or animations.
It's a beneficial tutorial! I think you'll enjoy the time you spend with it and profit from it, as I have.

Course Content

You are requierd to study the following document:

FEMA's FIS Tutorial: Screen-captures of FEMA's Well-Thought-Out and Carefully Presented Tutorial on the Flood Insurance Study (PDF, 101 pages, 11MB)

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right-clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader from your computer.

Course Summary

Through this course, you've learned how to get around in the Flood Insurance Study Report (FIS) and been shown how the FIS relates to the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM). You've learned why you can determine a more precise Base Flood Elevation (BFE) in a floodplain and how to do it. In short, you've gained confidence in your use of a valuable resource, the FIS, and you know how the FIS and FIRM relate to one another.

Your course instructor has a suggestion for your consideration: If you are required to certify whether or not a property, portion of property or structure is in a Flood Insurance Risk Zone or a Floodway or otherwise assume the position of "knowing" exactly where a property is in relation to features or information shown on Flood Maps, I suggest you state as a part of that certification that your determination was made by scaling on a flood map in conformance with methods propagated and endorsed by FEMA at (link to their tutorial).

Those who make their living through measuring will readily notice that the portion of the building and property shown in FEMA's animation as being "in the Special Flood Hazard Area, but NOT in the Floodway," is mighty close to being in the Floodway - or to being entirely out of both the Floodway AND the SFHA.

The measurement methods illustrated in the tutorial (scaling from roads depicted on the Flood Map, from assessor's maps and along the stream centerline) leave a lot to be desired in the realm of accuracy. Surveyors appreciate the importance of distinguishing between precision and accuracy. The FIS provides for higher precision in your determination of the Base Flood Elevation than does the FIRM. But, the accuracy of your precise interpolation is limited by the process of scaled measurements. Your instructor, for one, intends to accompany any certification related to a BFE determination with a qualification as to the method employed. Something to think about…

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial as much as I have, and that the quiz has helped your retention of the information presented.

One final word: The certificate offered at the end of the tutorial is, of course, not the PDHonline certificate and does not provide continuing professional development credits. But, it is very pretty, and you deserve one! Print it out in color.

Ralated Links

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program: Flood Hazard Mapping http://www.fema.gov/fhm/
Flood Insurance Library http://www.fema.gov/nfip/library.shtm
FEMA Map Store http://www.store.msc.fema.gov (Then, click on Map Search.)

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.