At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify the purpose of a Flood Insurance Study (FIS)
• Recognize the authority behind an FIS

A Flood Insurance Study (FIS) is a report prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that summarizes flood hazard data in a community. The analyses used to prepare a FIS are also used to produce the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM).

The FIRM is a map set that graphically depicts identified flood hazards areas in a community. The FIRM is the basis for floodplain management, mitigation, and insurance activities in the National Flood Insurance Program. The FIS provides detailed information to supplement the FIRM.

Many students will find it helpful to download and view a FIS on a separate screen or printed. Student can then refer to each FIS Section while taking the course.

You can access the Flood County, USA sample FIS used for training classes at https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/20130726-1554-20490-6003/dfm_dfft.pdf

If you would prefer to download the FIS for your community, advance to the next screen for instructions.

To get the most learning value out of this course, you may want to download your community’s Flood Insurance Study from the Map Service Center (MSC) website and follow along as you navigate this course. 

Steps to download a FIS.

1. Navigate to the FEMA Map Service Center available at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/home
2. Select the MSC Search All Products link form either the:
• Search All Products link in the web page text,
• Search All Products link in MSC Navigation bar.
3. Enter your Search information in one of the three search options:
• Jurisdiction (Note: When you select a State, County and Community options display)
• Jurisdiction Name or FEMA ID
• Product ID.
4. Select the Search button
5. Open the Effective Products folder
6. Find the FIS Report (#)
7. Select the Download All icon.
• The available FIS reports will list, showing Product ID, Effective Date, Size, and Download icon.
8. Select the Download icon for the FIS you want to retrieve.

The current effective, preliminary, and historic Flood Insurance Study (FIS) reports, Flood Hazard Boundary Maps (FHBM), Flood Boundary and Floodway Map (FBFM) and Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) panels may be accessed, viewed and downloaded from FEMA's Map Service Center (MSC). Sometimes historic documents are not available for download and you will need to contact the MSC.

For more information or assistance,

• Contact a Flood Map Specialist by email at FEMAMapSpecialist@riskmapcds.com

or

• Call 1-877-FEMA-MAP (1-877-336-2627)

For more information on the publications available at the Map Service Center, open the MSC web site available at https://msc.fema.gov/

A Flood Insurance Study (FIS) includes the following sections and supporting information:

• Section 1.0: Introduction
• Section 2.0: Area Studied
• Section 3.0: Engineering Methods
• Section 4.0: Floodplain Management Applications
• Section 5.0: Insurance Applications
• Section 6.0: Flood Insurance Rate Map
• Section 7.0: Other Studies
• Section 8.0: Location of Data
• Section 9.0: Bibliography
• Section 10.0: Revisions (not in all FISs)

Supporting Data within the sections and appendices includes:

• Vicinity Map
• Summary of Discharges Table
• Floodway Data Table
• Summary of Stillwater Elevations Table
• Flood Profiles
• Flood Boundary and Floodway Map (FBFM) or Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)
• Transect Data (in coastal and Great Lake communities)

Remember, this is a generalized structure. Individual studies may vary from this generic layout of FIS sections, but the study findings will still be conveyed in a similar format.

This section includes three sub-sections.

1.1 – Purpose of Study

1.2 – Authority and Acknowledgements

1.3 – Coordination

This section details which communities are included in the FIS. It explains that flood risk data was developed to establish flood insurance zones and assist the communities in mitigating flood hazards.

44 CFR 60.1(d) explains that the Federal flood damage reduction criteria are the minimum. In some states and/or communities, floodplain management criteria or regulations may exist that are more restrictive than the minimum federal requirements. In such cases, the more restrictive criteria will take precedence, and the state and/or community (or other jurisdictional agency) will be able to explain them.

Communities adopt higher regulatory standards to:

• Reduce flood risk
• Make floodplain development safer
• Improve community resilience
• Allow flexibility for state or local conditions that require higher standards
• Encourage comprehensive floodplain management

Higher standards may reduce flood insurance premiums.

Authority for the NFIP, National Flood Insurance Act.

Identifies the National Flood Insurance Act (1968), the Flood Disaster Protection Act (1973), the National Flood Insurance Reform Act (1994), the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act (2012), and the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act (2014).

Identification of study contractor(s)

Identifies the companies or government agencies that developed the flood risk data incorporated into the FIS and flood map panels.

Contract Numbers

Identifies the contract numbers under which the work was accomplished.

Date work completed for each contract

Provides the date that the Study Contractor completed their work.

Initial Consultation and Coordination Officer’s (CCO) Meeting

In general, for each FIS an initial Consultation Coordination Officer’s (CCO) meeting is held with representatives from FEMA, the communities, and the study contractors to explain the nature and purpose of the FIS and to identify the streams to be studied by detailed methods. This subsection identifies which organizations, communities and Federal agencies were represented at the meeting.

Sources of Additional Information

Identifies sources of additional flood risk data that may have been incorporated into the FIS and Flood map but were not contracted or paid for by FEMA.

Final CCO Meeting

Provides date at which the results of the study were presented to representatives of the community and other interested parties. Also identifies the communities and agencies present at the meeting.

You have completed Lesson 1.

In this lesson, you:

• Identified the purpose of a Flood Insurance Study (FIS)
• Recognized the authority behind an FIS