Research conducted by a team of U.S. and U.K. scientists and engineers suggests that U.S. federal flood maps underestimate the number of Americans at risk for flood by more than 27 million people.
Fathom, which presented its research at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Meeting on Dec. 11, claims its findings fill in "vast amounts of missing information" in current federal flood risk assessments.
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The scientists produced a "redrawn" flood map of the U.S. based on new technologies, simulating every river catchment area. Their mapping project focuses on areas on river floodplains and areas at risk of flash floods, and excludes areas at risk of coastal flooding.
One team researcher, Oliver Wing, Ph.D, of the University of Bristol, says Fathom's research estimates that 40 million Americans live on the 1-in-100 year floodplain, as are $5.5 trillion worth of assets, compared to the current FEMA flood map estimate of 13 million people. This 100-year floodplain area is recognized as a "high-risk" area, with 1% chance of flooding each year, and is charted by FEMA on its official flood hazard map.
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In a conversation with the BBC, Wing said the biggest problem is how incomplete the community of river gauges is within the U.S., so he and his colleagues at Fathom created their flood maps based on years of study on the way river systems behave, closing those data gaps on the probability of flooding.
Supporting Fathom's research claims, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Inspector General released a report addressing the need for FEMA to improve management of its flood mapping programs.
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