(TLP:CLEAR) NOAA’s Flood Inundation Mapping Tool Expands to 60% of U.S.

Summary: This week, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) announced the expansion of its experimental Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) tool. The updated tool, which was launched in 2023, now covers 60% of the U.S. population.

Analyst Note: Flooding continues to be the most frequent and costliest natural disaster. Moreover, most areas of the continental U.S. are projected to experience greater flood risk in a warming climate going forward. The FIM provides near-real-time, high-resolution, street-level visualizations of flood waters to assist NWS forecasters in issuing flood watches and warnings, this tool can also be leveraged by water utilities and emergency managers. Specifically, FIM helps provide approximate spatial estimates of land area that is covered in water, based on modeled forecast river flows and current conditions, with detailed information on where flooding impacts may occur.

According to NOAA, by next year, FIM will be fully deployed in communities across the country and available for 110,000 river miles near and downstream of NWS RFC forecast point locations. It will also be available for more than 3.6 million river miles covered by National Water Model forecasts. “Expanding our FIM availability has been a game-changer in providing actionable, real-time information to emergency and water resource managers, and will expand the delivery of impact-based decision support services to our core partners who work to keep Americans safe and informed,” said David Vallee, director, Service Innovation and Partnership Division, NOAA’s National Water Center.

Original Source: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaas-transformative-flood-inundation-mapping-expands-to-60-of-us

Additional Reading:

• New Analysis Maps Wastewater Plants at Increased Risk of Flooding from Severe Storms

Mitigation Recommendations:

• EPA – Build Flood Resilience at Your Water and Wastewater Utility
• EPA – Incident Action Checklist – Flooding

Related WaterISAC PIRs: 16 & 17