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Author: John Michael Iffert Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) are determining factors for the United States' federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Not only do these maps determine insurance premiums for the NFIP, but they provide localities insights on how to best manage flood risk and develop more sustainable communities. The NFIP has been experiencing increasing scrutiny from the public due to several complicated and interdependent factors including its financially insolvent insurance structure and out of date and inaccurate floodplain maps. FIRM accuracy and adoption are key factors to address when assessing the current state of the NFIP and understanding how the program can better provide for its policyholders and effectively utilize its appropriated funds. In order to build further understanding on the challenge of out of date FIRM information, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the disparities in flood insurance rate map adoption. The questions guiding this research are: Do disparities exist in FIRM adoption? If so, how? Chapter 2 presents a case study comparing the FIRM adoption processes of two communities both heavily impacted by severe flooding: New Hanover County, NC and Horry County, SC. Additionally, Chapter 4 raises ethical questions about FIRM and NFIP structures and investigates the intentions and outcomes of the program through various normative frameworks. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes outcomes and pathways for future research. This research is valuable because if we can better understand where and why FIRM adoption is lagging, we can better reveal what communities are truly vulnerable from flooding risks.
Author: John Michael Iffert Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM) are determining factors for the United States' federally subsidized National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Not only do these maps determine insurance premiums for the NFIP, but they provide localities insights on how to best manage flood risk and develop more sustainable communities. The NFIP has been experiencing increasing scrutiny from the public due to several complicated and interdependent factors including its financially insolvent insurance structure and out of date and inaccurate floodplain maps. FIRM accuracy and adoption are key factors to address when assessing the current state of the NFIP and understanding how the program can better provide for its policyholders and effectively utilize its appropriated funds. In order to build further understanding on the challenge of out of date FIRM information, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the disparities in flood insurance rate map adoption. The questions guiding this research are: Do disparities exist in FIRM adoption? If so, how? Chapter 2 presents a case study comparing the FIRM adoption processes of two communities both heavily impacted by severe flooding: New Hanover County, NC and Horry County, SC. Additionally, Chapter 4 raises ethical questions about FIRM and NFIP structures and investigates the intentions and outcomes of the program through various normative frameworks. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes outcomes and pathways for future research. This research is valuable because if we can better understand where and why FIRM adoption is lagging, we can better reveal what communities are truly vulnerable from flooding risks.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309371694 Category : Mathematics Languages : en Pages : 167
Book Description
Floods take a heavy toll on society, costing lives, damaging buildings and property, disrupting livelihoods, and sometimes necessitating federal disaster relief, which has risen to record levels in recent years. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created in 1968 to reduce the flood risk to individuals and their reliance on federal disaster relief by making federal flood insurance available to residents and businesses if their community adopted floodplain management ordinances and minimum standards for new construction in flood prone areas. Insurance rates for structures built after a flood plain map was adopted by the community were intended to reflect the actual risk of flooding, taking into account the likelihood of inundation, the elevation of the structure, and the relationship of inundation to damage to the structure. Today, rates are subsidized for one-fifth of the NFIP's 5.5 million policies. Most of these structures are negatively elevated, that is, the elevation of the lowest floor is lower than the NFIP construction standard. Compared to structures built above the base flood elevation, negatively elevated structures are more likely to incur a loss because they are inundated more frequently, and the depths and durations of inundation are greater. Tying Flood Insurance to Flood Risk for Low-Lying Structures in the Floodplain studies the pricing of negatively elevated structures in the NFIP. This report review current NFIP methods for calculating risk-based premiums for these structures, including risk analysis, flood maps, and engineering data. The report then evaluates alternative approaches for calculating risk-based premiums and discusses engineering hydrologic and property assessment data needs to implement full risk-based premiums. The findings and conclusions of this report will help to improve the accuracy and precision of loss estimates for negatively elevated structures, which in turn will increase the credibility, fairness, and transparency of premiums for policyholders.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309185467 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 137
Book Description
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps portray the height and extent to which flooding is expected to occur, and they form the basis for setting flood insurance premiums and regulating development in the floodplain. As such, they are an important tool for individuals, businesses, communities, and government agencies to understand and deal with flood hazard and flood risk. Improving map accuracy is therefore not an academic question-better maps help everyone. Making and maintaining an accurate flood map is neither simple nor inexpensive. Even after an investment of more than $1 billion to take flood maps into the digital world, only 21 percent of the population has maps that meet or exceed national flood hazard data quality thresholds. Even when floodplains are mapped with high accuracy, land development and natural changes to the landscape or hydrologic systems create the need for continuous map maintenance and updates. Mapping the Zone examines the factors that affect flood map accuracy, assesses the benefits and costs of more accurate flood maps, and recommends ways to improve flood mapping, communication, and management of flood-related data.
Author: National Research Council Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309104092 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 167
Book Description
Floodplain maps serve as the basis for determining whether homes or buildings require flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Approximately $650 billion in insured assets are now covered under the program. FEMA is modernizing floodplain maps to better serve the program. However, concerns have been raised as to the adequacy of the base map information available to support floodplain map modernization. Elevation Data for Floodplain Mapping shows that there is sufficient two-dimensional base map imagery to meet FEMA's flood map modernization goals, but that the three-dimensional base elevation data that are needed to determine whether a building should have flood insurance are not adequate. This book makes recommendations for a new national digital elevation data collection program to redress the inadequacy. Policy makers; property insurance professionals; federal, local, and state governments; and others concerned with natural disaster prevention and preparedness will find this book of interest.
Author: Perry Beider Publisher: DIANE Publishing ISBN: 1437925499 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 52
Book Description
The vast majority of homes and small commercial buildings that are insured against flood damage in the U.S. are covered by the Nat. Flood Insur. Program (NFIP). Although the flood insurance (FI) program had been largely self-sustaining in the past, it had to borrow $17 billion from the federal Treasury to pay claims after the catastrophic hurricanes of 2005. That borrowing has highlighted questions about the program¿s financial health, including the actuarial soundness of the premium rates charged on policies that are not explicitly subsidized and the cost of paying claims for properties that have suffered multiple flood losses. This report explains how NFIP sets ¿full-risk¿ premium rates for the FI program. Charts and tables.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Publisher: National Academies Press ISBN: 0309380804 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 151
Book Description
When Congress authorized the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968, it intended for the program to encourage community initiatives in flood risk management, charge insurance premiums consistent with actuarial pricing principles, and encourage the purchase of flood insurance by owners of flood prone properties, in part, by offering affordable premiums. The NFIP has been reauthorized many times since 1968, most recently with the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 (BW 2012). In this most recent reauthorization, Congress placed a particular emphasis on setting flood insurance premiums following actuarial pricing principles, which was motivated by a desire to ensure future revenues were adequate to pay claims and administrative expenses. BW 2012 was designed to move the NFIP towards risk-based premiums for all flood insurance policies. The result was to be increased premiums for some policyholders that had been paying less than NFIP risk-based premiums and to possibly increase premiums for all policyholders. Recognition of this possibility and concern for the affordability of flood insurance is reflected in sections of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2014 (HFIAA 2014). These sections called on FEMA to propose a draft affordability framework for the NFIP after completing an analysis of the efforts of possible programs for offering "means-tested assistance" to policyholders for whom higher rates may not be affordable. BW 2012 and HFIAA 2014 mandated that FEMA conduct a study, in cooperation with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which would compare the costs of a program of risk-based rates and means-tested assistance to the current system of subsidized flood insurance rates and federally funded disaster relief for people without coverage. Production of two reports was agreed upon to fulfill this mandate. This second report proposes alternative approaches for a national evaluation of affordability program policy options and includes lessons for the design of a national study from a proof-of-concept pilot study.
Author: John Michael Iffert
Author: John Michael Iffert
Author: 
Author: National Research Council
Author: 
Author: National Research Council
Author: National Research Council
Author: United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
Author: Perry Beider
Author: United States. Federal Insurance Administration
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine