What Are Flood Risk Assessments?

A flood assessment, properly prepared, looks at a location within a region and what water risks it is exposed to. In many jurisdictions, flood assessment is performed either by local and state authorities or federal authorities. The process is not highly technical in nature, although the basis of the assessment does involve geophysical science and water studies.

The goal of a flood risk assessment is to identify what flooding risks exist in an area and how they can be prepared for or avoided. A flood event per land-planning experts involves an incident that can cause death, harm, destruction of property, wreckage of homes and structures, loss of crops, environmental harm, business stoppage or obstacles, and other hurt. As a result, those issues or factors that can cause such events are a priority for assessment identification.

Part of an assessment also takes into account the vulnerability of an area. For instance, if a town is on top of a hill near a river, the vulnerability may be lower in an assessment since the town is at a higher level than the water flow. That said, if the increased water flow also increases erosion that causes landslides, flooding could still cause a potential risk. Much depends on the specific location, the region, and the makeup of water flow in the area as it relates to surroundings. Land use managers and flood managers are frequently challenged with custom-tailoring assessments to specific areas as a result.

Additionally, assessments are scored by their risk to population. An assessment may have a fairly high risk if a region involves rivers and levees that pass right next to a populated area. The same structure and river could have a much lower assessment if the risk area is simply farm land instead. The Sacramento valley in California is a prime example. Near Sacramento city, the Natomas floodplain has a significant flood risk assessment, so much so that the federal government reinstituted required flood insurance on homeowners. Further down the river, much of the area is farmland, with far less risk of just damaged crops during a levee break and flooding.

Finally, flood assessments get scored based on the statistical probability of an event occurring in the area and how well its prevention methods will offset that risk. A common term thrown around by media sources includes the description "100-year" flood protection. This essentially means there is 1 chance in the next 100 years of a catastrophic flood to wipe out a targeted area. Unfortunately, this kind of scoring term is misleading since it implies automatic protection except for one year. In reality, multiple levels of flooding can occur, causing just as much significant damage for unlucky victims. The trick to understanding such flood assessment scoring is to read into the details of the report, typically by a government agency to understand where the risks are in relation to your location. If a structure is next to a river or levee, it likely has a far higher risk within the assessment than a home five miles away.

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