Complementing Flood Insurance Rate Maps with Community Resilience Estimates Data in Milwaukee County

Thesis presentation of Christopher Archuleta: Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) are primarily used for determining flood insurance rates and for determining which properties are required to have flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program. However, they are also flood risk maps that can serve as risk communication tools. FIRMs have several sources of bias and inaccuracy. As a result, their capacity to communicate flood risk is limited. FIRMs should be complemented with relevant datasets to ascertain a more holistic notion of risk. I propose to investigate the effectiveness of complementing FIRMs with Community Resilience Estimates Data from the US Census Bureau to communicate flood risk. To conduct this study, National Flood Hazard Layer data and Community Resilience Estimates data will be combined in flood risk maps based on risk communication and cartography design principles. Surveys will then be administered to Milwaukee County residents to evaluate how successful these maps are at conveying the spatial distribution of flood risk and the contribution of social vulnerability to flood risk. The results from this study could show the potential of using FIRMs for more holistic flood risk communication purposes.