Improved Flood Risk Communication Incorporating Community Resilience Data in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

Keywords: flood map, risk communication, flood risk, Community Resilience Estimates
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Flood Insurance Rate Maps are primarily used for determining flood insurance rates and if flood insurance is required under the National Flood Insurance Program. They have several sources of bias and inaccuracy, limiting their capacity to communicate flood risk. This study investigated how Flood Insurance Rate Maps, which are created with National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data, can be visualized with Community Resilience Estimates (CRE) data from the U.S. Census Bureau to better communicate about flood risk than with NFHL data alone. To conduct this study, one set of flood risk maps showing only NFHL data and another set showing both NFHL and CRE data were created and added to a survey. The survey was administered to Milwaukee County residents to evaluate how successful the flood risk maps were at communicating flood risk. Survey respondents (n=41) indicated that they learned important flood risk information from both sets of maps, but twice as many said that the maps with CRE data were more insightful than the ones without CRE data. The study demonstrated the usefulness of CRE data as a tool to improve flood risk communication.