| “Now that the technology is available to evaluate and analyze flood data in digital form, the possibility exists to develop many different applications.” | |
| Carol Tyau-Beam, State of Hawaii National Flood Insurance Program |
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It used to be a difficult and time-consuming process to assess the flood hazards of a specific property in Hawaii. Today, it is easy for property owners and others in the state to search and view flood hazard information using an online geographic information system (GIS) mapping application.
“While the tool doesn’t provide a final regulatory assessment, it vastly improves the process by quickly performing initial assessments,” says Carol Tyau-Beam, State of Hawaii National Flood Insurance Program coordinator in the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. “This is a starting point for a customer who needs information for planning purposes, such as siting, construction, or property purchase.”
Since the Hawaii Flood Hazard Assessment Tool (FHAT) was released in January 2008, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has continued to enhance the application by adding data and maps and creating an Elevation Certificate tool that allows users to automatically fill in fields in the certificate form.
“FHAT has become a valuable resource for many National Flood Insurance Program stakeholders,” says Tyau-Beam.
Going Paperless
Before FHAT was released, the process of assessing flood hazards at the parcel level in Hawaii was a manual exercise, says Tyau-Beam. “It was challenging to determine the location of parcels and structures on the paper FEMA flood insurance rate maps (FIRMs). This made assessing the flood hazard of an existing parcel a difficult and time-consuming task.”
Six years ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began a map modernization program with the goal of making FIRMs available digitally.
“We saw a need,” says Tyau-Beam, “for people to know where to get the digital flood map information, and our office was in a position to receive the maps from FEMA. We needed a Web-based format for people without access to ArcGIS products to view the maps. We also needed to bring in county parcel information, which FEMA doesn’t include on the FIRMs, in order for people to search by properties.”
Integrating Data
To help build the FHAT tool, Department of Land and Natural Resources staff members turned to a consultant who was not just a GIS practitioner, but who was also capable of programming Web applications.
The resulting tool integrates GIS data layers from federal, state, and local sources into a single statewide map. The map is made up of special flood hazard area GIS layers collected from FEMA, imagery collected from state sources, and parcel and road network layers collected from county sources.
Users can search for their parcels either by location, address, or tax map key. Once located, a report can be generated providing flood hazard information about the property.
“Because FHAT is on a public website,” Tyau-Beam says, “it saves county personnel time by allowing anyone the ability to locate their parcel of interest and retrieve flood hazard information.”
“It is important to stress,” she adds, “that the FHAT is an informational, not a regulatory tool. Our state National Flood Insurance Program serves as a liaison between FEMA and the counties, so building permits are not issued through our office.”
Enhancements
After publicly launching FHAT, the Department of Land and Natural Resources began working with county officials to get their input. As a result of their and other users’ feedback, the FHAT was enhanced to improve its usability and functionality.
Added features include the capability of viewing letters of map change, which reflect official revisions to flood maps, preliminary digital flood insurance rate maps (DFIRMs), and National Geodetic Survey benchmark datasheets, which show the location of bronze disk survey monuments set in rock or permanent structures.
Form Filling
The latest improvement that has been incorporated into the FHAT, Tyau-Beam says, is an Elevation Certificate tool, which is an online digital version of a paper FEMA form. The form is primarily used by floodplain administrators, surveyors, insurance agents, and their clients.
The expanded tool allows users to initiate an Elevation Certificate for a property by automatically inputting various form fields with data extracted from a search query. The remainder of the PDF form can then be completed by the user, printed, and traditionally submitted to a county office for processing.
“Creating the Elevation Certificate tool is win-win—the auto-complete functions help us during review of the forms to ensure information provided is accurate, and it also helps the applicant in completing the forms accurately and more efficiently,” Tyau-Beam says. “Feedback we’ve gotten from the surveying community and from counties is they are applauding our efforts and promoting the tool.”
The FHAT tool also received ESRI’s 2009 Special Achievement in GIS award.
Driving Interest
While press releases about FHAT had generated some users, Tyau-Beam says it was a major storm that helped drive interest in the website.
“At the end of December 2008, the state experienced severe storms and heavy flooding, and the FHAT received a huge spike in hits,” she recalls. “From that point on, we pushed to promote the website and started training stakeholders on all the islands.”
Training on using the tool was held for insurance agents, mortgage lenders, and realtors. Agency staff members have also been promoting the site at building and home shows.
Model Effort
Tyau-Beam notes that both the FHAT and Elevation Certificate tool could be populated with data specific to other states.
“Either tool would be useful for floodplain managers in any state with digital flood insurance rate maps,” she says. “In other disciplines, the availability of digital maps or databases opens up possibilities for useful search tools. Coastal managers may not use the Elevation Certificate tool specifically, but similar tools and applications may spawn from it.”
Tyau-Beam suggests that something similar to the FHAT that overlays shoreline setbacks with flood inundation lines could be used for planning or siting purposes, or a tool that queries data might aid in the coastal zone permitting process.
“Now that the technology is available to evaluate and analyze flood data in digital form, the possibility exists to develop many different applications,” she says. “It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities!”
To view Hawaii’s Flood Hazard Assessment Tool, go to www.hawaiinfip.org and click on Flood Hazard Assessment Tool. For more information on the tool or its development, contact Carol Tyau-Beam at Carol.L.Tyau@hawaii.gov.
