Legal Issues in Floodplain Mapping to Reflect Climate Change
This article addresses floodplain mapping to reflect climate change impacts such as flooding from sea level rise, reviews the legality of use of updated maps for land-use regulations, and cites court cases dealing with flood maps historically.
John Kusler, the author of the report for the Association of State Wetland Managers, explains that “governments will, over time, need to upgrade flood hazard maps to reflect climate change related flood elevations, velocities and other flood factors. Changes will also be needed to reflect urbanization and changes in stream hydrology and hydraulics due to a broad range of watershed activities.” The article in turn answers the questions:
- Will state and local governments face legal problems with upgrading climate-related or other changes in flood boundaries, elevations, and other flood factors?
- How have traditional regulatory maps and changes in such maps fared in the courts?
- How can governments avoid problems in this process?
The article describes court cases dealing with flood maps including, for example, when courts have provided broad support for traditional floodplain maps despite errors, how local governments and states can decide what floodplain map they will use, and that a floodplain regulatory agency may update mapping methods.
The final section describes “Avoiding Problems With Flood Mapping Procedures and Flood Maps Reflecting Climate Change and Other Changed Conditions.” Based upon existing case law, recommendations are made for avoiding legal problems with flood maps reflecting climate change.
FEMA is presently updating and digitizing floodplain maps (Risk Map Program) with the help of states, local governments and other federal agencies. According to the report, maps subject to this update effort have a variety of limitations including but not limited to failure to reflect climate change.
Publication Date: November 2013
Author or Affiliated User:
- John Kusler
Related Organizations:
- Association of State Wetland Managers (ASWM)
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Resource Types:
- Legal Analysis
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