{"id":1918,"date":"2013-02-14T11:11:43","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T16:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2013-02-14T11:11:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T16:11:43","slug":"new-fema-flood-maps-for-new-york-do-not-consider-sea-level-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2013\/02\/14\/new-fema-flood-maps-for-new-york-do-not-consider-sea-level-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"New FEMA Flood Maps for New York Do Not Consider Sea Level Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

On January 28, FEMA released updated flood maps for parts of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey, and Westchester County.\u00a0\u00a0 The updated maps will help New York officials determine the best policies for re-building in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 But the maps do not account for future effects of climate change, such as sea level rise and storm intensification, and therefore may be too conservative to provide adequate protection.<\/p>\n

The new maps cover a much larger area and twice as many structures<\/a> as the latest version created in 1986: an additional 35,000 structures are identified as being at risk.\u00a0 New maps for Manhattan and the Bronx, to be released later this month, are expected to add to this number.\u00a0 Some of this increase in coverage is due to sea level rise New York has experienced in the past 30 years, but most of the change is due to improvements in modeling methods, computer equipment, and scientists\u2019 understanding of ocean physics.<\/p>\n

Even with this additional coverage, the flood zones identified by FEMA are much smaller than the area that was actually flooded by Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 Specifically, the storm submerged large areas of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and New Jersey that are not included in FEMA\u2019s new flood zones.<\/p>\n

Even more importantly, the flood maps do not consider effects of future sea level rise. \u00a0According to the 2013 Draft National Climate Assessment Report, global sea levels are projected to rise 1 to 4 feet by 2100, and sea level rise in the northeast region is expected to exceed the global average by roughly 4 inches (Ch 16: Northeast<\/a>). With higher sea levels, if another storm like Hurricane Sandy struck New York, storm surge would affect a much larger area than is currently predicted by the FEMA maps.<\/p>\n

FEMA officials who spoke on background to InsideClimate News<\/em><\/a><\/i> said future sea level rise wasn’t included because the agency has traditionally used historical storm information to determine where flood zones should be set.<\/p>\n

In July 2012, President Obama signed the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act into law, which requires FEMA to\u00a0 consider using the \u201cbest available science regarding future changes in sea levels, precipitation, and intensity of hurricanes\u201d in its flood zone maps. \u00a0But the New York City FEMA maps\u00a0 were exempt from the new law because their development had been under way since 2010.<\/p>\n

The flood maps are particularly important during the post-Sandy re-building process as New York officials will use the maps to set insurance requirements and building code modifications. If the New York maps are too conservative, property owners may risk losing their investments by rebuilding in especially vulnerable areas or by adapting structures to meet standards that will have to be revised in a few years.<\/p>\n

This would be a particularly severe problem if New York has to wait another 30 years for the next update to its flood zone maps.\u00a0\u00a0 Dan Watson, a spokesperson for FEMA, told\u00a0InsideClimate News<\/em><\/a> that the agency plans to update its flood maps across the country roughly every five years from now on. \u201cIn 2003, FEMA began receiving a regular appropriation to both modernize and update the science behind flood insurance rate maps,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThe continued funding allows us to maintain the mapping of flood risk as a top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in these future flood maps, according to the Reform Act, FEMA will at least have to consider incorporating future climate impacts. \u00a0Whether or not that is too late for New York remains to be seen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 28, FEMA released updated flood maps for parts of Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey, and Westchester County.\u00a0\u00a0 The updated maps will help New York officials determine the best policies for re-building in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.\u00a0 But the maps do not account for future effects of climate change, such as sea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nNew FEMA Flood Maps for New York Do Not Consider Sea Level Rise - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2013\/02\/14\/new-fema-flood-maps-for-new-york-do-not-consider-sea-level-rise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New FEMA Flood Maps for New York Do Not Consider Sea Level Rise - 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