The National Flood Insurance Program

Floodplain Management

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What is Floodplain Management?

Floodplain management is the operation of a community program of corrective and preventative measures for reducing flood damage. These measures take a variety of forms and generally include requirements for zoning, subdivision or building, and special-purpose floodplain ordinances.

A community's agreement to adopt and enforce floodplain management ordinances, particularly with respect to new construction, is an important element in making flood insurance available to home and business owners. Currently over 20,100 communities voluntarily adopt and enforce local floodplain management ordinances that provide flood loss reduction building standards for new and existing development.

To help State and local officials in implementing the NFIP, see our

  1. Adoption of Flood Insurance Rate Maps by Participating Communities
  2. NFIP Floodplain Management Requirements
  3. NFIP Policy Keyword Index

To encourage communities to establish sound floodplain management programs that recognize and encourage community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements, the Community Rating System (CRS) was created. This program provides communities with discounts to flood insurance rates.

Additional floodplain management resources  are available to download or can be ordered from the FEMA Publication Distribution Center by calling 1-800-480-2520 and requesting the publication by its FEMA number.

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What must a community do to join the NFIP?

To join the Program, the community must submit an application package that includes the following information:

For more information about joining the program:

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Community Assistance Program

The Community Assistance Program (CAP) is a product-oriented financial assistance program directly related to the flood loss reduction objectives of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). States that are participating in the NFIP are eligible for this Federally funded assistance. The CAP is intended to help States identify, prevent, and resolve floodplain management issues in participating communities before a flood event.

Find more information about the two other elements that make up the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP):

In addition, you can visit the Map Service Center for other NFIP resources and to order and view official FEMA flood insurance rate maps.

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Additional Areas of Interest

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Other Federal Programs that help the NFIP

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Last Modified: Thursday, 19-Jun-2008 16:51:28 EDT

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