Use flood map legend and layers to identify the relevant layer, then check whether it is regulatory, planning, long-term risk, drainage, insurance, or emergency information. Those layers do not answer the same question.
For flood map legend and layers, a color or zone is useful only with the property location, hazard type, scenario, map owner, and study or effective date. When FEMA Flood Map Service Center is a national viewer or catalogue, follow it to the current local map before making a property decision.
Find the map owner for flood map legend and layers
Use FEMA Flood Map Service Center for the map-legend review, then identify the map owner, covered hazard, effective or study date, and purpose of the layer shown.
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center
- FEMA Flood Maps Overview
- GOV.UK Flood Map for Planning
- GEO.ca flood mapping
- GOV.UK long-term flood risk service
- Geoscience Australia Flood Risk Information Portal
Use the exact parcel and map date
In the map-legend review, keep the exact address, parcel or coordinates, community or panel number, and the map date visible while comparing layers.
- Exact property address
- Parcel or coordinates
- Community or map panel
- Effective map date
Read the hazard layer in its stated scenario
- Read the coverage and date together when using flood map legend and layers; a different layer or local study may answer a different question.
- In FEMA Flood Map Service Center, identify whether the layer is regulatory, planning, long-term risk, drainage, insurance, or emergency information.
- To complete the map-legend review, record the zone or scenario, panel or study name, effective date, and map owner.
- For the map-legend review, after the first FEMA Flood Map Service Center result, open amendments, map-change documents, local studies, and current warnings separately when they answer different questions.
- Read the coverage and date together when using flood map legend and layers; a different layer or local study may answer a different question.
Check coverage, effective date, and local authority together
For the map-legend review, the result is meaningful only when the property, hazard type, scenario, map purpose, and date all match the decision being made.
| Map detail | Why it changes the answer |
|---|---|
| flood zone | For the map-legend review, match the property, parcel, or coordinates |
| panel number | In the map-legend review, identify the mapped hazard, scenario, and source owner |
| effective date | Before relying on the map-legend review, use the effective or study date when comparing maps |
| LOMA, LOMR, or other map-change record | Keep the panel, study, layer, and local-authority link with the map-legend review |
Use flood map legend and layers as mapped evidence for its stated hazard, date, and purpose, not as a promise that flooding will or will not occur or as a final insurance quotation.
If the property is outside the visible study
Confirm the parcel or map pin for flood map legend and layers before interpreting a colored hazard area.
For the map-legend review, ask the map owner which current study applies; absence from one viewer is not evidence that the property has no flood risk.