Flood Zone Determination

What Are Flood Zone Determinations?

A Flood Zone Determination states if a property is within a Special Flood Hazard Area as part of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP is operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and federally subsidizes flood insurance. FEMA has developed maps for almost all of the US and has designated appropriate areas as Special Flood Hazard Areas. FEMA created a standard Flood Zone Determination form that must be used to state whether or not a property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area.

Not all of the United States is covered by the National Flood Insurance Program. Communities, which are generally cities, towns, and counties, may participate in the program. When a community participates, any mortgage issued by a federally backed bank must include a Flood Zone Determination and flood insurance must be acquired for the property if the Flood Zone Determination states that the property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area.

National Flood Data’s Flood Zone Determination System

National Flood Data has created an easy-to-use API that allows customers to automatically request a Flood Zone Determination for a property by electronically sending the property address. A record identifier is immediately returned.

When the Flood Zone Determination is ready, the customer’s software system receives a notification. The Flood Zone Determination can either be included with the notification, or the customer’s system can download it from a provided web address. The data and the determination in the Flood Zone Determination are also provided so that they may be entered directly into the customer’s system without having to get them from the pdf form.

Why National Flood Data?

National Flood Data combines software automation with human experts. If a property is far from any Special Flood Hazard Area, the Flood Zone Determination will be created without human investigation and will be available immediately. When the property is in or near a Special Flood Hazard Area, we inspect the property using satellite imagery and other map tools and also check all nearby Letters of Map Amendment before issuing the Flood Zone Determination. All Flood Zone Determinations are completed in the United States. Response times are generally either immediate or less than ten minutes.

Best Of Both Worlds

Our Flood Zone Determination offers our customers the best of both worlds:

• The customer’s workflow is fully automated.
• Our expert staff in the United States take the time to get the tricky determinations right.