Assessing the Value of Flood Mitigation Projects

  • Hazus

    A web tool that allows users to estimate the economic impact of flood mitigation projects on infrastructure in the floodplain

    Iowa Flood Information System
    An aerial view of flooding in a small Iowa town. Photo by Kip Ladage.

Assessing the Value of Flood Mitigation Projects

Sponsor/grant agency:

Iowa Homeland Security

Team:

Witold Krajewski and Ibrahim Demir

NA

Amount of leveraged funding

2017–present

Project Period

Iowa

Location

Partners:

Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management

Services provided by IFC:

In collaboration with the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department, the Iowa Flood Center is working to assess the economic impact of flood mitigation projects on infrastructure in the floodplain.

“The [Iowa Flood] Center’s importance to river communities can’t be overstated. Its value vastly exceeds its budget.” —Cedar Rapids Gazette editorial

Project Description:

In May 2017, the Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS) added data from the web tool Hazus, which allows users to estimate the cost of flood damages to buildings and other structures under various flooding scenarios.

Hazus, developed and distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is a area, and then quantifies the total damage in dollars. In 2017, the IFC’s Ibrahim Demir and graduate student Enes Yildirim integrated Hazus datasets into IFIS flood maps.

IFIS currently provides flood loss and damage estimates for 12 communities:

After expanding Hazus to more Iowa communities, Demir and Yildirim plan to add additional analysis layers to include the number of schools, critical structures, and emergency centers affected in the damage estimate.