EnviroAtlas - Estimated floodplain map for the Conterminous United States

Understanding the relationship between flood inundation and floodplains is critical for ecosystem and community health and well-being, as well as targeting floodplain and riparian restoration. Many communities in the United States, particularly those in rural areas, lack inundation maps due to the high cost of flood modeling. Only 60% of the conterminous United States has Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This EnviroAtlas dataset provides an estimate of the 100-year floodplain for the conterminous United States at 30-meter resolution to fill the gaps in the FIRM. The model hit rate for the CONUS was 0.79 compared to the FIRM, indicating that the model captured 79% of the 100-year floodplain identified by FEMA. This product provides complete coverage for the CONUS by identifying floodplains in areas without FIRMs, while also identifying floodplains in tributaries sometimes excluded by FEMA. More information can be found in the journal article (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.353). This dataset was produced by the US EPA to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).