AO Premium Flood Launch August 2022
We know analyzing flood risk using FEMA data alone poses many challenges. Many counties are missing data (~40%), data is outdated, forward-looking climate change risks aren't factored in, and FEMA flood zones are created using an inconsistent methodology.
That’s why we’re excited to launch a partnership with First Street Foundation to offer their comprehensive flood risk data as a premium add-on in AO. Users can purchase the data by state (or nationwide package) and the data is integrated right into the Buildable Area Analysis tool.
Our premium flood data has coverage for 100% of counties in the U.S. (lower 48 and D.C.), including all counties where FEMA does not have coverage. This gives subscribers full confidence knowing every site has available flood data.
FEMA does not have flood data information available in up to 40% of the contiguous United States as indicated by the red, orange and yellow markers on the map.
Users will have an optional setting to specify max allowable flood water depth. New layers have been added that highlight flood risk for present day and future flood risk (including expected max flood depth) for the year 2050.
Driving the initiative to plan a better flood analysis offering, Megan Young, Anderson Optimization’s Vice President of Client & Strategic Initiatives, explained that client feedback played a major part in this project, “For many years, we’ve heard user feedback about roadblocks and limitations with FEMA flood data as the main source for flood risk analysis.” Young is confident in Anderson’s chosen partner, First Street Foundation. “When we came across First Street Foundation’s flood data, it was clear that a partnership would be a game changer for renewable developers. Not only could users have flood data in every county, but we could also enable them to evaluate flood risk in a much more nuanced way to get ahead of insurance surprises and to also better understand actual financial risks and opportunities based on science-based, modern flood modeling.”
New layers have been added that highlight flood risk for present day and future flood risk (including expected max flood depth) for the year 2050.
First Street Foundation’s commitment to the accurate climate risk assessment to understand a site’s flood risk today, and how it’s changing over the next 30 years is a valuable tool for developers that Anderson Optimization clients can choose to purchase.
We know it’s helpful to check out a dataset before purchasing it, so we’ve already worked with First Street Foundation to make the flood risk sample layers available for all current clients. When you feel ready to review these datasets and/or move forward with adding on the AO Premium Flood Package to your service, please contact our Client Success team at support@andersonopt.com