Intelligent Flood Maps forAutomatic Flood Determinations

Background  Variac Systems is a GIS Mapping services provider.  Variac specializes in digitizing of maps and creation of custom map data.  Our major customers are in the USA and Europe.  For the past 10 years Variac has had considerable experience with Flood Maps.  Variac has created Digital Flood Maps in GIS based Spatial Data format.

Our Objective  Variac is not involved in flood determinations.  We are purely focused on generating Intelligent Flood maps that enable the automation of the flood determination process.  Our objective is to offer our expertise to companies in this industry to generate, update and maintain the FEMA Digital Flood Map data.

Intelligent Flood Maps  The flood maps created by Variac are based on the FEMA map panels (images or paper maps) and the panel index.  Other support files such as the roads, rail & river networks, etc are used for accurate geo referencing of panels.  We refer to the maps as Intelligent Flood Maps as they cover all the requisites for a Flood Certificate.  We have digitized more than 2000 counties for various companies, and our product therefore carries with it the expertise and accuracy gained from this exercise.

The Mapping Process  Manual heads up digitizing process is used for capture of flood zones and other associated features.  No automated software or process is used as we do not compromise on quality  The maps produced are very accurate, detailed and incorporate all the layers (fields) that are required in generating the Flood Determination.  The flood map is created for an entire county and submitted in MapInfo (Tab) or ArcView (Shp) format.

Features  Our maps are way beyond the Q3 data in terms of accuracy, detail and they are also current with the latest FEMA panels.  The maps are accurate and comprehensive as they cover all the requisite layers (attributes) including panel & community numbers, zone type, bfe, panel date, etc.  The maps are customized to suit client’s specifications.  Most importantly, these maps are in VECTOR format. They allow for quick and easy editing as well as detailed analysis.

Sample Map  The following slides illustrate the Intelligent Digital Flood Map generated for Faulkner County, AR.  The same map has been shown in the following slides highlighting individual features.  The different layers (attributes) are clearly shown.

Faulkner County, AR (With Panels Highlighted)

Faulkner County, AR (With Flood Zones Highlighted)

Faulkner County, AR (With Base Flood Elevation Highlighted)

Faulkner County, AR (With Various Layers Highlighted)

Faulkner County, AR (With Flood Hazard Areas Highlighted)

Faulkner County, AR (Overlaid With Street Network)

Proposal Variac realizes that every company in this industry have their own system and specifications and therefore it is necessary to customize our maps for this purpose. Variac realizes that every company in this industry have their own system and specifications and therefore it is necessary to customize our maps for this purpose. Therefore, we work in two methods; Therefore, we work in two methods; 1) Custom create digitized flood maps per county based on required specifications. 1) Custom create digitized flood maps per county based on required specifications. 2) Supply already created flood map data that have been produced by us, with or without any modifications. 2) Supply already created flood map data that have been produced by us, with or without any modifications.