NOTICE: Effective April 16, 2026, FEMA has restored access to its Independent Study.

These courses are typically inaccessible during a lapse in appropriations, but FEMA is facing unprecedented circumstances. Users may now register for and complete these self-guided courses. However, FEMA's staffing and operations are still impacted by the lapse in appropriations. If users experience technical problems, FEMA staff are unable to provide assistance at this time. Please click here to read the full notice

search button

IS-273: How to Read a Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM)

Course Date

3/10/2020

Course Overview

The purpose of this course is to provide the participants with the knowledge and skills required to use Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) to determine the potential flood risks for a specific property to determine if a property should be protected against flood loss. Participants will learn about various types of flood maps, explain the elements on the map, and demonstrate how to use a flood map to obtain information for a specific property location.

Course Objectives:

  • Recognize various flood map formats
  • Recognize the elements and symbols shown on FIRMs
  • Read and use FIRMs to identify flood hazards

Primary Audience

The primary audience for this course is local Floodplain Administrators. The course will be made available to the whole community. Some audience members may not have the level of prerequisite knowledge as the Floodplain Administrators. Resources and references will be included with the course to mitigate gaps between assumptions of user knowledge and actual knowledge.

Prerequisites

None

CEUs:

0.3

Course Length:

2.5 hours
Take This Course
Final Exam
Notices
  • Test questions are scrambled to protect test integrity
 
Back to Top