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Preface The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). as the agency responsible for administration of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). conducts hydrologic and hydraulic analyses to determine the magnitude of the flood risk in communities throughout the United States, Those analyses, performed under FEMA guidelines by private engineering firms and Federal and State agencies, are based on standard engineering practices and yield the flood risk information (including base (I DO-year) flood elevations, flood risk zones, and floodplain and floodway boundary delineations) shown on NFIP maps, Nearly 18,000 communities now participate in the NFIP, Using the flood risk information presented on NFIP maps, participating communities design and adopt floodplain management measures aimed at reducing future flood losses, and FEMA makes actuarially based flood insurance available to the millions of property owners in those communities, FEMA recognizes that NFIP maps require changes from time to time as a result of proposed development in previously unstudied areas, floodplain and watershed changes, or improvements in the techniques used for assessing flood risk, Citizens and local governments play an important role in keeping NFIP maps technically sound and up to date as conditions change in their communities, This Guide provides basic information about the technical standards to be applied and the administrative procedures to be followed by local officials and others who request changes to NFIP maps, This Guide is intended not only to discuss those standards and procedures but also to help local officials understand how they can be most effective in maintaining the accuracy of the flood risk information developed for their communities, Since the first publication of this Guide in September 1985, over 13,000 copies have been distributed to community officials and other interested parties, The information presented in the Guide has enabled those who wish to update NFIP maps to identify the appropriate process, collect and submit the necessary supporting data, and ultimately help FEMA respond efficiently to the needs of NFIP map users, By increasing the efficiency of the appeal, map revision, conditional map revision, and map amendment processes in this way, the Guide has proved to be as useful as it is popular, The NFIP has not remained static, however, Over the years, the NFIP and related regulations have evolved to meet new needs--those of the Program as well as those of participating communities, With increasing land-development pressure, the growth of community awareness of flood risks and the need for adequate flood-mitigation measures, and the advent of new techniques for assessing flood risks, concomitant changes have been made in the NFIP regulations, particularly in those related to the aopeal, revision, and amendment processes, Ciearly, to remain a useful tool, this Guide must provide the latest information about those processes; it is to meet this need that this updated Guide has been prepared, This Guide is designed for readers who do not need refined technical or legal explanations but do need a basic understanding of the processes by which NFIP maps may be changed, The use of technical terms in this Guide has therefore been kept to a minimum, and the information presented is not intended to serve as legal definitions, Readers who need additional technical information may obtain copies of the FEMA Conditions and Criteria documents listed in Appendix C. For information about legal requirements, readers should refer to Title 44 Chapter I, Parts 59-77 of the Code of Federal Regulations (44 CFR, 59-77). which govern the operation of the NFIP, Parts 65, 67, 70, and 72 apply specifically to the map change processes deSCrIbed in this Guide, In the event of any conflict between the information presented herein and that set forth at 44 CFR, 59-77, the latter takes precedence, ~~~ Harold T, Duryee Administrator Federal Insurance Administration