Tipple pond, a basin that fills after heavy rain, Drew University Campus, Flickr

Introduction

As the climate becomes more unstable and extreme weather becomes more prominent, having an understanding of local disaster risk such as wildfires, earthquakes and landslides, and flood zones is increasingly important. Floods are devastating, and being prepared for floods is vital for mitigating loss of life or cost of repairs. This particularly affects low-income and already marginalized communities who are affected by a wide variety of other systemic injustices, so it is important to be prepared in order to best serve these groups. The Madison Environmental Commission is involved in management, protection, and conservation of the environment. FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is a national agency that is involved in emergency management and made the National Flood Hazard Layer, which tracks flood hazard and flood risk.

Data

Determination of the flood hazard areas and the flood profiles within different areas of Madison Borough is important to track in order to combat the flooding and its effects and also be able to offer the community information about any sort of natural disaster or geographic features to expect in the area. The flooding in these areas tends to be correlated with lower elevation levels, runoff, and proximity to streams and other water sources. 

Figure 1: The National Flood Hazard Layer displays flood hazard zones: dull and bright purple are a 0.2% and 1% chance of annual flood hazard, respectively, and dark blue is regulatory floodways. The yellow lines are NJ flood profiles as collected by the Flood Profiles for New Jersey dataset.

Results

Madison Borough has only a few flood hazard areas. There are two distinct areas near the Black Brook pond, and three near Memorial Park and the DPW. Memorial Park also has a regulatory floodway.

Despite this, flooding hazards in nearby jurisdictions are important to keep in mind: Florham Park, which is to the northeast of Madison, has large flood hazard zones and regulatory floodways, which could affect Madison and its citizens.

Conclusion

The visualization of the flood hazard areas and flood profile are important for us to take preventative measures to keep damage to a minimum and possibly make solutions to any other problems that flooding may cause in the Madison area. While the data is mostly purposed for use by engineers, it is helpful for the general public to know what areas have flooding especially when it comes to purchasing homes, planning for environmental disasters, and general knowledge of the geographic features where they live, work, or explore. 

About the Data

The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHLREST FIRMette) data are collected and maintained by FEMA and can be found here.

The Flood Profiles for New Jersey – Flood Profiles – State Studies data were collected by the NJDEP (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection) Bureau of GIS and can be found here.