Flood insurance maps and the US National Flood Insurance Program

This chapter analyses the implications of how knowledge is generated in the flood insurance rate maps (FIRM) production process, particularly focusing on how different publics are involved. It provides to analyse critically how FIRMs are generated, who is involved in the production process and what implications the politics of this process have on the outcome of FIRMs and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) more broadly. The chapter describes the goals of the NFIP and the lineage of efforts made to improve the program in recent years through FIRM reform. It explores the Risk MAP procedure – a flood risk map creation project – is compared to an example of co-production in Pickering, England. The chapter focuses on the value of experimental techniques in public participation that could be used to amend and reform the American understanding of flood risk and by default the NFIP.