Adapting the National Flood Insurance Program to relative sea level rise

Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to provide much-needed flood insurance to property owners and to decrease the nation's susceptibility to flooding. Relative sea level rise now poses a threat to the nation's flood preparedness, with coastal property owners facing increasingly severe flooding. The Federal Emergency Management Agency could address this vulnerability through several different approaches. By recalculating and extending the 100-year floodplains to incorporate estimates of relative sea level rise, the program would prepare coastal property owners for the near-future flood risks Further adaptation approaches to improve the NFIP include requiring floodproofing, obtaining "rolling easements," and conducting education campaigns.