Title 15 — Commerce and TradeRelease 119-73not60

§9702 National Integrated Flood Information System

Title 15 › Chapter 121— FLOOD LEVEL OBSERVATION, OPERATIONS, AND DECISION SUPPORT › § 9702

Last updated Apr 3, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Administrator must build the National Integrated Flood Information System to give better and faster flood warnings and help cut flood damage and costs. The system must gather and combine key flood data (like streamflow, reservoir releases and diversions, precipitation, soil moisture, snow water equivalent, land cover, and evaporative demand). It must make usable, reliable, and timely flood forecasts, judge how severe floods are, and share data, forecasts, and assessments at national, regional, and local levels. The system must tell government decision makers at the Federal, State, local, and Tribal levels and the public about forecasts, conditions, and impacts. It must also provide data that show how flood conditions differ by place, coordinate federal research and monitoring, use existing programs and partnerships, improve seasonal and subseasonal precipitation and flood predictions, and keep studying flood prediction, extreme weather and climate links, and how water moves over and through land. The Administrator may work with the private sector, form 1 or more academic partnerships, support citizen science, and use NOAA entities in existence as of December 27, 2022 (such as the National Weather Service, the National Integrated Drought Information System, the Regional Climate Center, and the National Mesonet Program) to improve water monitoring and forecasting. The Administrator may also work with the United States Geological Survey to add rapid deployment gages, harden at-risk streamflow gauges, and increase storm surge sensors. Relevant Federal, State, local, and Tribal agencies, research institutions, and the private sector must be consulted, and each Federal agency must cooperate as appropriate.

Full Legal Text

Title 15, §9702

Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Administrator shall establish a system, to be known as the “National Integrated Flood Information System”, to better inform and provide for more timely decision making to reduce flood-related effects and costs.

(b)The Administrator, through the National Integrated Flood Information System, shall—

(1)provide an effective flood early warning system that—

(A)collects and integrates information on the key indicators of floods and flood impacts, including streamflow, reservoir release and diversion, precipitation, soil moisture, snow water equivalent, land cover, and evaporative demand;

(B)makes usable, reliable, and timely forecasts of floods;

(C)assesses the severity of flood conditions and effects;

(D)provides information described in subparagraph (A), forecasts described in subparagraph (B), and assessments described in subparagraph (C) at the national, regional, and local levels, as appropriate; and

(E)communicates flood forecasts, flood conditions, and flood impacts to appropriate entities engaged in flood planning, preparedness, and response and post-event flood extent, including—

(i)decision makers at the Federal, State, local, and Tribal levels of government; and

(ii)the public;

(2)provide timely data, information, and products that reflect differences in flood conditions among localities, regions, watersheds, and States;

(3)coordinate and integrate, through interagency agreements as practicable, Federal research and monitoring in support of the flood early warning information system provided under paragraph (1);

(4)use existing forecasting and assessment programs and partnerships;

(5)make improvements in seasonal precipitation and temperature, subseasonal precipitation and temperature, and flood water prediction; and

(6)continue ongoing research and monitoring activities relating to floods, including research activities relating to—

(A)the prediction, length, severity, and impacts of floods and improvement of the accuracy, timing, and specificity of flash flood warnings;

(B)the role of extreme weather events and climate variability in floods; and

(C)how water travels over and through surfaces.

(c)The Administrator, through the National Integrated Flood Information System, may—

(1)engage with the private sector to improve flood monitoring, forecasts, land and topography data, and communication, if the Administrator determines that such engagement is appropriate, cost effective, and beneficial to the public and decision makers described in subsection (b)(1)(E)(i);

(2)facilitate the development of 1 or more academic cooperative partnerships to assist in carrying out the functions of the National Integrated Flood Information System described in subsection (b);

(3)use and support monitoring by citizen scientists, including by developing best practices to facilitate maximum data integration, as the Administrator considers appropriate;

(4)engage with, and leverage the resources of, entities within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in existence as of December 27, 2022, such as the National Weather Service with respect to forecast and warning functions, the National Integrated Drought Information System, the Regional Climate Center, and the National Mesonet Program, to improve coordination of water monitoring, forecasting, and management; and

(5)engage with and support water monitoring by the United States Geological Survey—

(A)to improve the availability and continuity of streamflow data at critical locations through the deployment of rapid deployment gages and the flood-hardening of at-risk streamflow gauges; and

(B)to increase storm surge monitoring data through the deployment of additional storm surge sensors.

(d)In developing and maintaining the National Integrated Flood Information System, the Administrator shall consult with relevant Federal, State, local, and Tribal government agencies, research institutions, and the private sector.

(e)Each Federal agency shall cooperate as appropriate with the Administrator in carrying out this section.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

15 U.S.C. § 9702

Title 15 — Commerce and Trade

Last Updated

Apr 3, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60