US Army Corps of Engineers
Institute for Water Resources Website

Value to the Nation logo graphic

Value to the Nation

Redirecting...

Value to the Nation: Flood Risk Management Fast Facts

One of the most prominent USACE's Civil Works programs is the Flood Risk Management program. The types of infrastructure that fall under this category of investment include levees, storage reservoirs, and other types of floodplain management structural measures. Some of these projects may have multiple purposes. For example, reservoirs that help prevent flooding may also provide storage for water supply and produce hydropower. This infrastructure includes approximately 715 dams and 4,100 miles of levees. In addition to operating and maintaining this infrastructure, USACE has an active role in assessing, managing, and communicating the associated flood risk.

USACE annually tracks Flood Risk Management programmatic benefits in its Annual Flood Damage Report to Congress. Each Annual Flood Damage Report includes assessments of flood damages, acres inundated, property damages, loss of life, and damages prevented by previously completed flood risk management projects (not including reductions in damages from coastal storm surge impacts).

Flood Risk Management Fast Facts Reports

Select 2019 Flood Risk Management Fast Facts Reports from the USACE Digital Library collections:

You can select an individual report, or go to a collection of reports. For a list of all reports in a collection, for example, in the state report collection, select "All State Reports".

How these numbers were calculated.

Flood Risk Management Benefits in Perspective

The estimates of Flood Risk Management benefits presented here are taken from the data supporting the Annual Flood Damage Report, and are related to the flood damages prevented by USACE-controlled reservoir projects, levees, shore protection projects, and emergency operations. The Flood Risk Management benefits are an estimate of the monetary value of damages that floods would have caused in the absence of USACE investments that were put in place to prevent those damages. It should be noted that each Flood Risk Management benefit estimate is based on the weather conditions for the given year (so years with many storms likely show greater benefits than non-stormy years since damages prevented are measured as benefits).