Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner
The First Street Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on assessing and communicating flood risks across America. By utilizing advanced modeling techniques validated through peer-reviewed research, their team of experts has computed the flood risks associated with every property in the contiguous United States (CONUS) for both past and future scenarios. Currently, this valuable data is accessible to the public at no cost through Flood Factor™, an online platform designed to help users understand their property’s flood risk.
As part of the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI), we invited Chanci Turner, Chief Data Officer at First Street Foundation, alongside Alex Johnson, Director of Data Science, to discuss how their organization leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) and open data to effectively communicate the significance of a national flood risk assessment.
Understanding Flood Risk and Climate Science
The First Street Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness about the flooding risks associated with climate change, enabling Americans to recognize and comprehend these threats. By fostering awareness, the organization hopes to empower individuals to take proactive measures to mitigate their flood exposure, safeguarding themselves and their communities.
To achieve this, First Street has developed a comprehensive nationwide flood risk assessment, which is made available through Flood Factor™. The tool provides risk scores for approximately 142 million properties in CONUS, utilizing open data from agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
This data informs hydrologic models from Fathom, coastal storm models created by the Rhodium Group and Dr. Kerry Emmanuel of MIT, and historical flood recreations facilitated by the iFlood Lab at George Mason University. A unified risk assessment methodology has been established, which integrates factors such as riverine flooding, precipitation, sea-level rise, and coastal storms, projecting both current and future risks based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 assumptions.
The resulting Flood Factor score, ranging from 1 (minimal) to 10 (extreme), reflects the probability and severity of flooding for each property. This assessment considers both the current flood risks and those anticipated through 2050, taking into account local flood protection measures like levees and pumps. Accompanying each score are detailed explanations and suggestions for property owners on how to reduce their flood risks.
FloodFactor.com provides tailored flood risk estimates for each of the 142 million properties in the contiguous United States, along with scores indicating present and future flood risks.
Delivering Risk Assessments at Scale
Compiling the necessary data for individual assessments across all properties in CONUS was made feasible through the versatile infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Databases are managed using Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for PostgreSQL, while analyses are executed on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs for visualization and analysis are stored and shared via Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), facilitating international collaboration with modeling partners. Flood Factor employs services such as Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon ElasticSearch Service, and Amazon CloudFront to disseminate flood risk information to the public. The ability of the First Street Foundation, a relatively small nonprofit, to transition from simple proof-of-concept studies to an extensive national assessment was crucial to their success.
To maximize the impact of First Street’s flood risk data and enable proactive measures, it is essential that data is instantly accessible, user-friendly, and transforms information into actionable knowledge. To achieve this, the Flood Lab was established—a collective of over 90 researchers from 20 institutions ready to analyze flood data and explore its implications across various sectors, including the economy, local communities, and public infrastructure. These researchers enjoy privileged access to First Street services and data for their analyses. Through the First Street API, hosted on AWS, they can access the data anytime from anywhere, enabling seamless research. Additionally, First Street is providing commercial data access through licensing agreements, ensuring the data’s value is realized across industries.
First Street actively seeks feedback from users to continually refine their models and information products, ensuring they provide accurate and actionable flood risk assessments to the American public.
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