Department of Conservation and Recreation
Conserve. Protect. Enjoy.
Department of Conservation and Recreation
VFRIS helps communities, real estate agents, property buyers, and property owners understand an area's flood risk. By pulling together information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Esri (GIS mapping software), and the Virginia Geographic Information Network, VFRIS allows users to quickly locate a property to see if it is within the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA).
VFRIS maps have several flood zones. Flooding can occur on any property, not just within high or moderate flood risk areas.
| High Flood Risk Areas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) | The area that will be inundated by the flood event having a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. This area may also be referred to as a 100-year floodplain or the base flood. | All A and V zones (Zone A, Zone AO, Zone AH, Zone AE, Zone A99, Zone AR, Zone AR/AE, Zone AR/AO, Zone AR/A, Zone V, and Zone VE) |
| Regulatory floodway | The channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than a designated height. | Within Zone AE |
| Moderate Flood Risk Areas | |
|---|---|
| Zone X (shaded) | The area between the limits of the 1 percent flood and the 0.2 percent annual chance flood. This area is also referred to as a 500-year floodplain. |
| Low Flood Risk Areas | |
|---|---|
| Zone X (unshaded) | This area is outside the SFHA and higher than the elevation of the 0.2 percent annual-chance flood. |
Contact Floodplain Management at FloodplainMgmt@dcr.virginia.gov
