Federal flood data layers are obsolete — and that spells trouble for traditional solar farm planning

Over the last 20 years, intense rain events, atmospheric rivers, and torrential thunderstorms have obsoleted the current Federal flood data, according to a report from First Street Foundation, a non-profit focused on weather risk research.

Consequently, solar farm developers using current Federal flood data layers to calculate suitability are at increased risk of project failure.

At Land:Eval, we compensate for the increase in rain events by incorporating rainfall data trends at each parcel we evaluate, using localized meteorological data. This additional enrichment provides our customers a unique, enhanced look into the risk associated with land parcels, which is not accounted for by traditional GIS means using Federal flood data layers.

If you're looking to evaluate land for suitability as a solar farm, consider Land:Eval. Using our proprietary AI/ML technologies, we analyze hundreds of data points about millions of land lots throughout the United States to generate unbiased evaluations of lands' suitability for solar farm installation.

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Several customers reached out to us after our previous tech talk post  Federal flood data layers are obsolete — and that spells trouble for traditional solar farm planning . They wanted to know in more detail how their particular projects might be effected. While the algorithm we use is proprietary, we can share a major input to that algorithm — NASA Climatological Data — and how we use it. The map below shows areas where the water cycle is either intensifying (blue) or weakening (red) across the continental U.S., based on measurements taken from 1945 to 2014 (excluding 1975 to 1984): (Source: NASA Global Climate Vitals Project .) The more saturated and deeper the blue, the faster the water cycle churns in that area. This means more precipitation in all forms, heavier precipitation volume, and shorter storm duration. Acres most affected are on an imaginary southwest-to-northeast diagonal, starting with and including most of New Mexico; up through Texas, Oklahoma, southern Nebraska,...
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