Flood Validation — Hurricane Harvey TX (August 2017)

Match Status

Correct

Over-predicted (model > FEMA)

Under-predicted (model < FEMA)

Model-only (no FEMA match)

Validation Summary

FEMA–model matches—

Accuracy—

Correct—

Over-predicted—

Under-predicted—

Per-Tier Metrics (FEMA categories)

Tier	P	R	F1
No validation data loaded

Confusion Matrix

Awaiting FEMA data

Rows = FEMA observed · Columns = model predicted

Layers

Correct Over-predicted Under-predicted Model-only buildings

Ground Truth Sources

FEMA Damage Assessments — Harris County
Shapefile: Affected / Minor / Major / Destroyed categories per structure.
~69,000 damaged structures in Harris County.
DI mapping: Affected→0–0.1, Minor→0.1–0.3, Major→0.3–0.7, Destroyed→0.7–1.0
Source: FEMA NRCC GIS Division via Texas Division of Emergency Management

FEMA 3m LiDAR Flood Depth Grid
Best source for depth calibration — pixel-level inundation depth raster at 3m resolution covering Harris County.
Derived from USACE / FEMA post-event LiDAR surveys and high water marks.
Use: Tune CN, drainage_cap_mm, HAND_SCALE_M to match.
Download: FEMA NHRAP Harvey GDB (~4.8 GB Esri GDB)

USGS ScienceBase Structural Damage Survey
Per-structure wind and surge damage observations — primarily coastal (Rockport, Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi area).
Note: Limited coverage for inland Houston pluvial flooding — use as secondary validation.
Not yet loaded for this viewer.

Phase 0 — Validation data not yet loaded.
Tier mapping (model damage_index → FEMA category) and the data/validation/stage1_validation.geojson file need to be generated by running the FEMA damage assessment download and join script. See the data sources panel for download locations.

Validation data not yet available

This viewer is ready to display FEMA damage assessment matches once ground truth data has been downloaded and processed.

Required files:
data/validation/stage1_validation.geojson
data/validation/stage1_confusion.json

See sidebar → Ground Truth Sources for download links