Identifying Future Flood Risks to Bank Infrastructure in the Southeast

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Challenge

Businesses need to take on many aspects of future planning to be successful, and planning for physical impacts to brick-and-mortar locations is a vital piece. This need increases when there are both multiple physical locations across a region and threats from future severe storms and flooding. A top-50 U.S. bank needed to analyze the risk posed by future sea levels to over 400 of their locations across the Southeast in order to inform planning decisions.

Solution

The bank turned to NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer to assess physical risks by using four different sea level scenarios. With this information in hand, decision-makers were able to identify locations at risk of coastal flooding in the years 2040 and 2060 and estimate the extent of the flooding. These extents were categorized into three levels: some inundation, widespread inundation, and severe inundation. The bank can use this information to assist in strategic planning as well as for additional risk reporting (2025).

Screengrab from the Sea Level Rise Viewer of Fort Myers, Florida, with 7 feet inundation at Mean Higher High Water.
Fort Myers, Florida, with 7 feet inundation at Mean Higher High Water, which is a level seen by that area during recent storms. A bank office is located in this area.