Flooding Risk in Jamaica Beach, Galveston, TX (Solely Using Remote Data Servers)

This project focuses on Jamaica Beach, a community on Galveston Island that lives with a long history of water shaped challenges. The land here rises only a few feet above sea level, and every address is located within FEMA designated flood zones, a reality acknowledged by the City of Jamaica Beach (City of Jamaica Beach, n.d.). With the Gulf of Mexico to the south and West Bay to the north, the neighborhood sits in a place where tides, storm surge, and heavy rainfall continually influence the landscape.

To explore this environment, I created a flood risk map using remote data services from the National Map, the Texas Natural Resources Information System, and FEMA. These layers provided elevation surfaces, terrain context, hydrologic features, and official FEMA flood zone boundaries. I also added a remote building footprint layer and street names from the basemap to give the map clearer spatial context and to help viewers understand exactly which structures and areas are most exposed.

A key component of this work was interpreting the VE and AE flood zones.

VE flood zones represent coastal areas with a high risk of flooding where wave action can exceed three feet. These are among the most hazardous zones on barrier islands.

AE flood zones represent areas with a high risk of flooding from rising water but with lower wave impacts. These areas still experience regular inundation during heavy rain, seasonal tides, or storm surge.

Technically, the map was created by importing elevation rasters from the National Map servers, overlaying coastal infrastructure and hydrologic layers from TNRIS, and adding FEMA flood hazard polygons from the hazards server. I symbolized areas of low elevation and mapped the VE and AE boundaries to visualize how topography and surge potential intersect. The addition of building footprints and labeled streets allowed the map to show risk at the human scale rather than only the geographic scale.

Jamaica Beach has seen major flooding events throughout its history. The 1900 Galveston Hurricane transformed the island, and more recently Hurricane Ike in 2008 pushed significant storm surge inland, flooding homes and reshaping the shoreline (City of Jamaica Beach, n.d.). These events continue to inform how the community prepares for future storms and how residents understand their landscape.

For me, this project brought together my interest in climate, weather, and environmental systems and my commitment to helping people understand the places they live. By blending remote data, coastal science, and thoughtful cartography, this flood risk map offers a clear view of a neighborhood that is always balancing between land and water and seeking resilience in the face of a changing climate.

Government website: https://www.jamaicabeachtx.gov/flood-information