[Excerpts from Feb. 10 USGS Press Release]
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced today that it has released new software that allows users to estimate flood flows for streams throughout the United States. The new software, version 3 of the National Flood Frequency (NFF) Program, provides estimates of flood flows having recurrence intervals of 2 to 500 years for user-selected sites on rural and urban streams.

The estimates provided by NFF are often used as a basis for determining flood-plain areas on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance rate maps, and by other agencies for making planning and management decisions. In addition, the estimates are used to design bridges, culverts, and flood-control structures.

The report, titled "The National Flood Frequency Program, Version 3: A Computer Program for Estimating Magnitude and Frequency of Floods for Ungaged Sites," compiled by K.G. Ries III, and M.Y. Crouse, has been released as U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 02-4168. Digital copies of the report and the software can be downloaded from the NFF Web page (see link below).

The Web site also contains links to documentation to assist users in solving the equations for each State, and provides ordering information for paper copies of the report, which include a CD-ROM of the software. The NFF software runs only on computers with Windows operating systems.

Full Release
NFF Web Page

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