HONOLULU -- Officials at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources are touting a new Hawaii Flood Hazard Assessment Tool (FHAT) to assist Hawaii residents and property owners in locating and evaluating their flood hazard risks based on FEMA's Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM).

The public can access this tool via the State of Hawaii National Flood Insurance Program web page: www.hawaiinfip.org <http://www.hawaiinfip.org> .

"This has been a goal of the state to create a tool that will easily assist all property owners and businesses to determine their flood hazard risks," Carol Tyau-Beam, the state's National Flood Insurance Program Coordinator, said in a news release.

After logging in to the tool website, the user can enter their property tax map key number or property address, and can quickly view the relevant flood zone information as well as the parcel map and aerial photograph of the parcel.

This information will help property owners determine their level of risk from flooding and assist them in determining if flood insurance and/or regulatory building requirements apply to their structure, according to the news release.

Throughout 2008, DLNR plans to continue to refine and expand the flood hazard assessment tool's capabilities to include more features.

According to the news release, development of this tool was accomplished through a cooperative agreement with FEMA under their Map Modernization Management Support program. DLNR's consultant, Onyx Group, incorporated various county databases, imagery and FEMA's digital and hard copy FIRM maps into a geographical information system (GIS) to produce a very intuitive and useful product.

For further information please call the DLNR Engineering Division offices on Oahu at 587-0233.