This shift in the calculation of and requirements for flood insurance will be something to keep an eye on:

For the first time, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is about to incorporate climate risk into the cost of flood insurance. The impact will be a dramatic increase in the cost of flood insurance. In Rhode Island, many policyholders will see their premiums go up and continue to increase by as much as 18 percent annually for the next 20 years.

I’m open to the possibility that legacy flood-risk assessments were simplistic in a way that benefited special interests, like rich people, but the use of words like “equity” point to the probability that the system won’t me more accurate so much as put in the service of different special interests.

Here’s the question I have:  With the calculations so heavily based on models (versus proven experience), suppose they prove to be completely off; what is the feedback or correction mechanism?  If all homeowners can do is try to change the culture and the mix of elected officials so that the bureaucracy shifts its emphasis, that’s a recipe for a great deal of mischief.