Jacob Beatty, P.E.Hydrology & hydraulics · Birmingham, AL See the work
Aerial map of Homewood, Alabama under a modeled 100-year storm. The FEMA 100-year floodplain is outlined in yellow along Shades Creek, with the buildings inside it in peach. Red buildings, which the FEMA map does not cover, run up every tributary and through the neighborhoods well away from that line.

Most buildings that flood are not on the flood map.

Rain‑on‑mesh flood models show a community where its water actually goes, then turn that into maps and tools its people can use.

See the work → Services

FEMA 100-yr floodplain
Rain-on-mesh depth
Buildings in the FEMA floodplain
Buildings outside the FEMA floodplain
The problem

Communities are flooding more often. Even known flood problems go unfixed.

Regulatory maps leave gaps

FEMA maps the streams it was funded to study. Flooding elsewhere often remains invisible until it happens.

Traditional studies become snapshots

A model that takes a year to build is difficult to update as development, data, or the question changes.

Projects need a financial case

A capital plan says what to build. Funding programs ask who benefits, how much damage the project prevents, and whether the benefits justify the cost.

The approach

Build the model once. Use it many ways.

A flood model should not be the final deliverable. It is the engine underneath planning, floodplain management, CRS, capital projects, outreach, benefit-cost and grants. The same model supports all of them.

  1. DataLiDAR, rainfall, soils, land cover, drainage infrastructure, observations
  2. ModelsRain-on-mesh HEC-RAS across the whole surface, multiple storms, alternatives, future conditions
  3. MapsGIS, interactive web maps and dashboards, structures, population, consequences
  4. DecisionsPlanning, CRS, capital projects, benefit-cost, grants, preparedness
Automation Open‑source tools automate the repetitive work around HEC‑RAS. That is what puts large models, and many scenarios, within reach of a small team.

Explore services →

A Cahaba Basin screening model

391 square miles under a 100-year storm, running below. Across the 26 communities in the basin it floods 11,716 buildings, and 9,918 of them are outside the FEMA floodplain.

Open it full screen → Screening-grade.

See project examples →

Start a conversation

Happy to look at your watershed and say whether a model would show you anything you do not already know.

jacobbeatty.pe@gmail.com