Groundcheck now checks whether a saved parcel intersects a public leveed-area polygon from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Levee Database. The result names associated systems when the service supplies them and shows the returned polygons on the report map.
A match is a reason to ask better flood-risk and emergency-planning questions. It does not mean the property is safe from flooding, that a levee is unsafe or deficient, or that a specific insurance, lending, or construction rule applies.
What the National Levee Database provides
The National Levee Database brings together public information about levee systems and the areas associated with them. Public leveed-area records can include system and area identifiers, names, states, counties, communities, sponsors, responsible organizations, flood sources, terrain sources, mapped-area methods, warning-system values, rehabilitation-program status, and FEMA accreditation values.
USACE describes the database as a national resource for levee information, but participation and record maintenance depend on sponsors and jurisdictions. Groundcheck accessed the live public service on August 22, 2026. Individual records can reflect different source years, including a terrain source year when one is supplied.
Why leveed areas matter in property research
Levees can reduce how often some land floods, but they do not remove flood risk. Water can overtop or breach a levee, collect behind it because of interior drainage, or exceed the conditions used for planning and design.
That makes a mapped leveed area relevant to insurance conversations, evacuation planning, drainage review, site design, lender questions, and discussions with local emergency managers. The most useful next step is usually to identify the responsible organization and confirm current local information.
How Groundcheck runs the screen
Groundcheck sends the saved parcel polygon to the public USACE feature service and asks for intersecting leveed areas. When a parcel boundary is unavailable, it uses a clearly labeled 30-meter search around the saved property point. That fallback is approximate and may not represent the full parcel.
The query requests a fixed allowlist of fields, uses bounded pagination, and stops at a safety cap. Groundcheck deduplicates repeated leveed-area records, preserves raw service values where USACE has not published a meaning Groundcheck can verify, and simplifies returned geometry for report mapping.
How to read a result
A confirmed intersection receives moderate concern, never high concern. It shows that a public NLD leveed-area polygon overlaps the parcel screen. It does not establish the degree of protection, structural condition, certification, accreditation, or legal effect for the property.
No intersection receives low concern, but the wording stays narrow. It means only that no public NLD leveed-area polygon intersected the geometry Groundcheck checked. It does not prove that no levee exists nearby or that the property has no levee-related or flood risk.
Coverage and limits
National coverage does not mean every levee or leveed area is complete, current, or mapped at survey precision. Geometry and attributes can be generalized, missing, or outdated, and update practices vary across sponsors and jurisdictions.
Use the result with FEMA flood maps and local records. Confirm conditions, accreditation, emergency plans, drainage, evacuation routes, and any property-specific obligations with the levee sponsor, local emergency managers, floodplain officials, recorded documents, and qualified engineers or surveyors.
Use the new layer
Check the property you are considering
Groundcheck combines this source with parcel details and other available national, state, and local layers.
Start a property check See every Groundcheck data layerGroundcheck provides early public data screening, not a legal, engineering, surveying, environmental, planning, permitting, or buildability determination. Verify important findings with the responsible agencies and qualified professionals.