In March 2006, Halff Associates, Inc. was selected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to perform the central Texas Gulf Coast remapping project and produce county-wide Digital Flood Insurance Rate Map panels (DFIRMs) for Aransas, Refugio, Calhoun, Victoria, Jackson and Matagorda counties County as part of the FEMA nationwide Map Modernization Program.

The Matagorda County Flood Insurance Study will include county-wide re-mapping of both coastal and riverine floodprone areas identified on the effective Flood Insurance Rate (FIRM) maps for all incorporated and unincorporated regions of the county. DFIRMs will eventually replace the current FIRMs and will include GIS database information related to the underlying base maps and technical data, although paper copies of the FIRMs will still be available for use.

The study will update approximately 67.8 miles of open coast, 122.7 miles of interior bays, 43.1 miles of streams in coastal areas; 475.8 miles of Zone A study streams and redelineation of approximately 212 miles of Zone AE study streams for Matagorda County.

The Matagorda County Flood Insurance Study will include county-wide LIDAR mapping prepared by the Texas Natural Resource Information System (TNRIS), a Cooperative Technical Partner (CTP) with FEMA, a coastal study by the US Army Corps of Engineers to determine still water elevations for the Texas Gulf Coast and a flood insurance study and DFIRM mapping effort by Halff Associates, Inc., a technical study contractor of FEMA, to define Coastal High Hazard Areas (Zone VE) and riverine floodprone areas (Zone AE) within Matagorda County.