The FIRM is the basis for floodplain management, mitigation, and insurance activities for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Insurance applications include enforcement of the mandatory purchase requirement of the Flood Disaster Protection Act, which "... requires the purchase of flood insurance by property owners who are being assisted by Federal programs or by Federally supervised, regulated or insured agencies or institutions in the acquisition or improvement of land facilities located or to be located in identified areas having special flood hazards, " Section 2 (b) (4) of the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973. In addition to the identification of Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs), the risk zones shown on the FIRMs are the basis for the establishment of premium rates for flood coverage offered through the NFIP. The FIRM Database presents the flood risk information depicted on the FIRM in a digital format suitable for use in electronic mapping applications. The FIRM Database serves to archive the information collected during the Flood Risk Project.

The dataset represents the Sonoma County FEMA DFIRM Base Flood Elevation (BFE) Lines effective March 7, 2017 whereby BFE and FHA modifications occurred in/around City of Petaluma and surrounding unincorporated Sonoma County, California.

The National Flood Hazard Layer (NFHL) data incorporates all Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) databases published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and any Letters of Map Revision (LOMRs) that have been issued against those databases since their publication date. It is updated on a monthly basis. The FIRM Database is the digital, geospatial version of the flood hazard information shown on the published paper FIRMs. The FIRM Database depicts flood risk information and supporting data used to develop the risk data. The primary risk classifications used are the 1-percent-annual-chance flood event, the 0.2-percent-annual-chance flood event, and areas of minimal flood risk. The FIRM Database is derived from Flood Insurance Studies (FISs), previously published FIRMs, flood hazard analyses performed in support of the FISs and FIRMs, and new mapping data, where available. The FISs and FIRMs are published by FEMA. The NFHL is available as State or US Territory data sets. Each State or Territory data set consists of all FIRM Databases and corresponding LOMRs available on the publication date of the data set. The specification for the horizontal control of FIRM Databases is consistent with those required for mapping at a scale of 1:12,000. This file is georeferenced to the Earth's surface using the Geographic Coordinate System (GCS) and North American Datum of 1983.