Levees / Explained / inspection-ratings
Inspection ratings and what they describe
Where an inspection rating exists it describes maintenance condition found on a specific date. Many systems have no rating published at all.
USACE inspects levee systems in its programmes and records a rating with the date it was assigned. The rating describes what inspectors found on that visit: the condition of the embankment, the vegetation, the closure structures, the drainage.
Read the date with the rating
A rating without its date is close to meaningless. A finding from several years ago describes a system as it was then, and both maintenance and deterioration happen in between. Every system page on this site shows the inspection date beside the rating, and shows an explicit absence where either is missing.
Absence is common
Many systems on the register carry no inspection rating. That is usually because the system falls outside a USACE inspection programme rather than because an inspection failed or was skipped. The rehabilitation programme field on the same page indicates whether a system is enrolled.
This site reproduces ratings exactly as published. It does not translate them into grades, scores or colours of its own, because a translation invents a judgement the source did not make.
Terminology follows USACE National Levee Database and FEMA published definitions. Site data refreshed 2026-09-10. Nothing on this page is a statement about a specific property.