Flooding and other drainage problems pose potential impacts for public systems as well as private property, most notably the community's road network and water supply and to some extent the wastewater facilities. Road bases and surfaces are damaged by flooding and saturation. The local water supply is dependent on groundwater recharge, and drainage systems, which facilitate runoff, tend to reduce aquifer recharge. The sanitary sewer system may suffer increased inflow and infiltration during extended periods of high groundwater and surface flooding, overloading the sewers, sewage pump stations, and treatment plants, especially the smaller package plants.

Flooding problems are the most immediate indicators of capacity problems in any stormwater management system. The extent and duration of these flooding problems define the severity of the system capacity inadequacies. Communities in Florida have historically experienced flooding problems throughout their community service areas, which are frequently recorded in operational maps as flooding incidences. Recorded flooding locations are frequently just the tip of the iceberg because many flooding occurrences generally go unreported.

Florida has experienced periods of explosive development, which have tended to create new stormwater problems and exacerbate existing problems. Development of open lands causes increases in runoff volume and rate, reduction in stream baseflow, and increases in pollutant loads on both annual and event bases. Development frequently causes localized flooding when under-designed conveyance systems are subjected to increased runoff volumes and peak flow rates. Water quality degradation occurs in many communities when the untreated or undertreated stormwater flows enter receiving waters and exceed their assimilative capacities.

The capacity and construction of many of the older storm sewer systems, ditches and drainage canals is minimal or substandard because less stringent design standards were in use throughout Florida prior to the mid-1970s. These capacity limitations are further aggravated when infill and redevelopment occur in older neighborhoods.

Minor deficiencies become dramatically more important and visible to the general public during storms, when increased runoff due to upstream development severely overtaxes facilities whose limitations are of little significance during the dry non-storm periods. A community must consider the potential consequences of allowing such system deficiencies to continue as they formulate policy positions regarding the potential costs and benefits of increasing their scope of operational responsibilities and refine their current growth management strategy.

In many parts of Florida physical drainage problems are caused by a combination of very intense precipitation falling on large expansions of flat terrain during periods, of high groundwater. When relatively severe rainfalls occur following extended dry periods they frequently produce little flooding because groundwater levels were low. Conversely, after prolonged periods of rainfall, less intense storms frequently produce flooding due to elevated water table conditions, which preclude rainfall infiltration in the soil.