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These written guides explain the source, the spatial method, the common misreading, and what still requires professional or official confirmation.
Find the parcel's boundary, then find every FEMA flood zone that boundary touches on the currently effective Flood Insurance Rate Map. Not the zone at a pin dropped on the address — the set of zones across the whole parcel, because one parcel frequently carries more than one, and the difference decides whether a building envelope is affected at all.
Read the cited guideScreen the parcel against the National Wetlands Inventory to see whether wetlands have been mapped there. That screen tells you where to look and what to expect. It does not tell you whether a regulator considers any of it jurisdictional — only a delineation in the field, confirmed by the US Army Corps of Engineers, does that.
Read the cited guideRead the soil map units that fall inside the parcel from the USDA soil survey, then read what each unit is rated for — agricultural capability, drainage, depth to water table, and the interpretations for building and septic. It will tell you what to expect and what to test for. It will not tell you what is under any particular corner of the lot.
Read the cited guide