Dataset of 100-year flood susceptibility maps for the continental U.S. derived with a geomorphic method
Efficient strategies for preparing communities to protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate flood hazard are often hampered by the lack of information about the position and extent of flood-prone areas. Hydrologic and hydraulic analyses allow to obtain detailed flood hazard maps, but are a computationally intensive exercise requiring a significant amount of input data, which are rarely available both in developing and developed countries. As a consequence, even in data-rich environments, official flood hazard graduations are often affected by extensive gaps. In the U.S., for instance, the detailed floodplain delineation produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is incomplete, with many counties having no floodplain mapping at all. In this article we present a mapping dataset containing 100-year flood susceptibility maps for the continental U.S. with a 90 m resolution. They have been obtained performing a linear binary classification based on the Geomorphic Flood Index (GFI). To the best knowledge of the authors, there are no available flood-prone areas maps for the entire continental U.S. with resolution lower that 30׳׳×30׳׳ (approximatively 1 km at the equator).
Estimates of exposure to the 100-year floods in the conterminous United States using national building footprints
Abstract Given the rising threat of floods in the U.S, it is of great importance to obtain baseline information by quantifying the general exposure of floods and assessing its impact on those likely to bear the eventual cost of flooding. This study provides a comparative assessment of the population exposed to flood hazards for the entire Conterminous United States and answers the following four fundamental questions: 1) how many people are exposed? 2) who are they? 3) how are they distributed? 4) how do the estimations from other floodplains differ from the estimations from FEMA floodplain? In light of the limitations of previous flood exposure studies in the U.S, this study uses the recently released Microsoft building footprint dataset to capture the heterogeneity of population distribution at the micro-level. The population at block group level from ACS 5-year estimates (2013–2017) is further disaggregated to residential buildings, identified via NLUD 2010 and OpenStreetMap Land Use polygons. A comparative study is then conducted to investigate the 100-year flood exposure from FEMA and from the other three publicly available 100-year floodplains. Although the exposure analysis shows varying spatial patterns for selected floodplains, it indicates that a large number of exposed residents are found in regions where FEMA floodplain product is unavailable, presumably responsible for the uncaptured losses reported from other studies. In addition, the inequitably high flood risk experienced by the poor revealed at the national level underscores the significance of flood vulnerability studies to emphasize the need for this vulnerable group.
Channel network hydrology
Network hydrology and geomorphology, Mike Kirkby extraction of channel networks and topographic parameters from digital elevation data, Larry Band the geomorphological unit hydrograph, I. Rodriguez-Iturbe flow resistance through the channel network, James Bathurst hydrological response of channel networks, Keith Beven and Eric Wood solute transport in channel, Peter Young and Steve Wallis the stream head, Bill Dietrich and Tom Dunne sediment transport into and through the network, Keith Richards the long term interaction of sediment and water through networks and side slopes, Mike Kirkby models of channel networks - theory and predictive uncertainty, Keith Beven.