A floodrisk assessment of the Colorado Front Range region using GIS

1
A flood-risk assessment of the Colorado Front
Range region using GIS

• Braxton Edwards, University of Oklahoma
• SOARS Protégé, National Center for Atmospheric
  Research (NCAR)
• Research Mentors Dr. Olga Wilhelmi (NCAR) and
  Dr. Rebecca Morss (NCAR)

3. Colorado Front Range Variable precipitation,
steep terrain, and limited data Potential for
severe flash flooding Growing population

• Introduction and Motivation
• Floods are a recurring natural disaster , and
  the financial and social costs due to floods
  continues to rise as the population and the
  standard of living increases.
• Technological advances have improved the
  ability of researches and forecasters to
  determine key areas of flood risk and warn those
  in the damage path of the flood.
• One of the key areas of this advancement is in
  the application of Geographic Information Systems
  (GIS)

6. References Wilhelmi V. Olga and Wilhite
A. Donald Assessing Vulnerability to
Agricultural Drought A Nebraska Case Study.
Kluwer Natural Hazards 25 37-58, 2002 Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 2002 Mitchell J T, Scoot M
S, Thomas D S K, Cutler M, Putnam P D, Collins R
F, Cutter S L Mitigating Against Disaster
Assessing Hazard Vulnerability at the Local
Level. GIS/LIS 97 Proceedings. 563-571.
Bethesda ACSM, ASPRS, AM/FM, AAG, URISA. 1997
5. Conclusions By integrating data using GIS,
scientists and decision makers can determine
areas most likely to be affected by intense
precipitation. By applying the risk equation to
the Front Range, we expect to improve
understanding of the risks and vulnerability of
the area in general.
2. Objective To contribute to the understanding
and mitigation of flash-flood events by
integrating meteorological, geographical, and
societal data using GIS
This work was done under the auspices of the
Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research
and Science (SOARS) program of the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research, with
funding from the National Science Foundation, the
U.S. Department of Energy, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration, and Goddard Space
Flight Center, NASA