scholarly journals The Spatial Dependence of Flood Hazard and Risk in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1890-1911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Quinn ◽  
Paul D. Bates ◽  
Jeff Neal ◽  
Andy Smith ◽  
Oliver Wing ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Spatial Dependence ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hazard And Risk

scholarly journals Spatial Analysis of Regional and Income Inequality in the United States

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 159
Author(s):  
Muhammad Salar Khan ◽  
Abu Bakkar Siddique
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Spatial Dependence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regional Inequality ◽  
Geographical Information ◽  
Spatial Partitioning ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
The Us

Understanding the spatial or geographical dependence of income inequality and regional inequality is crucial in the study of inequality. This paper employs a multi-scale, multi-mechanism framework to map and analyze historical patterns of regional and income inequality in the United States (US) by using state and regional panel data spanning over a century. To explore the patterns systematically and see the role of spatial partitioning, we organize the data around several established geographical partitions before conducting various geographical information system (GIS) analyses and statistical techniques. We also investigate the spatial dependence of income inequality and regional inequality. We find that spatial autocorrelation exists for both types of inequality in the US. However, the magnitude of spatial dependence for regional inequality is declining whereas it is volatile for income inequality over time. While income inequality has been at its peak in the most recent decades, we also notice that regional inequality is at its lowest point. As for the choice of partitioning, we observe that within inequality dominates for Census Divisions and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) regions. Conversely, we see that between inequality overall contributes the most to the inequality among Census Regions.

scholarly journals Climatology of Flooding in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Villarini ◽  
Louise Slater
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Large Body ◽  
The United States ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Flood Frequency ◽  
Flood Frequency Analysis ◽  
Anthropogenic Factors ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Flood Peak

Flood losses in the United States have increased dramatically over the course of the past century, averaging US$7.96 billion in damages per year for the 30-year period ranging from 1985 to 2014. In terms of human fatalities, floods are the second largest weather-related hazard in the United States, causing approximately 80 deaths per year over the same period. Given the wide-reaching impacts of flooding across the United States, the evaluation of flood-generating mechanisms and of the drivers of changing flood hazard are two areas of active research. Flood frequency analysis has traditionally been based on statistical analyses of the observed flood distributions that rarely distinguish among physical flood-generating processes. However, recent scientific advances have shown that flood frequency distributions are often characterized by “mixed populations” arising from multiple flood-generating mechanisms, which can be challenging to disentangle. Flood events can be driven by a variety of physical mechanisms, including rain and snowmelt, frontal systems, monsoons, intense tropical cyclones, and more generic cyclonic storms. Temporal changes in the frequency and magnitude of flooding have also been the subject of a large body of work in recent decades. The science has moved from a focus on the detection of trends and shifts in flood peak distributions towards the attribution of these changes, with particular emphasis on climatic and anthropogenic factors, including urbanization and changes in agricultural practices. A better understanding of these temporal changes in flood peak distributions, as well as of the physical flood-generating mechanisms, will enable us to move forward with the estimation of future flood design values in the context of both climatic and anthropogenic change.

How likely are widespread floods in US river basins? Seeking answers using a stochastic, wavelet-based approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Irene Brunner ◽  
Simon Papalexiou ◽  
Eric Gilleland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
River Basins ◽  
The United States ◽  
Large River ◽  
Simultaneous Occurrence ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Flood Events

<p>Flooding can affect large regions leading to high economic and societal costs. Estimating regional flood risk is crucial for developing adaptation strategies, public awareness policies, and protection structures. Yet, estimating regional flood hazard is not trivial because of the few large flood events observed. Here, we derive regional flood hazard estimates for large river basins in the United States by using a stochastic streamflow generator. This allows us to increase the number of flood events available for the analysis and to investigate the simultaneous occurrence of flooding in different parts of a river basin. <br>We propose the continuous, stochastic simulation approach (<em>PRSim.wave</em>), which combines a non-parametric spatio-temporal model based on the wavelet transform with the parametric kappa distribution. The model reproduces the temporal and distributional characteristics of streamflow at individual sites and retains the spatial dependencies between sites even for spatial extremes. We use <em>PRSim.wave</em> to generate long and spatially consistent time series of daily discharge for a large set of catchments in the conterminous United States. For each catchment, we extract flood events from the simulated series using a peak-over-threshold approach to derive a spatial dataset of flood occurrences. Using this dataset, we estimate how probable it is that a certain percentage of stations within a specific river basin is jointly flooded. We show that: (1) there are strong regional differences in the likelihood of joint and potentially widespread flooding and (2) there are spatial differences in regional flood hazard estimates which could not be derived from observed data only. We deem our approach a valuable tool for water managers and policy makers to make informed decisions on the risk of widespread flooding.</p>

scholarly journals Analysis of Flood Fatalities in the United States, 1959–2019

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 1871
Author(s):  
Zhongyu Han ◽  
Hatim O. Sharif
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Flash Flooding ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Characteristics

Flooding is one of the main weather-related disasters that cause numerous fatalities every year across the globe. This study examines flood fatalities reported in the contiguous United States (US) from 1959 to 2019. The last two decades witnessed major flood events, changing the ranking of the top states compared to previous studies, with the exception of Texas, which had significantly higher flood-related fatalities than any other state. The rankings of counties within some states changed as well. The study aims to improve understanding of the situational conditions, demographics, and spatial and temporal characteristics associated with flood fatalities. The analysis reveals that flash flooding is associated with more fatalities than other flood types. In general, males are much more likely to be killed in floods than females. The analysis also suggests that people in the age groups of 10–19, 20–29, and 0–9 are the most vulnerable to flood hazard. Purposely driving or walking into floodwaters accounts for more than 86% of total flood fatalities. Thus, the vast majority of flood fatalities are preventable. The results will help identify the risk factors associated with different types of flooding and the vulnerability of the exposed communities.

scholarly journals Community Flood Impacts and Infrastructure: Examining National Flood Impacts Using a High Precision Assessment Tool in the United States

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 3125
Author(s):  
Jeremy R. Porter ◽  
Evelyn Shu ◽  
Michael Amodeo ◽  
Ho Hsieh ◽  
Ziyan Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Flood Impacts

Changing environmental conditions are driving worsening flood events, with consequences for counties, cities, towns, and local communities. To understand individual flood risk within this changing climate, local community resiliency and infrastructure impacts must also be considered. Past research has attempted to capture this but has faced several limitations. This study provides a nation-wide model of community flooding impacts within the United States currently and in 30 years through the use of high-resolution input data (parcel-level), multi-source flood hazard information (four major flood types), multi-return period hazard information (six return periods), operational threshold integration, and future-facing projections. Impacts are quantified here as the level of flooding relative to operational thresholds. This study finds that over the next 30 years, millions of additional properties will be impacted, as aspects of risk are expected to increase for residential properties by 10%, roads by 3%, commercial properties by 7%, critical infrastructure facilities by 6%, and social infrastructure facilities by 9%. Additionally, certain counties and cities persistently display impact patterns. A high-resolution model capturing aspects of flood risk as related to community infrastructure is important for an understanding of overall community risk.

scholarly journals The effect of information about climate risk on property values

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (17) ◽  
pp. e2003374118
Author(s):  
Miyuki Hino ◽  
Marshall Burke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Hazard ◽  
Property Values ◽  
The United States ◽  
Climate Risk ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Real Estate Markets ◽  
Climate Risks ◽  
The Stability

Floods and other climate hazards pose a widespread and growing threat to housing and infrastructure around the world. By reflecting climate risk in prices, markets can discourage excessive development in hazardous areas. However, the extent to which markets price these risks remains poorly understood. Here we measure the effect of information about flood risk contained in regulatory floodplain maps on residential property values in the United States. Using multiple empirical approaches and two decades of sales data covering the universe of homes in the United States, we find little evidence that housing markets fully price information about flood risk in aggregate. However, the price penalty is larger for commercial buyers and in markets where buyers are more risk aware, suggesting that policies to improve risk communication could influence market outcomes. Our findings indicate that houses in flood zones in the United States are currently overvalued by a total of $43.8 billion (95% confidence interval: $32.6 to $55.6 billion) based on the information in publicly available flood hazard maps alone, raising concerns about the stability of real estate markets as climate risks become more salient and severe.

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