Browsing by Subject "flooding"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Late Holocene Climate-Flood Relationships on the White River, Indiana, USA
    (2022-05) Wright, Maxwell N.; Bird, Broxton; Licht, Kathy; Gilhooly, William, III.
    The frequency and magnitude of floods in the midcontinental United States have increased in recent decades due to changing precipitation patterns as global temperatures rise. These trends pose major social and economic risks to the region, which is home to tens of millions of Americans and a global agricultural center. It is therefore critical to understand if current fluvial dynamics are within the scope of past fluvial-climate relationships, or if they represent a novel response to recent climate and land-use changes. Presented is a 1600-year-long flood frequency record for the moderately sized (~29,400 km2 watershed) White River, Indiana. Flood frequencies were determined using 14C-based sediment accumulation rates at Half Moon Pond, an oxbow lake on the lower White River’s floodplain. Comparison with regional paleoclimate data shows that White River flooding was frequent when atmospheric circulation resembled the negative mode of the Pacific-North American (PNA) teleconnection, particularly during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950-1250 CE) and the Current Warm Period (last ~150 years). During these times, the regional climate was dominated by warm-season precipitation originating from the Gulf of Mexico. Conversely, White River flooding was less frequent during the Little Ice Age (1250-1800 CE) when cold-season precipitation from the North Pacific/Arctic dominated (+PNA-like conditions). The pre-1790 CE White River flood history was antiphased with reconstructed Ohio River flood frequencies from southern Illinois. This dynamic is consistent with discharge in small to moderate sized watersheds being sensitive to rainstorm runoff and large watersheds being sensitive to snowmelt runoff. After 1790 CE, flooding frequencies of both river systems increased to their highest levels, despite a shift to -PNA-like conditions. This change was likely due to extensive Euro-American land-clearance, which increased runoff/erosion by reducing evapotranspiration, interception, and infiltration. While the White River responded strongly to climatic conditions in the past that were similar to present conditions (-PNA-like conditions), recent land-use practices have amplified the effects of the current hydroclimate. Since a warming climate is expected to increase regional average precipitation and extreme rainfall events, and that landscape modifications have lowered surface resilience to hydroclimate events, flooding will likely become more frequent in the coming decades.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Multi-User Interactive Optimization Tool (WRESTORE)
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Singh, Vidya B.; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Babbar-Sebens, Meghna
    This is NSF funded joint project between Earth Science and Computer Science. It’s one of the objective is to provide best farming practices to the people of Eagle Creek, Indiana, so as to minimize the soil erosion, fertilizer loss and maintain water quality of the region while maximizing profit of farmers. The most important benefit to general public will be increase in quality of drinking water and decrease in flooding of the region. The tool we have built is a distributed system which uses high performance computing techniques to run model simulations in an efficient manner. The tool has various components which run on multiple computers. The user login via a web based interface, the design parameters are specified which are being used to generate different possible designs. The design evaluations are done using powerful cluster of computers (having 768 or 224 CPUs), which uses concept of virtual agents in doing the design evaluation. The user provides their feedback to different designs which are again considered to generate another set of better designs. Various optimization and machine learning techniques are used to model the user’s preferences and provide best possible designs based on given scenario. It is like human computer collaborative search, where human and computer both work together to achieve the goal in a better way. The project is still ongoing, till now we have run simulated user model only, but sooner we will be running the tests for the real human users. This will help the farmers, govt. agencies like USDA and environmentalists in doing environmental planning in an efficient manner. Our collaborators are Empower Results, Eagle Creek Watershed Alliance, Indiana NRCS, Center for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Upper White River Watershed Alliance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Participation and non-participation in FEMA's Community Rating System (CRS) program: Insights from CRS coordinators and floodplain managers
    (Elsevier, 2020-09) Sadiq, Abdul-Akeem; Tyler, Jenna; Noonan, Douglas; School of Public and Environmental Affairs
    Given that floods cause the greatest economic impact and affect more communities annually than any other natural hazard, there is a compelling need to better understand how communities can enhance their resilience to future flood disasters. One mechanism for enhancing communities' resilience to future flood disasters is through participation in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Community Rating System (CRS). The CRS is a federal voluntary program that incentivizes communities in the United States to implement floodplain management activities that exceed those required under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In exchange for engaging in additional floodplain management activities, policyholders residing in CRS-participating communities receive discounts in their flood insurance premiums. To better understand the factors driving CRS participation, this study uses propensity score matching to match 100 randomly selected CRS participating communities with 100 non-CRS participating communities. Data gathered from CRS coordinators and floodplain managers indicate several factors are responsible for why communities participate, continue to participate, or do not participate the CRS. The main reason for participating in the CRS and continuing to participate is the reduction in flood insurance premiums, while the main reason for not joining the CRS is lack of resources (staff, funding, and time).