In Harm’s Way

Davis, Darryl W.

doi:10.1061/ciegag.0000128

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…For example, levee heights are often compared to that which would satisfy the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program base flood level for excluding the floodplain from mandatory flood insurance. This National Flood Insurance Program base flood, referred to as a 100‐year protection level, is often mistaken by local communities as the Federal standard for urban flood protection (Davis 2007). In fact, there is no Federal standard for flood protection.…”

Section: Present State Of Risk Analysis In the Usacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…An early application of the RA policy occurred during intensive studies and controversy involving the American River Project circa late 1990's (See also National Research Council 1995, Davis 2007). The City of Sacramento is located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in central California and throughout history, has been vulnerable to floods from both Rivers.…”

Section: The American River Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

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USACE Experience in Implementing Risk Analysis for Flood Damage Reduction Projects

Davis¹,

Faber

Stedinger

2008

Contemporary Water Research

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Section: Present State Of Risk Analysis In the Usacementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The American River Examplementioning

confidence: 99%

USACE Experience in Implementing Risk Analysis for Flood Damage Reduction Projects

Davis¹,

Faber

Stedinger

2008

Contemporary Water Research

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“…In the United States, flood policies have failed to curb the escalation of losses and environmental degradation of floodplains (Davis, ; Gall et al, ). The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Flood Damage Reduction (FDR) program have unintentionally incentivized high‐risk floodplain development through subsidized insurance policies and allowances for protective infrastructure vulnerable to failure (Davis, ; Gall et al, ; Traver, ). In particular, underpricing of insurance policies, large subsidies for properties that repeatedly flood, and weak enforcement of mandatory insurance in the 100‐year floodplain have contributed to an NFIP debt of over 20 billion USD, even after the cancelling of 16 billion USD of debt by Congress in 2017 (Horn, ; Horn & Webel, ; Traver, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This contributed to 70% of flood damages experienced by properties without coverage (Guyton & Hayes, ). While infrastructure failure was not a major contributor to the damages from Harvey, levee failures from Hurricane Katrina exacerbated damages to New Orleans (Davis, ; Traver, ). The Natomas Basin near Sacramento, California, could suffer a similar catastrophe due to extensive development in high‐risk areas “protected” by levees (Davis, ; Reid, ), and we note that homes with federally backed mortgages are not required to have flood insurance in areas “protected” by levees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While infrastructure failure was not a major contributor to the damages from Harvey, levee failures from Hurricane Katrina exacerbated damages to New Orleans (Davis, ; Traver, ). The Natomas Basin near Sacramento, California, could suffer a similar catastrophe due to extensive development in high‐risk areas “protected” by levees (Davis, ; Reid, ), and we note that homes with federally backed mortgages are not required to have flood insurance in areas “protected” by levees. Farther north in California, a flooding disaster nearly occurred at Lake Oroville when its two spillways were damaged during operation (Vahedifard et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Collaborative Modeling With Fine‐Resolution Data Enhances Flood Awareness, Minimizes Differences in Flood Perception, and Produces Actionable Flood Maps

et al. 2020

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Existing needs to manage flood risk in the United States are underserved by available flood hazard information. This contributes to an alarming escalation of flood impacts amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars per year and countless disrupted lives and affected communities. Making information about flood hazards useful for the range of decisions that dictate the consequences of flooding poses many challenges. Here, we describe collaborative flood modeling, whereby researchers and end‐users at two coastal sites co‐develop fine‐resolution flood hazard models and maps responsive to decision‐making needs. We find, first of all, that resident perception and awareness of flooding are enhanced more by fine‐resolution depth contour maps than Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood hazard classification maps and that viewing fine‐resolution depth contour maps helps to minimize differences in flood perception across subgroups within the community, generating a shared understanding. We also find that collaborative flood modeling supports the engagement of a wide range of end‐users in contemplating the risks of flooding and provides strong evidence that the co‐produced knowledge can be readily adopted and applied for Flood Risk Management (FRM). Overall, collaborative flood modeling advances FRM by providing multiple points of entry for diverse groups of end‐users to contemplate the spatial extent, intensity, timing, chance, and consequences of flooding, thus enabling the web of decision‐making related to flooding to be better informed with the best available science. This transdisciplinary approach emphasizes vulnerability reduction and is complementary to FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps used for flood insurance administration.

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Re‐envisioning stormwater infrastructure for ultrahazardous flooding

Sanders

Grant

2020

WIREs Water

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Ultrahazardous flooding (UHF) occurs on low relief topography at the foot of mountain catchments and is characterized by rapid‐onset, high‐velocity flood flows, large fluxes of sediment and debris, and unpredictable flow paths. 20th century stormwater infrastructure seeks to contain UHF, up to a design level, using combinations of basins, reservoirs and flood control channels. However, these flood control elements may increase the risk of disasters due to: (a) increasingly frequent and intense wildfires that amplify streamflow and debris fluxes beyond infrastructure design capacity; (b) aging and underfunded infrastructure which is susceptible to clogging and failure during extreme events; and (c) expansive urban development where communities are relatively unaware and underprepared for flooding as a consequence of the “levee effect”‐‐the false sense of safety that develops in the presence of flood defenses. 20th century stormwater infrastructure for UHF has also left communities with a legacy of social and environmental challenges including poor water quality, degraded habitats, high maintenance costs, unrealized urban amenities, and altered sediment fluxes. Adopting the Los Angeles Metropolitan Region as a type‐locality for UHF, we propose a new paradigm for stormwater infrastructure based on the concept of erodible flood corridors. Our vision aims for greater sustainability and resilience to extreme events based on congruency with natural processes, conservation of resources and associated ecosystem services, minimization of flood exposure and vulnerability, and avoidance of legacy risk and energy intensive practices. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water Extremes

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In Harm’s Way

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

USACE Experience in Implementing Risk Analysis for Flood Damage Reduction Projects

USACE Experience in Implementing Risk Analysis for Flood Damage Reduction Projects

Collaborative Modeling With Fine‐Resolution Data Enhances Flood Awareness, Minimizes Differences in Flood Perception, and Produces Actionable Flood Maps

Re‐envisioning stormwater infrastructure for ultrahazardous flooding

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