Sponsor
Portland State University. Department of Geography
First Advisor
Heejun Chang
Date of Publication
Summer 8-28-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (M.S.) in Geography
Department
Geography
Language
English
Subjects
Flood control -- Oregon -- Portland, Floods -- Oregon -- Portland
DOI
10.15760/etd.6433
Physical Description
1 online resource (vii, 77 pages)
Abstract
Pluvial flooding is caused by rainfall events that overwhelm drainage systems and do not allow excess water to be absorbed by soils or water infrastructure. This type of flooding occurs frequently in urban systems and leads to public inconveniences and infrastructure deterioration, which could cost more than fluvial flooding over time. Increased rainfall intensity, which is projected to increase with climate change, could result in increased pluvial flooding. This study aims to examine the vulnerability of pluvial flooding in Portland, OR (2010-2017) by incorporating an interdisciplinary framework that examines the physical and socioeconomic vulnerability of flooding through citizen-reported flooding data. We use a spatially dense network of 5-minute interval rainfall measurement to examine 3-day storm events associated with flooding reports to correlate storm size with the frequency of reports. Additionally, we use a Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) to identify the hotspots of pluvial flooding over space and characterize the sociodemographic and building characteristics of hotspots by performing a spatial analysis using census tract and tax lot level data. We investigate how individual neighborhood characteristics (i.e. ethnicity, education, gender, age, income) and building characteristics (i.e. building type, building age) contribute to reported flooding. This research seeks to identify where pluvial flooding occurs across the city, and how flood management planning can better address flood vulnerability through the biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics that exists amongst communities in Portland.
Rights
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/26517
Recommended Citation
Michelson, Katelyn Rachel, "Examining the Spatial Characteristics of Pluvial Flooding Through Citizen Science in Portland, Oregon" (2018). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4548.
https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6433