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Mapping Flood Reduction Benefits of Potential Wetlands Restoration
Citation:
Bousquin, J. AND K. Hychka. Mapping Flood Reduction Benefits of Potential Wetlands Restoration. New England Chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (NEURISA) Day, Sturbridge, MA, September 14, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
We are currently developing benefits indicators that can be used to rapidly prioritize potential wetlands restoration sites based on the benefits they could provide. This presentation explains how flood reduction benefits were modeled.
Description:
Public officials and environmental managers face difficult decisions when allocating funds to prioritize the most beneficial wetlands conservation or restoration projects, and often face difficulty even characterizing benefits. One benefit of natural and constructed wetlands is that they abate floodwaters, in part, by detaining stormwater that would otherwise contribute to local flooding. Environmental assessments can estimate a wetland’s ability to retain water during flood events; here we link this function to the level of flood abatement benefits provided to people downstream. Many hydrologic and hydraulic models used for flood modeling do not incorporate water retention in wetlands explicitly. We present tools (python toolboxes) created to adapt those models (HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS), and how the overall modeling process accommodates water retention in wetlands. Recognizing the inhibitive resource requirements of this modeling process to some decision makers, we discuss trends in model scenario results in terms of how other, more rapid metrics, could similarly indicate downstream beneficiaries.