UEP232
Yuqi Tang
12/9/2013
Assignment 1
Topic 1. Develop a flood hazards map along the Mississippi River and its
main tributaries (or a specific area in Mississippi river basin)
Summary:
The Mississippi River flows entirely through the United States from northern
Minnesota southwards to the Mississippi River Delta. The River is divided into the
Upper Mississippi, the Middle Mississippi, and the lower Mississippi. Snow melting
and rainfall during the spring lead to high water elevation through April to June.
Meanwhile the lowest water level usually happens in December. The heavy rainfall
may cause flood in the area along the river, which can lead to huge damage to the
society. The recent Mississippi river flood in April and May 2011 were among the
most severely damaging flood in the record. People lost their homes and even their
lives would be threaten by the flood as well. Lots of time, money and manpower need
to be spent in order to rebuild the areas influenced by the flood.
Under the circumstance, if climate and geometry data can be combined together
and used to determine the most severe flooded areas and the most possibly affected
areas. We can develop a flood hazards map or a flood risk map. This may help people
to know where is a better place to live in order to avoid the flood risk and those
people who live in the most possibly flood-affected zones can make some
preparations. City planners can make some backup plans to mitigate the flood
influence as well.
Spatial questions:
1: How does the precipitation distribute along the river?
2: How do soil type and vegetation cover distribute in the study area?
These are important questions for the study topic. Since the amount of precipitation
is one of the main factors which will cause the rising in water elevation. And soil and
vegetation type can contribute to water and soil erosion, which may result in more
vulnerable situation.
References:
Dhruvesh P. Patel & Prashant K. Srivastava. (2013). Flood Hazards Mitigation Analysis
Using Remote Sensing and GIS: Correspondence with Town Planning Scheme. Water
Resour Manage, 27, 2353–2368
This article combined the satellite topography image with digital elevation
model(DEM) of Surat district (Gujarat, India) to identify the flood susceptible area.
Geo-coded Indian remote sensing image, topographical sheets with the scale of 1:50,000
and high resolution Google-earth images of study area are used. By applying the safe
river gauge level to the DEM of the study area, possible flood hazard map for possible
upcoming flood event is generated. The article is helpful in providing a general process
for making a hazard map.
Jian Chen, Arleen A. Hill, Lensyl D. Urbano. (2009). A GIS-based model for urban flood
inundation. Journal of Hydrology, 373, 184–192
This article developed a GIS-based urban inundation model, which included a
storm-runoff (rainfall volume included) and an inundation model. And it tested the model
by using a specific case study. This may be helpful because many articles about large
regional flood do not include the rainfall record part.
Topic 2. Analyze the factors of changing areas of wetland in
Massachusetts
Summary:
Wetland serves an important role in the ecosystem. It is the home for various plant
species and provides birds with idea habitats. People know the importance to protect
the wetland and many actions are taken in order to protect and restore the wetlands.
However, the area of wetland is still inevitable changing due to many reasons, such as
the activities of human and the global climate change.
I want to analyze the possible reasons causing changing of wetland area and rank
them from the most important factor to the least to figure out the main reason for
the area changing. (The MassGIS provides the data of changing area of wetland in
Massachusetts) Besides, I also want to know the relationship between the changing of
vegetation cover distribution and birds’ habitats area with the changing area. The
shrinking or expanding of wetland area can cause species distribute differently.
These analyses may be helpful to determine the restoration and protection actions.
Spatial questions:
1: How to locate the different vegetation cover types and the birds’ habitats?
2: How to spatially correlate the different elements that can result in the changing of
the wetland?
These questions are essential in determine the potential reason related to the
changing wetland areas or it can be helpful in considering the protection and
restoration methods that should be taken.
References:
L.-M. Rebelo, C.M. Finlayson, N. Nagabhatla. (2009). Remote sensing and GIS for
wetland inventory, mapping and change analysis. Journal of Environmental Management,
90, 2144-2153
This article developed a multiple purpose wetland inventory in response to the past
uncertainties and gaps in inventory coverage. It emphasized the importance of
establishing the global dataset of wetland and the partnership for inventory. It used Sri
Lanka and southern Africa as examples to detect the wetland change. This article is very
help in the way it defines the method of the process involved in linking ecological and
socio-economic variables. And it also provides the methods to define different land cover
type.
Peter W. van Horssen, Paul P. Schot and Aat Barendregt. (1999). A GIS-based plant
prediction model for wetland ecosystems. Landscape Ecology 14, 253–265.
This article transformed a non-spatial model for the prediction of response of wetland
plant species on ecological factors into a GIS-based prediction model. The model uses
variables of land use, oil type, infiltration and water level which are obtained by
digitizing information from existing maps and ground water quality as input variables to
predict the plant patterns. The article is helpful in listing some variables that can affect
the plant patterns.