Screening the Suitability of Levee Protected Areas for Strategic Floodplain Reconnection Along the LaGrange Segment of the Illinois River, USA

Remo, Jonathan W.F.; Guida, Ross J.; Secchi, Silvia

doi:10.1002/rra.3055

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…This dataset provides spatial estimates of flood inundation for areas without mapped floodplain extents, whether it is used for land use planning or application in studies that require floodplain information for ecological restoration and/or ecosystems services assessments. Floodplains provide several valuable ecosystem services, including downstream flood mitigation, reducing stress on dams and reservoirs, and supporting floodplain fisheries ( Opperman et al, 2009 ; Remo et al, 2017 ). This map provides a complete picture of the extent of floodplains in the CONUS, allowing for an assessment of their quality, condition, and their ability to provide ecosystem goods and services.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a spatially complete floodplain map of the conterminous United States using random forest

Woznicki

Baynes

Panlasigui

et al. 2019

Science of The Total Environment

100

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Floodplains perform several important ecosystem services, including storing water during precipitation events and reducing peak flows, thus reducing flooding of downstream communities. Understanding the relationship between flood inundation and floodplains is critical for ecosystem and community health and well-being, as well as targeting floodplain and riparian restoration. Many communities in the United States, particularly those in rural areas, lack inundation maps due to the high cost of flood modeling. Only 60% of the conterminous United States has Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). We developed a 30-meter resolution flood inundation map of the conterminous United States (CONUS) using random forest classification to fill the gaps in the FIRM. Input datasets included digital elevation model (DEM)-derived variables, flood-related soil characteristics, and land cover. The existing FIRM 100-year floodplains, called the Special Flood Hazard Area (SHFA), were used to train and test the random forests for fluvial and coastal flooding. Models were developed for each hydrologic unit code level four (HUC-4) watershed and each 30-meter pixel in the CONUS was classified as floodplain or non-floodplain. The most important variables were DEM-derivatives and flood-based soil characteristics. Models captured 79% of the SFHA in the CONUS. The overall F1 score, which balances precision and recall, was 0.78. Performance varied geographically, exceeding the CONUS scores in temperate and coastal watersheds but were less robust in the arid southwest. The models also consistently identified headwater floodplains not present in the SFHA, lowering performance measures but providing critical information missing in many low-order stream systems. The performance of the random forest models demonstrates the method's ability to successfully fill in the remaining unmapped floodplains in the CONUS, while using only publicly available data and open source software.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a spatially complete floodplain map of the conterminous United States using random forest

Woznicki

Baynes

Panlasigui

et al. 2019

Science of The Total Environment

100

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“…Recent work by Remo et al. () highlights a tool for assessing the economic and ecological tradeoffs of removing levees to reconnect portions of a floodplain. Still, as watershed‐scale improvements to rivers are increasingly being promoted (Bernhardt and Palmer ; Wohl et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Large‐Scale Influence of Levees on Floodplain Connectivity Using a Hydrogeomorphic Approach

Scheel

Morrison

Annis

et al. 2019

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Research Impact Statement: A simple model for determining floodplain boundaries was used to estimate the loss of floodplain area caused by levees in a large basin.ABSTRACT: The widespread construction of levees has reduced river-floodplain connectivity and altered associated fluvial processes in many river systems. Despite the recognition that levees can alter floodplain connectivity, few studies have examined the role of levees in reducing floodplain areas at large watershed scales. This paper explores the application of a hydrogeomorphic floodplain inundation model in the Wabash Basin, located in the Midwestern United States, to assess changes in floodplain area in levee-protected areas. We evaluate 10and 30-m topographic resolutions and spatially examine the influence of levees on floodplain area in relation to river network attributes. Generally, floodplains in levee-protected areas were influenced by topographic resolution, stream order, and elevation details of levees found in topography datasets. We show, when compared to Federal Emergency Management Agency maps, our approach underpredicts floodplain area when using 10-m resolution topography data but only slightly overpredicts when using 30-m resolution data. After removing details of levees from topography data, we found changes in floodplain area varied spatially, but basin-aggregate results changed little compared to topography datasets that contain levees, though larger floodplain areas were produced in some regions where levees were removed. This work contributes to a growing research emphasis on using hydrogeomorphic floodplain models to understand floodplain disconnectivity.(

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“…Our study illustrates the magnitude of hydrogeomorphic floodplain area that could be leveraged within more ecologically resilient floodplain management frameworks, such as the one demonstrated by Remo et al. () for evaluating the tradeoffs of levee protection vs. floodplain ecosystem services, including those provided by wetland habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Relationships of Levees and Wetland Systems within Floodplains of the Wabash Basin, USA

Morrison

Bray

Nardi

et al. 2018

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Given the unique biogeochemical, physical, and hydrologic services provided by floodplain wetlands, proper management of river systems should include an understanding of how floodplain modifications influence wetland ecosystems. The construction of levees can reduce river–floodplain connectivity, yet it is unclear how levees affect wetlands within floodplains, let alone the cumulative impacts within an entire watershed. This paper explores spatial relationships between levee and floodplain wetland systems in the Wabash Basin, United States. We used a hydrogeomorphic floodplain delineation technique to map floodplain extents and identify wetlands that may be hydrologically connected to river networks. We then spatially examined the relationship between levee presence, wetland area, and other river network attributes within discrete subbasins. Our results show that cumulative wetland area is relatively constant in subbasins that contain levees, regardless of maximum stream order within the subbasin. In subbasins that do not contain levees, cumulative wetland area increases with maximum stream order. However, we found that wetland distributions around levees can be complex, and further studies on the influence of levees on wetland habitat may need to consider finer resolution spatial scales.

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Screening the Suitability of Levee Protected Areas for Strategic Floodplain Reconnection Along the LaGrange Segment of the Illinois River, USA

Cited by 12 publications

References 29 publications

Development of a spatially complete floodplain map of the conterminous United States using random forest

Development of a spatially complete floodplain map of the conterminous United States using random forest

Understanding the Large‐Scale Influence of Levees on Floodplain Connectivity Using a Hydrogeomorphic Approach

Spatial Relationships of Levees and Wetland Systems within Floodplains of the Wabash Basin, USA

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