One natural hazard research led by Gear Lab member Mr. Joynal Abedin, a Ph.D. student, is recently accepted by Sustainable Cities and Society Journal! Big Congratulations!
This study is to evaluate county-wide flood exposure in the US and unravel its spatial-temporal dynamics from 2001 to 2019 to answer three research questions via hypothesis testing. First, how have human settlement areas exposed to flood threats in the US changed over the past two decades? Second, has the occurrence of floods and their resulting damage influenced the growth of developed areas in flood zones? Third, do disparities exist in the sensitivity to flood threats among urban-rural communities?
Results show that the overall rate of development in flood zones in the contiguous United States has steadily decreased from 2001 to 2019. The Local Moran's I analysis discovers pockets of emerging, expanding, shrinking, and changing clusters of communities that show a rapid increase or decrease of developed areas within flood zones over time. Most counties that experienced more frequent flooding events demonstrate greater responsiveness to flood hazards by avoiding development in flood zones. Finally, urban communities exhibit a higher exposure and sensitivity to flood hazards compared to rural areas.
For more:
Abedin, Joynal, Lei Zou, Mingzheng Yang, Robert Rohli, Debayan Mandal, Yi Qiang, Humaira Akter, Bing Zhou, Binbin Lin, and Heng Cai. "Deciphering Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Flood Exposure in the United States." Sustainable Cities and Society (2024): 105444.
Fig. 1. County-level maps visualizing (a) FEMA flood coverage as of March 2021, (b) flood frequency during the period 2001–2019, (c) the cumulative sum of flood-induced property and crop damage per capita from 2001 to 2019, and (d) rural-urban classification in 2010 across the contiguous United States.
Fig. 2. Workflow of the study.
Fig. 3. County-level maps across the contiguous U.S. illustrating the proportions of (a) land in flood zone, (b) developed areas in flood zone in 2001, (c) developed areas in flood zone in 2011, and (d) developed areas in flood zone in 2019.
Fig. 4. Clusters of local Moran's I from 2001 to 2011 and 2011 to 2019.
Congratulations to Joynal Abedin, and we look forward to hearing more achievements and works from GEAR Lab! Gig'em!
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